Economic Analyst (Applications will only be accepted if submitted through the link provided)

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.
Now, and for the future.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps’ has developed a Crisis Analytics function to support our programming in the most complex contexts, including Middle East, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo and others. The Humanitarian Access Team, Middle East (HAT) supports Mercy Corps’ in-country programming as well as the wider humanitarian response in the region through the provision of quality, timely and relevant analytical products.

Mercy Corps’ crisis analytics teams aggregate and analyze data to improve decision making and access in complex crises. The teams directly contribute to data-driven decision making by layering information from primary sources, open sources and responders’ programmatic data, where it is analysed by subject matter experts and data scientists.. This analysis is grounded in Mercy Corps’ status as an operational NGO, keeping our products constructive and relevant for humanitarian responders and donors within a given crisis. The HAT also serves as a real-time information hub; vets potential partners; assesses programmatic, partner, and operational risk; identifies and maps stakeholders; and works with internal partners to better enable data-driven decision making.

Written HAT products range from daily updates during high-intensity periods, to regular weekly Whole-of-Middle East summaries, to in-depth thematic reports and scenario planning.

General Position Summary

This position will introduce expertise in the analysis of economic trends within the Middle East, with the ability to link these trends to their impact on humanitarian and development programming decisions. The analyst will develop their own products, contribute their specific expertise to the work of other analysts, and contribute to projects involving the entire team.

The economic analyst will curate their own data sources and contribute to the design of research tools for primary data collection. S/he will work particularly closely with the Data Analyst to work with large economic data sets to find new insights within the context.

The analyst will look at the war economy, and how different sectors of the economy are manipulated by different actors, and the subsequent impacts of these. S/he will maintain a regular forecast of the economic situation at a country and regional level.

The economic analyst will build a picture of the Middle East’s regional economy and track key countries that are interlinked with Middle East. S/he will collaborate with other Mercy Corps Crisis Analysis platforms as directed on regional-level analysis.

In the event of Middle East moving into a reconstruction phase, the economic analyst will contribute to an understanding of market sectors that development actors can support to boost livelihoods for Syria’s reconstruction and responsible return of displaced people.

Essential Job 

OVERAll

• Advise the HAT Director with updates on evolving developments in the region (economic) as relates to Mercy Corps programs and humanitarian activities.
• Identifies and reports on new or emerging development issues of potential concern to the international community, particularly those of a regional or global nature
• With both with the larger analytical team, while also being able to lead technical projects independently.
• Builds technical analytical skills within the team.
• Contributes to proposal and report writing and preparing research applications.

ANALYSIS

• Maintains a strong understanding of the context in Middle East (political, legal, social / tribal and conflict).
• Understands and reports on regional economic issue (monetary policy, trade, poverty, migration)
• Prepare and contribute to weekly reports and assist on larger thematic outputs and reports led by HAT.
• Commissions economic studies and analyses on the Middle Eastern context.
• Ability to develop dashboards and other data products.
• Develop research proposals related to the internal or regional economic situation.
• Support the overall continuation of a culture of a team, which is highly aware of the context.
• Provide economic forecasting and modeling for technical products as needed.

STRATEGY & Culture

• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed. Contribute to the development of strategies.
• Understand and express conflict in terms of humanitarian needs, access restrictions, and threats to the humanitarian community

Organizational Learning

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve - we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Ability to supervise a small team (1-3) of researchers/analysts.

Accountability

• Reports directly to: HAT lead analyst
• Works directly with: All members of the analysis team,  

Knowledge and Experience

• Masters Degree in Economics, or a related field is an asset
• Excellent written English (knowledge of Arabic is an asset)
• Analytical experience within a think-tank, UN, or NGO experience; experience analyzing the Middle East (?) conflict is a plus
• Primary and secondary research/academic experience in political science, sociology, economics, or conflict analysis 
• Experience in economic reporting is a must
• Experience with econometric analysis is an asset
• Extensive experience living/working in MENA region is an asset
• Data analysis expertise using STATA or R a must
• Experience with big data analysis is an asset
• Experience in economic forecasting is an asset

Success Factors

The successful candidate will foster an environment of excellence, curiosity and ambition. They will encourage innovation and risk-taking where it can improve humanitarian response in the region. Their technical analytical abilities will be shared within the team and will be reflected in the quality of the products produced by the team.

Living/Environmental Conditions

This is a national position based in Beirut. Some travel time is expected.

Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.