Individual Contractor - Macroeconomic Nowcasting and Econometric Analysis

Result of Service

The objective of this assignment is to develop and operationalize nowcasting models for selected macroeconomic indicators as target variables and for a wider set of ESCWA member countries, supported by automated data pipelines and rigorous econometric analysis. The Individual Contractor will work under the supervision of the project manager and deliver specified outputs in accordance with agreed timelines.

Work Location

UN-House ESCWA / Hybrid

Expected duration

5 months

Duties and Responsibilities

Background The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) supports evidence-based policymaking through timely and high-quality macroeconomic analysis. Due to publication lags in or scarcity of official statistics, there is a need to develop nowcasting tools that provide near real-time estimates of key macroeconomic indicators. This assignment will contribute to further strengthening ESCWA’s analytical capacity through the deeper integration of high-frequency data and nowcasting models, and application of econometric methods, supported by reproducible data pipelines that are amenable to further improvement.

Duties and Responsibilities The Individual Contractor shall undertake the following tasks:

• Collect, clean, and harmonize macroeconomic and high-frequency data from international and national sources.
• Develop reproducible and easy to amend and scale data pipelines for automated data updates in Python.
• Construct datasets suitable for nowcasting and econometric analysis.
• Apply econometric techniques, including time series and panel data analysis, to support broader analytical outputs.
• Validate model performance using statistical evaluation and back-testing methods.
• Prepare technical documentation and ensure reproducibility of all outputs.
• Support integration of results into ESCWA analytical outputs (reports, briefs, presentations).

Qualifications/special skills

A Master’s degree in Economics, Econometrics, Statistics, Data Science, or a related field are required. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of one year of professional work experience in macroeconomic analysis, econometrics, or quantitative research is required. Experience working with macroeconomic and/or high-frequency data is required. Strong experience in Python for data processing, analysis, and pipeline development is required. Solid knowledge of econometric techniques (time series and panel data methods) is required. Experience in the Arab region is desirable

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA. For this position, fluency in Arabic and English are required. Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information

Recruitment for this position is on a local basis. The incumbent is required to have the legal right to live and work in the specified working location.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.