re-advertisement request for expressions of interest (reoi

Reference No.: FJ-SPC-134378-CS-QCBS and EOI21-127

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Date : 22.07.2021

Statistical Innovation and Capacity Building in the Pacific Islands Project

Re-advertisement Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI)

Statistics advisor - (individual consulting services)

Assignment Title: Statistics Advisor


Background:

The Pacific Community has received financing in the amount of USD 4.5 million equivalent from the World Bank toward the cost of the Statistical Innovation and Capacity Building in the Pacific Islands Project, and it intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services. The consulting services (“the Services”) include those of a Statistics Advisor for an initial period of 22-months with an option to extend for a further 22-months. The Consultant will initially be home-based, with moving to New Caledonia to be subject to negotiation. The Consultant will be expected to work for 22 days per month for 11 months per year and, as much as possible while home-based, follow the general working hours of the Pacific Community. The expected start date is September 2021. As this is a long-term assignment, a detailed Terms of Reference is provided, including background to the project and the expected outputs over the duration of the project. The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be found at the following website: https://www.spc.int/procurement. The Pacific Community now invites eligible individuals (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services (attach curriculum vitae with description of experience in similar assignments, similar conditions, etc.). Firms’ staff may express interest through the employing firm for the assignment and, under such situation, only the experience and qualifications of individuals shall be considered in the selection process.


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The criteria for selecting the Consultant are: A PhD (or Master’s Degree, plus an additional 3 years of experience) in Statistics, Survey Methodology, or other related discipline. At least 5 years of relevant professional experience. Technical and quantitative skills of an applied econometrician with experience in the following areas being highly desirable: Demonstrated technical and quantitative skills as a statistics advisor / survey methodologist – including proven track record in data cleaning and processing (essential in Stata) of household and individual level data. Candidates should have experience performing analysis in four or more of the following topics: sample design, weight calculation – including probability and non-probability designs, statistical inference, statistical modeling, non-response adjustment, imputation of missing values, questionnaire design, question drafting for sensitive topics, fieldwork management, CATI / CAWI surveying, hard-to-reach populations, mixed mode design, longitudinal survey design, census design, anonymization/disclosure risk, and alternative and non-traditional data sources. Excellent quantitative and analytical background with a record of high quality analytical work in the areas outline above. Publications in peer reviewed journals are desirable. Experience in providing client-facing technical assistance, including conducting workshops and training in survey statistics, survey design, field methods, and data cleaning. Experience in drafting best practice notes or other reference material is desirable. Experience as a practitioner in developing and/or transition countries is desirable. Experience specific to the Pacific region is highly desirable. Superb interpersonal skills; ability to collaborate effectively with multi-disciplinary teams, and to listen and integrate ideas from varied sources, governments, NGOs, and donors, while being diplomatic and sensitive to cultural, political, and gender issues. Ability to work with staff from all levels and to mentor, coach, and motivate more junior staff. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, with French language skills also being desirable. The Required Competencies for selecting the Consultant are: General economic knowledge and analytical skills: demonstrated track record of working with economic and survey data and analytical tools and models to conduct applied micro-economic analyses and produce user-friendly written outputs; understands underlying economic and statistical concepts. Knowledge and experience in development arena: understands policy issues and policy-making process; distills recommendations/lessons to stakeholders. Policy dialogue skills: identifies and assesses policy issues and plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders. Integrative skill: working to develop an integrated view across all facets of current sector. Written and verbal communication: delivers information effectively in support of team or workgroup. Lead and Innovate: develops innovative solutions with others. The attention of interested Consultants (including firms) is drawn to paragraph 3.14, 3.16 and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers , dated July 2016, revised


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November 2017 and August 2018 (“the Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. The selected candidate will initially be home-based, however with a view to eventually relocate to be based in Noumea, New Caledonia. Although in a consultant role, the selected candidate will be expected to be fully integrated into the Statistics for Development Division (SDD) team of SPC to contribute to team meetings and activities and to collaborate with SDD staff on activities that are common to the Project. The assignment will be for an initial period of 22 months with the possibility of a further two year (22 month) extension, depending on performance and willingness to relocate to New Caledonia. The expected start date is September 2021. Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours [0730 to 1600 hours, Noumea, New Caledonia (GMT+11)]. Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by fax, or by e-mail) by 31 August 2021. The Pacific Community Michael Sharp – Economic Statistics and Microdata Specialist PO Box D5, 98848 Noumea, New Caledonia +687 262000 [email protected] ; cc; [email protected] https://www.spc.int/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.spc.int/


