Data Curator (Regional) at UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Vacancy Notice No: CPH/VN/2022/003

Title: Data Curator (Regional)

Duty Station: Dakar, Senegal

Duration: 01/04/2022 – 31/12/2022 (with possibility of extension)

Contract Type: UNOPS IICA level 1 (International Individual Contractor Agreement)

Application deadline: 10 February 2022

Organizational Context

UNHCR operations have several data collection activities that fall outside of UNHCR corporate data systems. While the analytical products may be retained, oftentimes the datasets underlying these products are lost. The UNHCR Data Curation project will collect, index, process, store and, for some datasets (not all), make available these datasets for use by others. The goals are to improve institutional memory and to improve efficiency by re-using existing datasets. Doing this will also make UNHCR a more predictable source of data at regional and global levels, and with partners, both development and humanitarian.

Making anonymized microdata publicly available ensures that maximum use is made of the data, improves data quality and credibility and may prevent duplication of surveys and thereby reduce the costs for humanitarian and development organizations that are in need of data to inform their programming.

UNHCR routinely supports a number of household survey data level collections each year, conducted directly by UNHCR or implemented by partners. Traditionally this data has not been retained in formats and locations that make it available for future use, either in country, by UNHCR globally, independent researchers, or by partners such as the World Bank-UNHCR Joint Data Centre.

To support an institutional shift towards augmenting open data, UNHCR has created an internal data library (RIDL) for data storage and the external-facing UNHCR Microdata library, an online repository which will allow public and/or licensed access to anonymized data collected in these surveys, and users to perform directly their own analysis. UNHCR is also a data provider to other open data platforms, including the Humanitarian Data Exchange.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

The first priority for the Data Curator (Regional) is to retain, clean, index, document and anonymize microdata from surveys or censuses and, to a lesser extent, administrative registers. The data may be available for all or a subset of variables covered by the data collection exercise.

The second priority for the Data Curator (Regional) is to source, retain, clean, index and anonymize microdata from protection monitoring systems, programme monitoring systems, needs assessments, shape files for mapping and other data systems that relate to the population of concern and/or UNHCR programmes.

The Data Curator (Regional) does not need to index datasets in PRIMES, MSRP, Focus or any other corporate system that already has a centralized data warehouse or business intelligence repository.

Microdata that is relevant to national, regional and global level decision making should be prioritized. Data that is useful at a sub-national level is second priority.

Datasets are also available with a varying degree of quality which requires careful assessment and substantial amount of cleaning and preparation before they can be shared. Additionally, datasets must also be properly and carefully anonymized before they can be shared.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Data Curator (Regional) will be responsible for:

· Assisting with data selection and assessing the suitability of the data for publication,

· cleaning data,

· Identifying and addressing missing data,

· Applying imputation methods as needed,

· Anonymizing personally identifiable data,

· Populating the microdata library with datasets and corresponding metadata.

The Data Curator (Regional) will more specifically perform the following activities:

· Liaise with prioritized country operations within the region to identify and obtain historical datasets suitable for sharing.

· Work with country offices to have data stored within RIDL according to data security and data protection protocols.

· Provide support and guidance as needed on data curation and anonymization to other Regional Bureaus in Africa.

· Work with field offices and partners to ensure relevant metadata is provided along with the data.

· Develop instructions and guidance documents to evaluate the quality of the selected datasets and assess suitability for publication, removing and correcting errors if necessary, and work with field locations as relevant.

· Assist in the development of communications materials and activities to promote the sharing and use of micro datasets.

· Apply statistical disclosure control (SDC) techniques used to anonymize all datasets ensuring that no person or household is identifiable from the results of an analysis of survey data (at an appropriate level of risk), or in the release of microdata, utilizing the R-based sdcMicro package. This will be done in consultation with the data producer that will guide in the determination of key and sensitive variables. Such anonymization will be performed both at the household level and individual level, and applying different methods for public use and licensed use files. Perform statistical analysis on pre vs post anonymization utility variables to verify anonymized data maintains validity and should be recommended for sharing.

· Generate the appropriate metadata according to the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata standard and any other documentation needed to catalogue, record and communicate to users all the salient characteristics of the micro-datasets shared on the Microdata Library.

· Undertake missions to regional offices and selected field operations in his/her reference region to discover data and train and assist regional staff in the use of the platforms.

· Assist in the organization and/or delivery of regional curation workshops.

· Where applicable, the Data Curator (Regional) will apply HXL tags to microdata.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required

Education and professional work Experience

· University Degree (Master’s or PhD equivalent) in Statistics, Economics, Social Sciences, Law or related field.

· Three years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 2 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 1-year relevant experience with Doctorate degree;

· Previous demonstrated experience manipulating large datasets;

· Previous demonstrated experience working with survey data;

· Previous demonstrated experience with social research methods, including data and collection, anonymization, analysis.

Functional Skills

Required

· Proficiency in R (preferred) or any other equivalent statistical package.

· Excellent writing skills

· Excellent knowledge of English and French.

Desirable

· Work experience in international environment and in refugee/migration substantive issues is an asset.

· Previous experience working in the UN and/or in refugee/migration substantive issues is an asset.

· Familiarity with UNHCR’s datasets, including registration data, is an asset.

Location and Conditions

The successful candidate will be based in Dakar, Senegal. This position is up to the end of the year with possibility of extension. It is a full-time role (40 hours per week).