The position is located within the United Nations Resident Coordination Office (RCO) Multi-country office (MCO) for Mauritius and Seychelles. The MCO is based in Port Louis, Mauritius. Mauritius and Seychelles and Small Island States (SIDs) which are located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa. They are middle-income and high-income countries (MICs and HICs) respectively. Despite their economic status, the two countries are exposed to vulnerabilities and structural constraints such a as small land mass and population size; geographic isolation and spatial dispersion; high per capita cost of infrastructure; low-lying areas and extreme exposure to climate change and natural hazards; fragility of island ecosystems and high level of endemism. Despite these heightened constraints and the limited fiscal space to cope with climate shocks and build resilience, most SIDS enjoy very limited access to concessional finance, in particular climate finance – access to which is of key priority in the long-term economic and climate resilience agenda of these two countries. Against this context, the role of the Senior Economist as the key policy expert is to ensure overall RCO and UN positioning for supporting countries in innovative strategic thinking, evidence-based policy analysis, strengthening UN programmatic strategic orientation for SDG acceleration, reinforcing partnership including with private sector and academia and leading knowledge generation. The incumbent reports to the UN Resident Coordinator with dual reporting responsibility to the RCO Head of Office.