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TERMS OF REFERENCE

Background information on the project

The Pacific Community

The Pacific Community (SPC) (www.spc.int) is the principal scientific and technical organization supporting development in the Pacific region. It is an international organization established by treaty (the Canberra Agreement) in 1947 and is owned and governed by its 26 members, including all 22 Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs). SPC’s headquarters are in Noumea, New Caledonia, and it is one of nine member agencies of the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific (CROP). In 2018, SPC had six divisions and four cross-cutting programs.

The Statistics for Development Division

The Statistics for Development Division (SDD) (http://sdd.spc.int/en/) of SPC is the main stakeholder in the implementation of the Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy (TYPSS), which was adopted by PICT leaders in 2009 in recognition of the need for a comprehensive plan to drive improvement and development of statistics in the Pacific region. TYPSS proposed a regional approach to provide regional strategic leadership to improve the scope and quality of national statistics. The 10 year strategy (2010 - 2020) outlined a series of short and long-term programs to contribute to national statistics capacity development and regional coordination and capability. SDD’s strategic framework is guided by TYPSS and its current work program by the Business Plan 2018 - 2020. The revision of both TYPSS and SDD’s business plan are currently underway.

SDD's goal is to strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems and social and economic planning agencies to provide policy-makers and analysts with important demographic, economic and social indicators for planning and decision-making.

SDD plays a significant role for TYPSS as a large and comprehensive technical provider to national statistics offices (NSOs) in the Pacific region. SDD’s technical assistance role has been strongly endorsed by NSOs, in particular the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) where resources are limited and technical assistance and supplementation is essential. As part of a regional organization with a broad technical and social mandate operating across 22 PICTs.

SDD has been able to translate and mediate between international standards and frameworks and Pacific contexts and focus.

Statistical Innovation and Capacity Building in the Pacific (PACSTAT) Project

The PACSTAT project is an International Development Association (IDA; https://ida.worldbank.org/) funded project that is to be implemented over the period of June 2020 to June 2025. The overall development objective of PACSTAT is to improve the quality of welfare data collection and accessibility to comparable welfare data in the Pacific Island Countries.

The context for this project is summarised as:

i. PICs are characterised by small populations spread across vast areas. ii. More comparable data is needed to understand deprivation between countries as well as

identify and monitor regional trends. iii. The Pacific is a region with substantial gender inequality. iv. Data deprivation in the PICs hinders evidence-based policy design. v. Public access to data is another challenge facing the region. vi. Data deprivation hinders the effort to track progress on gender inequality over time and

design policies to address it. vii. National Statistics Offices (NSOs) lack funding to meet the costs of data collection in the

Pacific. viii. Low statistical capacity is a major challenge in addressing data deprivation.

http://www.spc.int/

http://sdd.spc.int/en/

https://ida.worldbank.org/


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ix. There has been some improvement in statistical capacity over time, but results have not been sustained.

Given the shared challenges and small size of the PICTs, a common approach is needed. As such, PACSTAT is part of an IDA Regional Program that seeks to address the considerable challenges of data deprivation and low quality of statistics in the Pacific region. In the first phase, SPC-SDD will work with two IDA small states – Kiribati and Tonga – to initiate the Regional IDA program1. It is expected that additional countries will join the Program, with the ultimate objective of improving the comparability, accessibility, sustainability and overall quality of statistics across the Pacific.

The context for SPC-SDD’s component of the regional project is summarised as:

i. SPC-SDD is a key stakeholder in addressing the statistical capacity gap in the region, but it too suffers from resource and capacity issues.

ii. The SPC-SDD 2018-2020 Business Plan marks a shift in SPC-SDD’s role to a “statistical system leader” (ref: http://sdd.spc.int/media/401).

iii. The Pacific Statistics Methods Board (PSMB; https://sdd.spc.int/pacific-statistics-methods-board-psmb) has potential to accelerate the adoption of new methods for data collection and statistical analysis as well as promote regional harmonization and comparability.

iv. SPC has a substantial role to play in improving the availability and comparability of gender statistics in the Pacific.

