Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI) is an international development company. For more than 45 years, we have worked on the frontlines of international development, tackling fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. Currently, DAI is delivering results that matter in some 80 countries.
Our development solutions turn ideas into impact by bringing together fresh combinations of expertise and innovation across multiple disciplines. Our clients include international development agencies, international lending institutions, private corporations and philanthropies, and national governments.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Data Analyst
Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Reports To/Supervisor: Sector experts
Type of Contract: Naira Based Contract
Contract Duration April 1 st 2022 – March 2023
Time Frame: 1 Year (with a possibility of a 1-year extension)
Background
- The Borno State Government (BoSG) has developed a 25-Year Borno State Development Framework (BoSDF). There is substantial ambition to follow through on the aims of the BoSDF and in November 2020, the BoSG finalised and presented a 10-year strategic implementation plan that provides a roadmap to achieving these objectives, – the “2020-
- 2030 Strategy for Transformation of Borno State”. This strategy centres around 9 overarching policy pillars, each with various Strategic Transformation Initiatives (STIs) which cut across multiple government authorities within the state. The Government of the United Kingdom, in partnership with PERL-ARC, seek to support the Borno State Government to
- implement its development priorities as outlined in the BoSDF through the creation of a Delivery Support Unit (DSU) to provide prioritization, data collection and management, monitoring, coordination and capacity building functions.
- The DSU’s overarching objectives are to track delivery of the State Government’s priorities to ensure that state-level plans translate into real-world benefits to citizens, and to support the Pillar Executing Agencies in identifying and unblocking delivery challenges. The DSU will also provide high-quality briefings on progress towards achieving the priorities, and advice on issues that need resolving.
Its Key Functions are to:
- Support prioritisation across Borno State Government to ensure the state’s resources are deployed effectively and appropriately to the area’s most likely to achieve impact.
- Provide strong and objective analytical work, supported by clear data from delivery unit and data management teams, identifying when specific policy deliverables are “off track”, providing informed options and adjustive/corrective measures.
- Provide continuous capacity and capability support to the key ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) tasked with delivering the STIs and cross-cutting priority policy pillars.
- Ensure strong coordination across the Executive, as well as between government and international partner frameworks, to support the Borno State Government in achieving the priority policy pillars.
- Support strong accountability and management mechanisms between the Office of the Borno State Governor and Honourable Commissioners delivering the STIs, to achieve key objectives for each priority policy pillar.
Duties and Responsibilities
At this stage, there are four Priority Policy Pillars the DSU will focus on:
Human Capital Development (STI 4 – Access to Education):
- Leadership in Agriculture
- Healthy citizenry
- Sustainable Environment.
Under the direct supervision of the Sector Expert, the Data Analyst will undertake the following key functions:
- Supporting the DSU Sector Experts in the four Policy Pillars, as well as wider Borno State Government colleagues, in tracking the delivery of policy priorities (and underlying STIs), by reviewing, analysing, and ground-truthing the evidence presented by implementing MDAs. This would include creating evidence- informed analysis and producing outputs to support decision-making processes.
- Scoping and leading proactive analysis and technical tasks on priority areas, creating data science products which achieve significant impact
- Providing ongoing assistance to the Sector Experts, Head of DSU, and MDAs on the implementation of key policies and programmes, working with relevant officials to ensure that delivery is underpinned by robust plans and metrics, appropriate governance, and a strong evidence base, cultivating positive working relationships with stakeholders across Borno State Government.
- Tracking progress of the STIs, including discussing the real-world impact of the policies, through providing high- quality evidence rooted in strong data analysis, to support advice and decision-making on delivery issues and how they should be addressed.
- Designing and leading regular (periodicity to be defined but usually between 5-10 weeks) 'deep dive' projects and shorter analyses that produce evidence-based recommendations for action.
- Supporting the DSU, and by extension the BoSG, directly with expert advice to understand the implementation challenges. This will include engaging with analysts in MDAs to properly monitor and understand the implementation and impact of policies.
- Work with MDAs to advise on the most appropriate methods and metrics for measuring impact. This includes developing knowledge of cutting-edge techniques and sharing knowledge of data science with MDAs.
- Working sensitively with senior officials in the MDAs to understand the story or history of policy delivery, negotiating DSU interventions, and supporting wider strategy and planning development.
- Engaging with analysts in departments to ensure high quality analysis, and to monitor and support delivery.
- Working with the Data Management Centre in the Agency for Coordination of Sustainable Development and
- Humanitarian Response to understand and improve the quality, quantity, reliability, and validity of data, to support the mapping, production, and systematisation of tracking and visualising the delivery of BoSG priorities.
