Individual Contractor on Financing for Development (Data Analysis)

Organizational Context

The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), part of the UN Secretariat, seeks an Individual Contractor to support its Financing for Development Team. This role focuses on analyzing financing for development, specifically addressing phantom Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) risks in pilot countries.

Job Purpose

The purpose of this role is to provide crucial analytical and technical support to the Financing for Development Team, with a specific focus on understanding and quantifying the risks associated with phantom Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). The contractor will contribute to developing econometric models, producing policy-relevant analytical outputs, and generating findings that inform technical papers and policy briefs. This work is essential for safeguarding national statistics, reducing fiscal leakages, and enhancing investment-led development strategies by assessing the quality, not just the volume, of FDI. The role also involves maintaining and updating data and analytical files, ensuring the integrity and usability of information for project outputs.

Responsibilities

The Individual Contractor will extract, compile, and manage bilateral and sectoral FDI datasets and related indicators to analyze phantom FDI and IFF risks in pilot countries. Responsibilities include reviewing, validating, and harmonizing data, applying statistical techniques to address quality issues, and providing technical support for econometric modeling to identify anomalous investment patterns and high-risk jurisdictions. The role involves contributing to country and sector-level risk profiles by analyzing investment trends and bilateral relationships, and mapping risk indicators for visual outputs. The contractor will maintain and document datasets, develop statistical tables, visualizations, and dashboards, and contribute to designing interactive interfaces. Additionally, the role includes conducting statistical analysis for background materials, technical notes, and presentations, supporting work on IFFs, and assisting with literature reviews and research papers.

Work Experience

A minimum of two years of professional experience in research, data extraction, or using statistical tools is required. Additionally, at least one year of experience with practical, user-friendly tools for trend analysis, scenario development, and visualization is necessary. Proficiency in statistical software like STATA or EVIEWS is also required.

Skills

Data analysis, econometric modeling, statistical analysis, data extraction, data management, data validation, data harmonization, trend analysis, scenario development, data visualization, statistical software proficiency (STATA, EVIEWS), knowledge of time series macro econometric models, panel data analysis, Vector Autoregressive Models (VARs), Structural VAR, panel data modeling approaches (fixed effects, dynamic panel models, gravity models, GMM).

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