The Project includes the following components and sub-components:

i. To support the administration of PSMB and the dissemination of its recommendations: a. PSMB technical support and administration, including overseeing PSMB

commissioned statistical development research; b. Dissemination and training of best practice recommendations from the PSMB to

regional NSOs; and c. Improve the analysis and publication of gender statistics in the region.

ii. To strengthen SPC-SDD’s ability to play a “statistical system leader” role and provide technical assistance on data collection methods: a. Expanding technical capacity of SPC-SDD in welfare data collection, analysis, and

dissemination; b. Create comparable indicators, including gender statistics, and micro-datasets to

promote data use in the region; c. Financing of technical and operational support needed to implement and manage the

project; and d. Funding for office and information and communications technology (ICT) facilities to

enable the implementation of project activities. iii. To promote context-appropriate innovation in the Pacific region:

a. Technical support to experiments in alternative data collection methods; and b. Finding innovative experiments.

1 While there are significant linkages between projects to be implemented by the Government of Tonga, the

Government of Kiribati and SPC, including linked Project Development Objective and Results indicators, the

projects are implemented and administered as stand-alone projects.

http://sdd.spc.int/media/401

https://sdd.spc.int/pacific-statistics-methods-board-psmb

https://sdd.spc.int/pacific-statistics-methods-board-psmb


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Objectives of the assignment

PACSTAT’s Project Development Objective (PDO) is to improve the quality of welfare data collection, and

accessibility to comparable welfare data in the Pacific Island Countries2. The PDO Level Indicators are:

i. Number of PSMB guidance notes produced and circulated to PIC NSOs. ii. Number of experiment reports produced and submitted to PSMB.

iii. Number of regionally comparable welfare indicators published on SPC platforms. iv. Number of harmonized micro datasets published on SPC platforms.

The project has three components: 1) to support the administration of the Pacific Statistics Methods Board and the dissemination of its recommendations; 2) to strengthen SPC-SDD’s ability to play a “statistical system leader” role and provide technical assistance on data collection methods; and 3) to promote context-appropriate innovation in the region. The components and detailed activities are elaborated below, with the linkages between these three components are illustrated in the following flowchart:

The key feature of the SPC project is two long-term consultant positions that will be hired to execute the majority of the work across the three components. The two positions are one Welfare Economist and one Statistics Advisor. In addition to the two long-term consultants, a medium-term consultant, a Harmonization Advisor, will be hired under component 2 to initiate microdata harmonization processes to facilitate the production of comparable welfare statistics.

The core responsibilities of the Welfare Economist will include supporting analysis for and dissemination of national poverty statistics as well as producing regionally comparable statistics. This goal would be further supported by technical workshops to increase capacity in NSOs and consequently, the quality of data and statistics they produce. The technical advice and analysis, for up to nine Pacific Island Countries, may include sample design and poverty estimation, among others. In the past there have been issues with poverty estimation, such as the creation of inconsistent consumption aggregates, due to varying technical recommendations and the uncoupled processes for the data cleaning and analysis. By joining these activities under a harmonized set of regional guidelines, it would be possible to increase efficiency and quality in the production cycle of national and regional statistics. To support this kind of integrative work, the Welfare Economist will conduct workshops on topics such as poverty assessments, outliers, non-standard units (NSU) conversions, and use value of assets. The desired outcome is an increase in the institutional capacity of SPC-SDD and the technical capacity of country NSOs.

2 For the purposes of the project and its development objective, “Pacific Island Countries” include countries that

are members of SPC and eligible for financing from IDA, which, as of the date of the Project Appraisal Document,

include the following: the Federated States of Micronesia; the Republic of Fiji; the Republic of Kiribati; the

Republic of the Marshall Islands; the Independent State of Papua New Guinea; the Independent State of Samoa;

Solomon Islands; the Kingdom of Tonga; Tuvalu; and the Republic of Vanuatu.