- Supporting or advising on initiatives to strengthen state level capacities for effective implementation of the priority policies, such as for monitoring, evaluation, and learning, or knowledge management, across the BoSG.
Impact of Results:
- The role will directly contribute towards the implementation of the Borno State Development Plan.
Skills and Qualifications
Education
- Master’s or Postgraduate Degree in Economics, Statistics, Research Methods, or related field
Experience Requirements:
Essential:
- At least 5 years of relevant and demonstrable professional experience, either in government, private sector, or academia, in the field of data analysis, operational research, statistics, monitoring and evaluation, or a similar field.
- Knowledge of advanced data science and quantitative techniques e.g., statistics, econometrics.
- Knowledge of data science tools (front/back end) to produce useful analysis (e.g., SPSS, STATA)
- Strong experience in building, managing, and influencing complex multi-stakeholder relationships and dynamics, coordinating interagency initiatives, and working with multiple and diverse levels of partners.
- Experience in working with a team of ambitious and high performing individuals towards a shared vision.
- Experience in conducting quality-driven research and policy-level analysis.
- Experience in designing and implementing quantitative and qualitative research studies
- Experience in preparing high quality, yet succinct reports, briefs, and guidance notes for use by senior policy makers.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills, with acute ability to distil complex information into readily digestible formats.
- Ability to work under pressure, to meet tight deadlines, and in demanding and/or austere conditions.
Desirable:
- Experience of frontline delivery in various policy areas, and/or similar private or academia experience.
- Experience working in Borno State, with familiarity of its languages, culture, and context (political, economic, social, environmental).
Competencies:
- Policy and strategic analysis skills that can be deployed flexibly across a wide range of priorities
- Highly developed communication and networking skills, an ability to build strong relationships and operate with stakeholders across government, and analytical skills to translate complex data and information into meaningful, easily understood narratives.
- Tact, sensitivity, and an ability to manage complex, highly sensitive matters discreetly and effectively.
- The ability to identify, build capacity of Government staff through targeted on the job training and mentorship
- Ability to think conceptually and flexibly, capacity to adapt, innovate, and propose multiple options;
- Ability to liaise and work effectively in a diverse team, within an environment where capabilities and capacities are often in short supply.
- Highly developed and demonstrable problem-solving and analytical skills that can be deployed flexibly across a wide range of Stakeholders.
- Demonstrate integrity by modelling the Borno State Government’s values and ethical standards.
- Display cultural, gender, religious, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
- Ability to incorporate gender into all aspects of work including planning, managing, operations, database development, reporting and M&E.
- Treat all people fairly.
Functional Competencies:
- Demonstrated superior experience of conducting advanced quantitative analyses into layman’s terms to build a strong evidence base that presents a clear picture of past, present, and future trajectories, contributes to problem-solving, and supports decision-making processes.
- Demonstrated superior knowledge of (quasi-) experimental methods and data collection.
- Experience in producing accurate analysis using patchy data or data of questionable quality.
- Experience in identifying key performance indicators and metrics to accurately track the implementation, and understanding real-world impact, of policies.
- Experience in developing data dashboards and results frameworks, preferably working with other agencies who may be the end user or key customer for such work.
- Understanding of mixed methods approaches, to underpin comprehensive and robust analysis, reasoning, and logic.
- Experience in promoting and implementing approaches to systematize and improve the overall quality of data, providing suggestions on how to fill gaps where identified.
- Experience in monitoring and identifying evidence-based remedial measures, rooted in data, to address delivery challenges.
- Experience in conducting sector-specific research, particularly on projects led by the Borno State Government, communities, or donor agencies, to inform future projects.
- Willingness to mentor civil servants in their tools, techniques, approaches, and experiences, as part of wider initiative to support capability building of the Borno State Government officials.
- Superlative stakeholder engagement, demonstrated through humility and the use of diplomatic language, in a manner that builds relationships and esteem of key partners.
- Understanding of activities (and their impact) of sector-related programmes led by national and international humanitarian and development partners in Borno State.
- Ability to “see the bigger picture”, most notably by having a complete and holistic understanding of how various activities interact to achieve a high-level object.
Language requirements:
- Essential: Fluency in English, written and spoken.
- Desirable: Fluency in Borno languages.
Assessment Type:
- Shortlisted candidates should expect to undertake an interview based on their experiences, and an assessment to examine their competencies and technical skills.
Remuneration
Competitive – Firm Details Available on Request.
Application Closing Date
4th April, 2022.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Applications to: [email protected] using the Position as the subject of the email
Note
- DAI Nigeria will only contact candidates that are successful at this pre-qualification stage. We recruit by merit and based on fair and open competition.
- We embrace diversity and promote equal opportunities. Women are strongly encouraged to apply.
