Consultancy - Climate Change Data Management Consultant, Data & Analytics (D&A) Section, DAPM NYHQ (remote-based)

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

Consultancy Title: Climate Change Data Management Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: Data & Analytics Team/ DAPM NYHQ (remote-based)

Duration: 20 February 2023 to 31 January 2024

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

In the context of its Real-time data initiative UNICEF has been steadily moving toward data-centric over system-centric solutions. As part of this we are building out foundational data catalogs that cover both primary observational data as well as indicator data derived from primary data. These catalogs also hold a normative function, storing administrative unit layers, point data, gazetteer metadata and structural reference data. Alongside this cataloging we are also enabling accompanying services that support data pipelines, harmonization, spatial data analysis, and more. This position fits within this overall workstream, delivering on a few vertical slices.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

UNICEF requires the services of an external consultant to support the development of geo-spatial data discovery, harmonization, validation and curation processes in several areas, including the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Assessment (CCDRA), the Wash Severity Classification (WSC), and UNICEF’s project to create a comprehensive, maintained set of official administrative boundaries.

The work shall create maintainable, automated processes that harmonize multiple data streams into harmonized datasets. The work shall be designed such that it can accommodate the addition of new streams of data as and when they become available.

The work shall be performed iteratively, beginning with four countries that are a focus of current CCDRA analysis: Cambodia, Eastern Caribbean, Kenya, Somalia, closely followed by priority countries as determined by the WSC team.

The consultancy shall also work with UNICEF Data and Analytics Team (DAT) teams to identify novel big data sources that may be considered for inclusion in the analytical model.

The consultancy shall also assist the Frontier Data and Tech Unit (FDTU) in testing, validating, and refining a set of components used to ingest, normalize, and curate foundational spatial data assets.

The consultancy shall also research and test potential methods for harmonizing to a common grid spatial data conforming to different shape files, gathered at different points in time.

Tasks/Deliverables:

1. Coordinate with relevant stakeholders (e.g., UNICEF staff, other agencies, national government, private sector partners) to identify relevant geospatial and indicator data sources at subnational level for CCDRA

Deliverable: Primary data sources for CCDRA analysis (April 30, 2023)

2. Coordinate with relevant stakeholders (e.g., UNICEF staff, other agencies, national government, private sector partners) to identify relevant geospatial and indicator data sources at subnational level for WSC.

Deliverable: Primary data sources for WSC analysis (May 31, 2023)

3. Coordinate with relevant stakeholders (e.g., UNICEF staff, other agencies, national government, private sector partners) to identify relevant geospatial and indicator data sources at subnational level for equity profiles.

Deliverable: Primary data sources for equity profile creation (June 30, 2023)

4. Create reusable scripts in R or Python to harmonize data from multiple sources into a common data structure, including sources from dynamic APIs (the harmonization may require the adoption of Natural Language Processing techniques like fuzzy matching). Manage those scripts in UNICEF’s common analytics environment, Data Bricks.

Deliverable: Reusable data harmonization scripts in R or Python (July 31, 2023)

5. Store data in agreed upon data warehouse and geospatial platforms (such as ArcGIS Online/Enterprise, Indicator Data Warehouse, GeoRepo) using scripts and available APIs.

Deliverable: Primary data sources and indicators stored in relevant GIS and indicator data platforms (August 31, 2023)

6. Assist in discovering, curating, storing, and normalizing administrative and other relevant boundary shape files.

Deliverable: Administrative data normalized and stored in GeoRepo (Sep 30, 2023)

7. Help FDTU test and validate its approach and components to manage shape file normalization.

Deliverable: FDTU normalization components tested and validated (Oct 31, 2023)

8. Research and test methods to harmonize to a common grid spatial data conforming to different shape files and gathered at different points in time.

Deliverable: Geospatial data harmonized to common grids (Nov 30, 2023)

9. Collaborate with sector and data specialists to discover potentially useful big data sources that may be of use in further modelling CCDRA.

Deliverable: Big data sources discovered and documented (Dec 31, 2023)

10. Support the documentation of all the data work that is performed, including the documentation of custom scripts, any harmonization strategy implemented, newly identified data sources, and any assessment and data processing work.

Deliverable: Data, ETL and analytics work documented for repeatability (Jan 31, 2024)

Qualifications

(1) Education

Master’s degree

(2) Disciplines: Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Statistics

(3) Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• 5 years of experience working with data and analytics tools;
• Proven experience in implementing ETL pipelines over heterogenous data using Python, R and SQL;
• Experience discovering and harmonizing development data using scripted approaches for access with both file-based and API methods;
• Experience using cloud-based analytics platforms and data and spatial data processing tools, e.g. Data Bricks, ArcGIS Desktop);
• Experience using data science packages, e.g., Pandas, Numpy;
• Experience with UNICEF domain data is an asset;
• Fluent in spoken and written English. Additional official UN working languages are a plus.

Requirements****:

• Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.