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The Statistics Advisor will act as the chief advisor on survey methodology for the region and as the main source of technical advice to country-level Resident Advisors. The selected candidate will bring extensive knowledge of the survey methods literature, which will be used to inform both the activities of the PSMB (Component 1) and the innovation experiments (Component 3). The focus of this consultant’s work will be on the development, documentation, and dissemination of context-specific best practices, as well as skills transfer to current SPC-SDD and regional NSO staff. In addition, the Statistics Advisor will serve as the focal point for operationalizing the PSMB regional guidelines and will be the first point of contact for the Resident Advisors embedded in the NSO under the country-level projects within this Series of Projects (the first phase of which includes Tonga and Kiribati). Linking the country-level Resident Advisors to a single centralized source of advice will eliminate the heterogeneity in technical assistance that has historically hindered comparability and promote regional harmonization.

Component 1: Pacific Statistics Methods Board (PSMB)

Supporting the running of the PSMB will significantly accelerate the identification and adoption of improved methods by NSOs in the PICs. The PSMB is seen to be a vital component in the new regional statistics governance framework recommended by the 2017 HOPS meeting. The PSMB is tasked with undertaking literature reviews and field experiments to test the viability of new statistical methods in the Pacific context, as well as making recommendations to NSOs based on the results. This approach has benefits to the region on several levels: 1) it introduces a culture of academic rigor in the process of statistical innovations while remaining mindful of the local context and the need for local credibility, 2) it promotes harmonization in the Pacific region by replacing bilateral recommendations from development partners – which can sometimes clash with one another – with a more streamlined process, and 3) it shifts the burden of investment in experimentation from resource-constrained NSOs to a regional body with higher capacity, which also introduces economies of scale.

The project supports SPC-SDD to provide secretariat functions to PSMB due to its role as the main regional development partner.

Sub-component 1.1: PSMB Technical Support & Administration

Under this sub-component, the Statistics Advisor will execute secretariat functions, including: (1) the organization for PSMB meetings to take place twice a year (either live or by videoconference), (2) setting the meeting agenda and inviting appropriate international experts, as needed, (3) coordinating the papers and reports on Pacific data collection to be reviewed at the PSMB meeting, (4) identifying priority topics for further review at subsequent PSMB meetings, and (5) summarizing the meeting discussion into formal minutes and recommendations to be circulated to regional NSOs.

The Statistics Advisor will play a key role in providing technical expertise to the PSMB. As part of PSMB’s function to promote academic rigor in its recommendations for standardizing data collection methods, it may commission additional research to understand and tailor recommendations to the Pacific context. The terms of reference for the Statistics Advisor therefore require knowledge of both current international best practices in the collection of official statistics as well as contact within the wider survey methodology academic community. The Statistics Advisor and/or Welfare Economist will deploy these skills to either perform requested research on priorities for further review, including conducting literature reviews and compiling information on regional norms, or identifying the appropriate experts in the field to provide recommendations.

Sub-component 1.2: Dissemination & Training

The project will support SPC-SDD to lead the dissemination of best practice recommendations from the PSMB to regional NSOs. The project will support dissemination and training for PSMB recommendations in IDA-eligible countries, with a strong emphasis on implementation as opposed to theory. The activities under this sub-component will take two forms: large-scale regional trainings and


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country-level and small group workshops.

Regional trainings will focus on issues common to all countries. Large regional trainings will bring together technical personnel from NSOs across the Pacific region on topics that are of universal interest, including recommendation on monetary poverty measurement related to SDG 1.1.1 and 1.2.1. These trainings will include both theory and practical applications but are not centered on producing country-specific outputs. Over the course of the project, it is expected that the Statistics Advisor and Welfare Economist will each lead 2 regional trainings, and in-person where feasible.

Workshops will be conducted at the level of the country or in small groups of neighboring countries. The focus of these workshops will be on applying PSMB recommendations to specific issues that are timely to where the countries are in the survey process. For example, during the planning stage, countries may construct a sample design or receive training in programming advanced checks into the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) program. In both cases, the participants would leave the workshop with a concrete output, a sample design and CAPI program, respectively, in the case above. Other proposed topics include anonymization, addressing outliers in the data, converting non-standard units, etc. In all cases, economies of scale will be sought to conduct joint trainings, subject to countries being in similar places both in terms of the survey calendar and technical expertise.

This sub-component also includes the work to improve the analysis and publication of gender statistics in the region. Beyond the skill transfer from the Statistics Advisor and Welfare Economist (and eventual, Harmonization Advisor) to permanent SPC-SDD staff, the Statistics Advisor and Welfare Economist will lead training workshops, dissemination activities, and technical advice to improve the way statistics are reported and consumed among client countries of SPC. It is anticipated that this deeper engagement with the NSOs in relation to analysis and reporting, beyond data collection, will have lasting impacts on SPC-SDD’s evolving mode of operation in the region, building its role as a regional knowledge leader and coordinator, as well as for the production of comparable and better-quality statistics.

