Demographic Resilience and Policy Adviser, Regional Office, Dakar, Senegal, P5

The Position:

The Demographic Resilience and Policy Adviser post is placed in the West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO). The adviser will work with the WCARO, WCA Country Offices, UNFPA HQs and other RO technical advisors to formulate and generate strategic UNFPA contributions toward advancing ICPD Programme of Action (PoA), the 2030 agenda and the AU Agenda 2063 in the West and Central Africa Region, focusing on incorporating demographic dynamics within development policies, and highlighting the implications of population issues for environmental, economic and social trends and policies in the region.

The adviser will work under the overall guidance and leadership of the Regional Director and reports directly to the Deputy Regional Director. S/he is the Principal adviser at the regional level for evidence-based advocacy, policy dialogue/advice, capacity building and technical assistance in population and development issues including implications of demographic changes and megatrends such as climate change, urbanization, displacement and migration, changing household structures, gender inequality and population aging on sustainable development. S/he works in an integrated manner with the technical, operations, programme and communications staff in the WCARO. S/he is an active member and contributes thinking to the community of practice network coordinated by the Population Branch of the Technical Division in UNFPA headquarters.

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.  UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose:

The adviser provides strategic technical and programmatic leadership and policy direction on population and development issues for the region to ensure that WCARO and the UNFPA Country Offices in the region play a leadership role in advancing the Strategic Plan, ICPD PoA and the 2030 agenda. S/he maintains primary responsibility for coordination of provision of technical assistance, and for providing policy and programme support to the countries of the region on using population data (e.g. census, CRVS, household surveys), to assess the implications of populations trends for development, for national investments to achieve the SDGs, and for the formulation of evidence-based population and development policies. S/he will provide guidance on how UNFPA Country Offices (COs) can support governments to use population data, including results from the 2020 round of census, to assure resilient national planning in the face of complex megatrends. S/he will provide technical guidance and support on the generation of national and sub-national population projections, and the development of use cases      on how the prevailing population dynamics are likely to affect attainment of UNFPA’s Transformative Results and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). S/he analyses regional, as well as specific sub-regional trends, and contributes to strategic action in response of these as well as to the monitoring of UNFPA substantive areas being firmly placed within national development frameworks and programmes, including the achievement of Agenda 2030 and the AU Agenda 2063.

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education:  

• Advanced degree (doctorate level preferred) in demography, development economics, economic demography, population statistics, development policy or other population and policy related fields directly related to the substantive area.

Knowledge and Experience: 

• Ten years of increasingly responsible professional experience in the substantive area, with emphasis in the linkages between population, economic development, and social policies of which seven years has been at the international level;
• Demonstrated expertise in the substantive area of work including a track record of high-quality analyses and related publications;      

• Demonstrated ability to translate evidence and research findings into actionable policy programmatic recommendations;

• Familiarity with methods and tools for modelling the demographic dividend and the generational economy, especially NTAs/NTTAs;

• Experience working with a diverse range of countries, and with national leaders including government partners;

• Strong track record of technical leadership, and proven ability to produce quality and timely results;
• Excellent verbal and written communication, especially for the transmission of technical knowledge to non-experts;
• Demonstrated ability to network within the academic and development community;
• Familiarity with management and monitoring tools is desirable;
• Familiarity with ICT/ERP is an asset;
• Field experience is strongly desirable;

Languages: 

• Fluency in English is required and French is desirable. Other UN languages are assets;

Compensation and Benefits:

 This position offers an attractive remuneration package including a competitive net salary plus health insurance and other benefits as applicable.

Disclaimer: 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Fraudulent notices, letters or offers may be submitted to the UNFPA fraud hotline http://www.unfpa.org/help/hotline.cfm

In accordance with the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations, persons applying to posts in the international Professional category, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.