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

For UNICEF, it is strategic within the Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring (“DAPM”), to use and generate new sources of real-time information to better inform decision makers in the development and humanitarian ecosystem. UNICEF's Frontier Data Tech Unit (FDTU) is a hands-on team of researchers, engineers and data practitioners within the Chief Data Office (CDO) to strategically help advance the frontiers, use and understanding of data technologies and identify and realize their role, opportunities and limitations in addressing the most complex challenges for children.

With a strong focus on actionable and sustainable data science innovation, FDTU relies on and promotes actionable communities of practice, within UNICEF and externally, for a new generation of talent and technologies able to support data-driven and science-based decision making and a more equitable, fair and fulfilling future for children and humanity.

UNICEF requires the services of an external consultant to provide technical support to various projects in which UNICEF works with research partners; creates data commons for research purposes and perform data exploration and analysis, using novel data sources.

The consultancy shall work with UNICEF programmatic areas and/or DAPM Division to identify to explore potential data sources that can be used for data innovation purposes.

The consultancy shall also assist the Frontier Data and Tech Unit (FDTU) in its work with research partners and leading experts in the space of frontier data. The consultancy shall also research and test potential methods for the creation of data commons.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

Scope of Work

Specific tasks

Task 1

Data commons for research purposes:

a. Definition of a data model to host indicators from different sectors.

b. Implementation of a structured database to store and organize the indicators, including from different sectors and Big Data sources (e.g. Bazze), which are outside the scope and coverage of data.unicef.org.

c. Curation of indicators following best practices on data harmonization, standardization and management to facilitate data usage, with the help of FDTU colleagues.

*Deliverable*****: Liase with UNICEF DaT colleagues to gather datasets (e.g. Child Poverty, WASH, Climate Risk Index, etc.); Documentation of the data model; Creation of the database and documentation of the data structure; Documentation of the curation process of datasets and indicators; Integrate the database to match geographical entities in GeoRepo; Write a blogpost to raise visibility of the datasets for the research community.

Task 2 (4 projects)

Provide technical support to various projects in which UNICEF works with research partners.

a. University of Toronto with DAPM Education: review of frontier data and techniques in predicting school dropouts.

b. ISI Foundation with EAPRO: frontier data for displacement after sudden-onset naturaldisasters.

c. University of Saarland: innovative methodologies to harmonize geospatial datasets and produce population level estimates.

d. University of Edinburgh with Kazakhstan CO: estimate child well-being and nutrition using retail chain data.

*Deliverable*****: Write a blogpost with inputs from different stakeholders that are involved in the development of the projects with research partners (it should nclude scientific scope, potential programmatic impact and scientific collaborator); Prepare technical communication materials, presentations, 1-2 pager, etc. to a project-specific slide deck and a master slide deck that summarize all the projects; Ensure that a collaborative scientific publication is drafted at the end of the project, with all necessary stakeholders informed, coauthors, and reviewed as appropriate by UNICEF and partners.

Task 3

Data exploration and analysis: find and promote interesting use cases for potential application of frontier data and technology, especially related to internal data sources or from private sector (e.g. Bazze), in projects with UNICEF colleagues and research partners.
Deliverable: Collect UNICEF data gaps and needs from different divisions/programaatic areas/COs/ROs where frontier data and technology have the potential to contribute (e.g. migration, number of children in conflicts, etc.); Produce content that can be incorporated in the frontier data –use cases repository (in the form of slide deck for iterative refinements); Write a blogpost with a compelling story on the insights from the data analysis.

Task 4

Evaluate and support data requests from COs and ROs and divisions to access to different data sources as the WB data partnerships portal, other data and computational resources.

Deliverable: Evaluation requests and summary of evaluated requested of support

Qualifications

(1) Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, or equivalent degree.

(2) Work experience

4 years of relevant experience in Machine Learning/Artificial/Intelligence/ LLM, Network Science, Computational optimization, Complex Systems, Data Science or Natural Language processing as well as experience on Data Engineering, Data Management, Data Analysis and Data Visualization.

(3) Competencies

Fluency in English. Advanced skills in a second language will be desirable.
Ability to work with a diverse team in a rapidly changing work environment.

Requirements****:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system
Upload copy of academic credentials
Financial proposal that will include:
- the costs per each deliverable and the total all-inclusive (lump-sum) fees for the whole assignment (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.

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Added 9 months ago - Updated 8 months ago - Source: unicef.org