Component 2: Institutional Strengthening and Implementation Support

The second component of activities will support SPC-SDD in its transition to a regional knowledge producer and a leader in the dissemination of data. To fulfill its mission of strengthening access to and use of development statistics in policy development, SPC-SDD would benefit from expanded analytical capacity, provided through the recruitment of the Welfare Economist and Harmonisation Advisor.

Sub-component 2.1: Expanding Technical Capacity of SPC-SDD

This sub-component supports strengthening technical capacities of SDD in providing support to the Pacific Island Countries on welfare data collection, analysis and dissemination, including: (a) providing technical assistance and training on the implementation of the methodological recommendations generated by PSMB; (b) harmonizing key welfare indicators produced from household income and expenditure surveys, with respect to both historical and future datasets, including developing guidelines to standardize processes for harmonization and anonymization of such data; and (c) developing and updating a roster of consultants and academics to provide technical assistance to the national statistical offices of the Pacific Island Countries.

This sub-component will build SPC-SDD’s technical capacity to support Pacific Island Countries on welfare data collection, analysis, and dissemination. This capacity building will be provided through the Welfare Economist, who will (1) provide direct support to build country capacity on data collection and analysis, which includes the implementation of PSMB-recommended methodological innovations and the production of comparable statistics for key indicators, and (2) provide training and day-to-day mentoring to SPC-SDD staff in these methods. Additionally, the Welfare Economist’s job description includes developing a network of academics and consultants in the region with the relevant experience and skills to provide ad hoc and short-term technical assistance to NSOs in the Pacific. Maintaining an updated roster of consultants will speed up the recruitment process in response to urgent requests for support from NSOs in the Pacific.


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Under this component of the project, a Harmonization Advisor will be hired to create comparable indicators and micro-datasets to promote data use in the region, which will expand the accessibility of comparable welfare data in the region. Currently the SPC-SDD archives include 96 HIES and census datasets, but only a small number are available to data users. To promote greater access, the project will fund a Harmonization Advisor to develop a set of comparable indicators from these datasets to populate the new Pacific Data Hub. The Harmonization Advisor will also produce guidelines, covering topics such as harmonization.

This sub-component also targets the expansion of the number of gender statistics than can be comparably calculated in the region.

Component 3: Alternative data collection methods

Beyond HIES, the Project will support experiments in alternative data collection methods. There are several innovations in data collection that could potentially reduce the costs and complexity of collecting socioeconomic data in Pacific Island Countries, particularly by addressing the vast geography and sparse population constraints to traditional data collection. Through the Project, SDD will work with NSOs in IDA-eligible beneficiary countries to trial alternative data collection methods, based on what is deemed appropriate and most impactful for the specific contexts. The work under this component will be undertaken by both the Welfare Economist and the Statistics Advisor.

The innovation agenda is critical for the long-term sustainability of data-driven policymaking in the region. Even with efficiency gains from improved methods, challenges related to geography will always lead to higher per-interview costs for household surveys in the Pacific region. The innovations agenda targets collecting policy relevant information in non-traditional ways, which could potentially reduce the need for or replace the current HIES system. For example, combining the HIES and census into a long form census conducted every five years, and then leveraging the cost savings to do annual estimates of key indicators with models built with satellite and administrative data, would increase information for policymakers while still lowering overall costs. Similarly, crowdsourcing and field-based enumeration is inexpensive compared to traditional surveying, and can provide near real-time information on certain indicators, if data quality issues can be adequately addressed.

The innovation experiments under this component will be informed by extensive consultations with NSOs in IDA-eligible beneficiary countries. One key lesson from past data collection experiments is that experiments should be conducted in real-world conditions. Thus, experiments in this subcomponent will be conducted jointly with NSOs in IDA-eligible beneficiary countries. Securing this buy-in from counterparts requires an extensive process of consultation with country governments and NSOs. The consultation process is important to assess the appetite of potential NSOs to participate, ensure the right types of experiments are conducted, and build the legitimacy of the experiments and any recommendations that are produced, as well as broad community consultation where needed.

