Demographer/Statistician – Supporting UNICEF Activities for Mortality Estimation
Posted: 2/6/2018 (Employment)
Purpose
The main objective of this consultancy is to conduct a desk review of existing data sources, case studies and peer-review literature on major mortality crises, to compile a public use reference dataset on mortality by age and sex for each major types of mortality crisis, and to generate model patterns of age and sex distributions of excess deaths by type of mortality crises to be used in future revisions of UN IGME work on child and adolescent mortality. The consultancy will be conducted under the supervision of the Statistics and Monitoring specialist in the Data and Analytics Section, Division of Data, Research and Policy in consultation with other UN IGME partners working on such information (e.g., UN Population Division and WHO).
Expected Results
For each type of mortality crisis such as (1) conflicts (battle-deaths, insurgency and civil wars, mass killings and genocide, direct vs. indirect deaths), (2) famines, (3) natural disasters: earthquake, flood/tsunami/hurricane/cyclone/landslides, droughts, (4) major types of epidemics – excluding HIV/AIDS):
For each type of mortality crisis such as (1) conflicts (battle-deaths, insurgency and civil wars, mass killings and genocide, direct vs. indirect deaths), (2) famines, (3) natural disasters: earthquake, flood/tsunami/hurricane/cyclone/landslides, droughts, (4) major types of epidemics – excluding HIV/AIDS):
- Expand and update (by type of mortality crisis and country/periods) existing collection of articles, case studies, grey literature, book chapters, etc. already accumulated by IGME partners, and complement/update literature review based on Google Scholar and reversed search of relevant citations;
- For each relevant data source, review and extract information about mortality by age and sex upon its availability (counts, rates, excess);
- In coordination with relevant IGME partner(s), analyze supplementary relevant public use datasets (HMD, and possibly LAMD, natural disasters, and additional data on epidemics from WHO mortality database and relevant retrospective mortality surveys for excess mortality during crisis period);
- Update and expand structured dataset with its associated metadata to produce a public use reference dataset for further research;
- Perform a meta-analysis of this information with the aim to generate model patterns of age and sex distributions of excess mortality by type of mortality crises.
- Explore different statistical modelling approaches to estimate patterns of age and sex distributions of excess mortality by type of mortality crises including uncertainty.
- Prepare a synthesis paper providing an overview of the key concepts, main relevant data sources, key findings of the meta-analysis about mortality by age and sex for each major types of mortality crisis, computation of model patterns of age and sex distributions of excess mortality by type of mortality crises, and a discussion of the strengths and limitations of this analysis, data and modelling.
Key competences, technical background, and experience required
- Advanced Degree in demography or equivalent in relevant sociology or public health related field.
- Minimum 5 years of professional experience in the area of demographic and statistical analysis.
- Professional experience in methods of demographic analysis and child mortality estimation.
- Solid data analytical and research skills.
- Advanced experience in statistical programming with R.
- Excellent communication and writing skills.
- Detail-oriented.
- Ability to take initiatives and work independently.
- Creativity and enthusiasm.
- Ability to work well in a team environment.
- Fluent in English.
You can learn more about the position and apply at the link below.
Deadline: 02/12/2018
Location: New York, NY