Statistical Analysis Consultant

OVERVIEW

Parent Sector : Education Sector (ED)

Duty Station: Multiple

Job Family: Education

Type of contract : Affiliated personnel

Duration of contract : From 7 to 11 months

Recruitment open to : External candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Duty Station Time) : 09-MAR-2026

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE POST

UNESCO is inviting written proposals from Individuals for the work assignment described below:

1.     Background

The Global Education Monitoring Report (or GEM Report), established in 2001 as the Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR), is an editorially independent, authoritative, and evidence-based annual report that monitors progress in education in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Report is funded by a group of governments, multilateral agencies and foundations and published annually by UNESCO to serve the international community. It is widely recognised as an indispensable advocacy and technical tool supporting inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning for all. Its mandate, established in the Incheon Declaration of the World Education Forum in May 2015, sets two objectives: 
•    provide updates on national, regional and global progress with respect to the SDG 4 monitoring framework; and 
•    report on the implementation of national and international education strategies outlined in the Framework for Action, focusing on a theme that puts progress towards the education targets at risk, proposing effective policies and making recommendations. 

Long Description

A key area of work involves the identification, management, exploration and processing of survey data to support the monitoring of SDG 4. In close collaboration with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the GEM Report operates a suite of online data platforms that report the results of such data analyses: Scoping Progress in Education (SCOPE), Visualizing Indicators of Education for the World (VIEW), and the World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE).


2.     Objectives

This consultancy aims to support streamlined and reproducible Stata- and R-based workflows for the production of education-related indicators using household survey data. The work will help develop the GEM Report’s online data platforms and contribute to analyses of the results for the GEM Report’s publications and communications. 

Under the supervision of the Chief of Education Monitoring and in collaboration with the monitoring analysts from the GEM Report, the consultant will: 

Support the compilation of data sources for SDG 4 monitoring, with a particular focus on national sources.
•    Identify, assess and document household survey microdata sources relevant to education, including labour force surveys, income and expenditure surveys, multipurpose household surveys and other nationally representative instruments.
•    Support the maintenance and expansion of an inventory of education-relevant survey data, in collaboration with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, ensuring up-to-date coverage across countries and over time.
•    Produce concise methodological notes describing survey design, education variables, coverage, comparability and limitations, to inform analytical use within GEM products. 
•    Identify and review household survey modules capturing additional constructs related to SDG 4.

Strengthen data harmonization, reproducibility and quality assurance workflows.
•    Update the current CSV control file template that outlines all necessary parameters for generating the factsheet per country
•    Support the harmonization of education variables across household survey sources, including documentation of assumptions, recoding rules and country-specific deviations.
•    Create a template per country R script that reads the CSV control file and generation indicator estimates for different disaggregations (out-of-school rate, attendance rate, completion rate, literacy rate, repetition rate etc.)
•    Conduct routine quality assurance checks of estimates, including internal consistency over time, coherence across indicators, and plausibility relative to comparable countries or external information.
•    Translate, consolidate or refactor legacy Stata scripts into clearer, reproducible R and/or Stata workflows, as agreed with the GEM Report monitoring team.
•    For around 30 countries, translate the codes written in Stata that harmonize the educational indicators into R and embed them in the new GitHub workflow on harmonization and standardization of educational microdata.
•    Ensure that all analytical code is clearly annotated and published on a GitHub, version-controlled and documented to facilitate reuse, transparency and institutional memory.

Long Description

Support the analysis and reporting of microdata sets to update the WIDE, VIEW and SCOPE websites, in coordination with the GEM Report monitoring team.
•    Contribute to the processing of household survey microdata sets to generate estimates of education indicators.
•    Contribute to the maintenance and improvement of the GitHub repository by supporting code review, documentation enhancement, and reproducibility checks, in line with established GEM workflows and standards.  
•    Provide analytical and methodological review of disaggregated data by individual characteristics (such as location or ethnicity), identifying potential data quality, comparability or interpretation issues.
•    Provide analytical input to the review of indicators related to post-secondary education, including assessment of data sources, coverage and consistency across countries.
•    Contribute to the enhancement of WIDE, VIEW and SCOPE documentation, technical notes and user-facing explanations.

Contribute to GEM Report team outputs upon request. 
•    Provide technical support to the production of statistical analyses (e.g. tables and figures) that support GEM Report publications.

3.    Outputs 

Output 1 / Month 1. Inception note and initial mapping of household survey data
•    Inception note outlining the agreed workplan, prioritization criteria and sequencing of activities, aligned with GEM monitoring needs and existing analytical workflows.
•    Initial mapping of education-relevant household survey microdata sources for a first set of countries, focusing on nationally representative surveys relevant to SDG 4 indicators.
•    Updated and standardized structure for the GEM inventory of education-relevant household survey data sources.

Output 2 / Month 3. Expanded inventory of education-relevant survey data sources
•    Expanded and documented inventory of household survey microdata sources relevant to SDG 4 monitoring, including labour force surveys and comparable nationally representative instruments.
•    Short methodological notes describing survey design, education variables, population coverage, comparability and limitations, to support analytical use within GEM products.
•    Technical recommendations on the potential analytical use of selected data sources within existing GEM workflows.