This component finances the technical support role of the Welfare Economist and Statistics Advisor (around 40 percent of time for both roles to be dedicated to this component) in designing the innovations experiments, producing the analytical reports to reflect the results of the experiments, and leading the public dissemination of the results. The key personnel to implement the innovations agenda will be the Welfare Economist and Statistics Advisor. The expertise targeted in the recruitment of these two positions come together to provide the main technical experience for designing, implementing, and analyzing the results of the innovation experiments. The Welfare Economist brings an understanding of economics and economic indicators, including methodologies for their construction and analysis. The Statistics Advisor provides knowledge of survey implementation, sample design, and the generalizability of results.

Scope of Work & Description of Tasks Statistics Advisor


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The Statistics Advisor will act as the chief advisor on survey methodology for the region and as the main source of technical advice to country-level Resident Advisors. The selected candidate will bring extensive knowledge of the survey methods literature, which will be used to inform both the activities of the PSMB (Component 1) and the innovation experiments (Component 3). The focus of this consultant’s work will be on the development, documentation, and dissemination of context-specific best practices, as well as skills transfer to current SPC-SDD and regional NSO staff. In addition, the Statistics Advisor will serve as the focal point for operationalizing the PSMB regional guidelines and will be the first point of contact for the Resident Advisors embedded in the NSO under the country-level projects within this Series of Projects (the first phase of which includes Tonga and Kiribati). Linking the country-level Resident Advisors to a single centralized source of advice will eliminate the heterogeneity in technical assistance that has historically hindered comparability and promote regional harmonization. The Statistics Advisor will execute secretariat functions, including: (1) the organization for PSMB meetings to take place twice a year (either live or by videoconference), (2) setting the meeting agenda and inviting appropriate international experts, as needed, (3) coordinating the papers and reports on Pacific data collection to be reviewed at the PSMB meeting, (4) identifying priority topics for further review at subsequent PSMB meetings, and (5) summarizing the meeting discussion into formal minutes and recommendations to be circulated to regional NSOs. The Statistics Advisor will play a key role in providing technical expertise to the PSMB. As part of PSMB’s function to promote academic rigor in its recommendations for standardizing data collection methods, it may commission additional research to understand and tailor recommendations to the Pacific context. The terms of reference for the Statistics Advisor therefore require knowledge of both current international best practices in the collection of official statistics as well as contact within the wider survey methodology academic community. The Statistics Advisor and/or Welfare Economist will deploy these skills to either perform requested research on priorities for further review, including conducting literature reviews and compiling information on regional norms, or identifying the appropriate experts in the field to provide recommendations.

Expected Outcomes/Deliverables and timeline Statistics Advisor The Annual Work Plan will ultimately guide the activities and specific deliverables, and their timing, of the Statistics Advisor, however it is expected that the Statistics Advisor will, over the course of the project, achieve the following: Improve the quality of welfare data collection

i. Lead the administration of PSMB and attend meetings of PSMB. ii. Undertake requested research on priorities for further review, including

conducting literature reviews and compiling information on regional norms, or identifying the appropriate experts in the field to provide recommendation.

iii. Following the procedures as set out in the Project Operations Manual, lead the implementation of 5 PSMB Commissioned Work.


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iv. Lead the production of at least 5 PSMB guidance notes, based on recommendation by PSMB.

v. Support the production of a publication of the Pacific HIES methodology, based on recommendation by PSMB.

vi. Make significant contribution to a publication on the Pacific methodology for deriving indicators under SDG Target 1.1, based on recommendation by PSMB.

Improve access to comparable welfare data

i. Support the production and publication of at least 14 comparable welfare indicators on SPC’s data dissemination platforms.

ii. Support the production and publication of at least 16 comparable gender indicators on SPC’s data dissemination platforms.

Pacific statistics methods board

iii. Lead two Regional Trainings, with one to focus on methods relating HIES methodologies in the Pacific region, ideally in-person.

iv. Lead national, sub-regional and regional workshops on topics such as HIES planning, sampling, budgeting, questionnaire design, CAPI system deployment, fieldwork monitoring, data quality control, data processing, analysis, reporting, metadata production, and other areas relating to the statistical vale chain.

