Research Assistant

Client of United Nation careers

1. Background Eradicating poverty in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and the Arab region in particular. While the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped by more than half between 1990 and 2015 in all developing regions, it increased in Arab States where too many people, especially in conflict areas, are still struggling for the most basic human needs. Tracking, monitoring and eradicating poverty in ESCWA Member States is thus an important means of implementation toward achieving the SDGs, particularly the areas of basic services in which the 2030 Agenda aims for ensuring universal access. Current work in the Poverty Project is based on money metric and multidimensional poverty indices. In this regard we aim to recruit an individual contractor to assist our Project with mapping money metric poverty indicators. Specifically, the individual contractor will assist with research and consultation work toward the development of money metric and multidimensional poverty indicators and to support ESCWA poverty team leader in formulating policy measures addressing the gaps.

2. Duties and responsibilities: Reporting to the Poverty Project Coordinator, under the broad supervision of the Cluster Leader, the individual contractor will work closely with the Poverty Project team assisting in the following areas:

• Support with the analytical inputs and drafting of the flagship publications, including the Arab Multidimensional Poverty and Middle Class Reports, and support in launch activities and preparation of related dissemination material.
• Collect, synthesize and analyze country level data on multidimensional and money-metric poverty and support in updating the key messages portal.
• Support with project planning, monitoring, and reporting of outcomes.
• Assist in other related tasks as requested by the supervisor.