Output 3 / Month 5. Review of household survey modules capturing additional SDG 4-related constructs 
•    Technical review of household survey modules capturing additional SDG-related education constructs (including, where relevant, SDG 4.7-related content), based on existing survey instruments.
•    Assessment of conceptual relevance, question wording, population coverage and cross-country comparability, from a monitoring and feasibility perspective.
•    Clear technical notes outlining analytical feasibility, limitations and implications for future GEM monitoring and reporting.

Long Description

Output 4 / Month 7. Strengthened harmonization, reproducibility and quality assurance of household survey–based indicators

•    Updated CSV control file template defining required parameters for country factsheet generation, aligned with GEM standards.
•    Harmonized and documented workflows for processing selected household survey microdata, including variable definitions, recoding rules and country-specific assumptions.
•    Clean, annotated and version-controlled Stata and/or R scripts (including translated legacy code for approximately 30 countries) embedded in the GEM GitHub workflow.
•    Quality-assurance documentation covering internal consistency over time, cross-indicator coherence and plausibility checks.

Output 5 / Month 9. Validated indicator outputs supporting GEM online platforms
•    Validated household survey-based education indicators generated using the agreed harmonized workflows.
•    Technical quality-assurance notes supporting the integration of selected indicators into WIDE, VIEW and/or SCOPE.
•    Updated metadata, technical notes and user-facing explanations for household survey-based indicators published on GEM platforms.

Output 6 / Month 11. Final synthesis report and handover documentation
•    Final synthesis report summarizing activities undertaken, outputs delivered and key technical results achieved.
•    Consolidated and structured documentation of inventories, workflows, scripts and QA procedures developed during the consultancy.
•    Forward-looking technical recommendations identifying gaps, risks and priorities for strengthening household survey-based SDG 4 monitoring within GEM.

4.    Education 

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in education, development studies, economics, sociology, social policy, applied statistics, data science or another related social science discipline.

5.    Work experience
•    5 years of relevant working experience, of which at least 4 years as a researcher and/or data analyst working with household survey and/or census microdata at the individual or household level.
•    Demonstrated experience producing education-related indicators (e.g. access, participation, completion, inequalities) using household survey data.
•    Proven experience producing analytical outputs based on large-scale data analysis, such as technical reports, working papers, policy briefs, dashboards or peer-reviewed publications.
   

COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial)

-

REQUIRED SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

Technical and analytical skills
•    Excellent data analysis skills, including data cleaning, recoding, harmonization and validation of microdata.
•    Advanced statistical programming skills in R and Stata
•    Demonstrated experience using version control systems (e.g. Git/GitHub) for collaborative and reproducible analytical workflows.
•    Experience working with and reconciling data from multiple sources, including non-standardized national surveys.
•    Experience working with large datasets, including high-volume files

Analytical quality and communication
•    Strong ability to perform independent quality assurance and validation of statistical results.
•    Ability to present complex analytical results clearly through tables, graphs and figures.
•    Strong drafting skills in English, including the ability to write technical documentation and methodological notes for different audiences.

Professional competencies
•    Strong analytical judgement, attention to detail and ability to think critically and innovatively.
•    Demonstrated capacity to work under tight deadlines and manage multiple tasks in parallel.
•    Ability to work effectively and collaboratively in a multicultural, team-based environment.

LANGUAGES

Excellent oral and written English.

SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS

IMPORTANT: APPLICATION PROCEDURES

In place of the Employment History Form, please upload required documents. The whole package needs to be uploaded as a single PDF document (CV, Technical and financial proposal):
1)    an updated curriculum vitaea
2)    a technical proposal including an approach and methodology for the assignment (1-2 pages)
3)    a financial proposal: The amount to be charged for the assignment, which should be quoted in US dollars, GBP or Euros as a monthly fee.

The position will be carried out remotely.

Please submit your supporting documents in English.

UNESCO places great emphasis on ensuring that the objectives of the work assignment, as described in the Terms of Reference, are met. Accordingly, in evaluating the proposals for the assignment, attention will focus first and foremost on the technical elements. From those proposals deemed suitable in relation to the criteria set forth in the Terms of Reference, UNESCO shall select the proposal that offers the Organization best value for money.

Only complete applications will be considered. 

By submitting your application for this vacancy, you consent to the inclusion of your profile in our consultant talent pools, and you may be contacted in the future for similar types of tasks or opportunities. If you prefer not to be included in the talent pool, please indicate in your application.

The evaluation of candidates is based on the criteria in the vacancy notice, and may include tests and/or assessments, as well as an interview. 

UNESCO uses communication technologies such as video or teleconference, e-mail correspondence, etc. for the assessment and evaluation of candidates.

Please note that only selected candidates will be further contacted and candidates in the final selection step will be subject to reference checks based on the information provided.

Footer