Institutional strengthening and implementation support

v. Train five of SDD’s staff in areas relating to sampling, non-standard unit market surveys, CAPI questionnaire development, anonymization, programming, data processing and statistics innovation, following PSMB recommendation.

vi. Support the training of five of SDD’s staff in all areas relating to the production of gender indicators.

vii. Support the production of six Household Income and Expenditure Survey reports within one-year of the completion of field work.

viii. Following recommendation by PSMB, produce at least 10 analytical papers / briefs on topics relating to the collection, analysis, use and dissemination of welfare statistics.

ix. Provide ongoing technical assistance to SPC’s members to improve the way statistics are collected, analysed, reported and consumed among client countries of SPC.

x. Provide direct support to build country capacity on data collection and analysis, which includes the implementation of PSMB-recommended methodological innovations and the production of comparable statistics for key indicators

xi. Provide training and day-to-day mentoring to SDD staff in PSMB-recommended methods.

xii. Develop a network of academics and consultants in the region with the relevant experience and skills to provide ad hoc and short-term technical assistance to NSOs in the Pacific. Maintain an updated roster of consultants to speed up the recruitment process in response to urgent requests for support from NSOs in the Pacific.

xiii. Provide technical assistance to SPC’s members in all aspects relating to the conduct of HIES, including: HIES planning, sampling, questionnaire design, CAPI


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deployment, field team training, data processing, tabulation, analysis, reporting, metadata production and indicator derivation.

xiv. Support poverty assessment on 13 existing datasets, and any new datasets that become available during the project life.

xv. Support SPC’s members to compile complementary welfare data, such as prices and non-standard unit surveys.

Data collection innovative experiments

xvi. Following the structure of Research Proposals, as set out in the Project Operations Manual, develop at least five Innovative Experiment Research proposals.

xvii. Lead the implementation of at least two Innovative Experiments, and provide significant input to at least another two.

xviii. Lead the publication of a comprehensive report on at least two innovative experiments, and provide significant input to at least another two.

Specific tasks as per the 2021 Annual Work Plan As mentioned above, the Welfare Economist will make significant contribution towards the development and execution of Annual Work Plans. In 2021, the Welfare Economist is expected to:

i. Lead administration of PSMB and attend meetings of PSMB. ii. Lead development of PSMB Commissioned Work 1 (anonymization in SIDS), and

the review by PSMB. iii. Lead development of PSMB Guidance Note 1 (anonymization in SIDS). iv. Following the procedure as set out in the Project Operations Manual, support the

develop research and procure for PSMB Commissioned Work 2. v. Support the Welfare Economist to develop a Regional Training (both

organisational and technical input), to be held in 1H 2022, on Monetary Approaches to Poverty Measurement.

vi. Lead the development of a Regional Training (both organisational and technical input), to be held in 1H 2022, on the Pacific HIES Methodology.

vii. Lead the development of a PSMB Guidance Note on the Pacific HIES Methodology. viii. Support the Welfare Economist to develop, in collaboration with a Consultant to

the project, HIES dissemination products (e.g., tabulation plan, report template), Stata syntax and a training materials for a sub-regional training on HIES analysis and reporting.

ix. Support the Welfare Economist to conduct a sub-regional training, (both organisational and technical input), on HIES analysis and reporting.

x. Lead the development of training resources (e.g., videos, presentations, manuals, tests, online resources) relating to the conduct of HIES.

xi. Support the development of a methodological paper on the Pacific method for monetary poverty assessment.

xii. Support the Welfare Economist in the production and publication of gender indicators for 3 of SPC’s members.

xiii. Following the procedures as set out in the POM, lead the development of a Research Proposal for an Innovative Experiment, and provide significant input to the development of another Research Proposal.

xiv. Support all aspects relating to Project Operations.


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Duration of the assignment and estimated expert-time input The assignment will be for an initial contract period of two years (22 person fee-months, up to a maximum of 242 fee days per annum, 11 months per annum), with the possibility of an extension for a further two-years (22 fee months). This will be a full-time consultancy with the Statistics for Development Division of the Pacific Community, located in Noumea, New Caledonia. Prior to the pandemic, it was planned that the Consultant would be based in Noumea, however this is subject to negotiation. Contract extensions for a further two-years may be subject to relocating to Noumea. When possible, the Consultant will be expected to travel extensively throughout the Pacific region and will thus need to conduct some work in international environments and outside standard office hours. As much as possible, the Consultant will be expected to observe a standard five-day business week consistent with SPC regulations.

