Consultant - Data Management

Background Data and statistics are essential in understanding, managing and mitigating the economic, environmental, and human and social impacts of external shocks and stressors and for designing appropriate responses and accelerated actions to put countries back on track to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Ten years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, countries still rely on out-of-date and incomplete statistics to inform implementation and review progress. Small Island Developing States (SIDS), in particular, are facing a unique set of challenges. These are well documented and are highlighted in the recent “Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States (ABAS): A Renewed Declaration for Resilient Prosperity”, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), the Paris Agreement, and the 2018 OECD report “Making Development Co-operation Work for Small Island Developing States”. To support SIDS to address their data capacity challenges, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) launched the Data for SIDS (DATAS) initiative to support SIDS in strengthening the capacities of national statistical systems to produce and disseminate better and more timely data and statistics to inform decision making through four components: national data governance and coordination, national data production and availability, national data dissemination and reporting, and SIDS to SIDS collaboration and experience exchange. It draws from the Data for Now initiative approach, which, in particular, emphasizes country ownership and multi-stakeholder collaboration to fill critical data gaps and meet policy needs. Comoros joined DATAS in 2025, with the National Institute of Statistics and Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED) serving as the national lead for project implementation. INSEED has strongly advocated for shifting toward administrative data systems rather than relying primarily on surveys and censuses. The latter are costly and, in the context of declining resource availability, increasingly difficult to carry out. The DATAS project is therefore timely and directly addresses a national statistical priority. In this context, INSEED, together with other relevant stakeholders in the national statistical system (NSS), identified fisheries-related data as a priority area. To support the generation of high-quality data for efficient and timely decision-making for the fisheries sector, INSEED has established a dedicated working group bringing together relevant NSS members working in this area. The group is tasked with identifying a set of priority indicators aligned with the country's information needs, assessing the availability and quality of the data sources needed for their production, and ultimately producing the corresponding estimates and analysis. Within the framework of the working group, the stakeholders involved identified indicators under the scope of the Goal 14 (conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development), including: (a) SDG indicator 14.4.1 (proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels) in support of national priorities regarding marine biodiversity, especially of endemic species, and (b) indicator(s) on measuring fishing efforts to support policymaking on transformation and modernization of the fishing industry in support of national development priorities. Objective In collaboration with UNSD, and under the guidance of INSEED and the working group, the objective of this consultancy is to strengthen the capacity of the national statistical system to produce, validate, analyze and sustainably use high-quality fisheries-related data and indicators, in order to support timely, evidence-based decision-making for the fisheries sector in Comoros. In this regard, the consultant is also expected to develop a common data catalogue and profile report (also referred to as a ‘data mapping’) of data produced by the NSS that are potentially relevant to the estimation of identified indicators for the assessment, monitoring and evaluation of the fisheries sector in the Comoros. The consultant is also expected to assess existing data collection mechanisms and platforms and to make recommendations for improved compilation of fisheries-related indicators in Comoros, particularly SDG 14.4.1 and indicator on fishing efforts. Work assignment In close collaboration with UNSD, INSEED, the working group, and other relevant national stakeholders, the consultant will undertake the following tasks: 1. Develop a concept note describing the methodology, implementation schedule, and an indicative list of key data providers or custodians to be included in the data catalogue and profile report relevant to estimate the proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels, and fishing efforts. 2. Assess the methodology and tools for data collection to ensure consistency and comparability across agencies and jurisdictions, aligning them with SDG and FAO methodologies to enable both global and national reporting where applicable. 3. Identify stakeholders across the NSS involved in the data production system related to the shortlisted indicators and make an inventory of the challenges encountered in reporting data. 4. Identify, in collaboration with INSEED and other relevant national agencies, additional available sources of data on fisheries and assess their relevance and quality for production of indicators. 5. Develop a profile of each data source identified, including information on format, structure, topics covered, levels of representativeness, levels of data disaggregation, frequency of data collection and updates, the data quality, and other relevant attributes. 6. Assess the data collection mechanisms and/or platforms used to collect data from various sources and make recommendations for improving data collection and estimation to ensure completeness, accuracy, timeliness and disaggregation. The assessment should also include recommendations on how to calculate missing data and propose strategies to scale up methodologies to cover missing information relevant to the selected indicators. 7. Draft a fisheries data catalogue and profile report, in consultation with national stakeholders, and submit it for review and validation by INSEED, Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, la Pêche et l’Environnement (INRAPE), Direction Générale des Ressources Halieutiques (DGRH), UNSD, FAO, UNDP, UN Women, and others as relevant. 8. Present the fisheries data cataloguing, profiling, and diagnosis report for feedback and validation to key stakeholders. 9. Develop capacity for the calculation and estimation of fisheries-related indicators, particularly SDG 14.4.1 and indicator on fishing efforts. 10. Review the current data sharing environment among all stakeholders and propose recommendations to enhance sustainable, efficient, and secure data sharing and indicator computations. 11. Finalize the fisheries data catalogue and profile report incorporating feedback from INSEED and UNSD and provide recommendations on data collection mechanisms and preferred national platforms. The deliverable should also include practical steps for building national capacity to generate, update, and institutionalize the selected fisheries-related indicators. 12. Carry out other related tasks as identified by the INSEED and UNSD teams.

An advanced university degree in economics, statistics, mathematics, environmental sciences, social sciences or a related field, with five (5) years of experience in data analysis and/or data management. A bachelor’s degree and two additional years of experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced degree. Experience working with the national statistical system, with a particular focus on environment data, is required. Experience working with data disaggregated by geography, sex and specific population groups of interest for sustainable development is required. Experience working on issues relevant to measuring economic activity, environmental change and/or fisheries-related data is desirable.