Reporting requirements The Consultant will report to the Economic Statistics & Microdata Specialist, Project Manager, who reports to the Director, SDD. The Manager, Data Analysis and Dissemination, will have an active role in all project activities, including technical input to the work of the Consultant. The Finance and Administration Officer will be the focal point for all finance and administrative aspects of the Project. The Consultant will be expected to:

i. Provide a monthly summary of activities undertaken within the reporting month; this will be completed in association with the monthly timesheet indicating the number of days worked in the period, which will not normally be expected to exceed 22 days per month, unless prior authorization has been agreed by SPC in writing.

ii. Provide a six-monthly report on all activities delivered in relation to the current Annual Work Plan, and against the expected outcomes identified above.

iii. Support Project reporting and administration requirements. iv. Contribute to SDD internal reporting and reflections in accordance with SDD’s

monitoring, evaluation and learning practices.

Working arrangements Noting the above reporting requirements, the Consultant will be required to work with a number of different important stakeholders to the Project. The Consultant will have ongoing and regular dialogue with the National Statistics Agencies of the Pacific, all of SDD Staff (and engagement and interaction with other divisions of SPC is encouraged), the Project Steering Committee, PSMB, the World Bank, other donors and partners, NGOs and academia. The Consultant will collaborate with PACSTAT sister projects, including in Kiribati and Tonga, which will benefit from the regional PACSTAT project at SPC.


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The Consultant should ensure that he/she has valid health insurance for the duration of the assignment. The Consultant will be responsible for obtaining any visas necessary for working in New Caledonia. The Consultant is responsible for any tax payable under their national jurisdiction; SPC will accept no liability for any tax due. The Statistics Advisor, Welfare Economist and Harmonisation Advisor will form the core technical project team and there will be a requirement and expectation for close ongoing positive collaboration between the three Consultants and the PSC and wider SDD team.

Client’s Inputs SPC shall pay the Consultant up to a maximum agreed professional fee (preferably in Euro, or in NZD, AUD, USD, VUV, XPF, GBP, CAD, or JPY) for the duration of the Consultancy. The amount invoiced by the Consultant shall reflect the actual number of days worked in each calendar month up to a maximum of 242 days per annum; timesheets shall be provided by the Consultant, to SPC-SDD and certified by the Supervisor. SPC-SDD will effect payment to the Consultant after acceptance by SPC-SDD of an invoice and timesheet at the end of each month worked and every endeavor will be made to ensure payment is made within thirty days of receipt of the invoice.


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TEMPLATE FOR CURRICULUM VITAE (CV)

Name of Expert: {Insert full name}

Date of Birth: {day/month/year}

Country of Citizenship/Residence

Education: {List college/university or other specialized education, giving names of educational institutions, dates attended, degree(s)/diploma(s) obtained}

________________________________________________________________________

Employment record relevant to the assignment: {Starting with present position, list in reverse order. Please provide dates, name of employing organization, titles of positions held, types of activities performed and location of the assignment, and contact information of previous clients and employing organization(s) who can be contacted for references. Past employment that is not relevant to the assignment does not need to be included.}

Period Employing organization and your title/position. Contact information for references

Country Summary of activities performed relevant to the Assignment

[e.g., May 2015-present]

[e.g., Ministry of ……, advisor/consultant to…

For references: Tel…………/e-mail……; Mr. Hbbbbb, deputy minister]

Membership in Professional Associations and Publications: ______________________________________________________________________ Language Skills (indicate only languages in which you can work): ______________ ______________________________________________________________________


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Adequacy for the Assignment:

Reference to Prior Work/Assignments that Best Illustrates Capability to Handle the Assigned Tasks

Expert’s contact information: (e-mail …………………., phone……………) Certification: I, the undersigned, certify that to the best of my knowledge and belief, this CV correctly describes myself, my qualifications, and my experience, and I am available, as and when necessary, to undertake the assignment in case of an award. I understand that any misstatement or misrepresentation described herein may lead to my disqualification or dismissal by the SPC-SDD, and/or sanctions by the Bank. {day/month/year}

Name of Expert Signature Date

re-advertisement request for expressions of interest (reoi

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