Consultancy for Evaluating Jordan's Preparedness to Leverage Immersive Technologies for Socioeconomic Growth

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

Result of Service

The incumbent is expected to deliver the following:

• The report prepared should be in English and in electronic format. • The report submitted should be around 15 pages. • A PowerPoint presentation to be delivered during a national workshop. • A 2 to 4 pages executive summary of the report.

The completed parts should be edited and saved in MS-Word (*.docx file) or an alternate compatible format. PDF format will not be accepted. It should include a table of contents to be automatically updated followed by a list of all tables and figures. The various parts should be submitted in electronic form and sent to the email address of the designated focal point.

Attention is kindly drawn to the need to ensure that the final draft of the outputs be thoroughly reviewed prior to submission and to indicate the sources of tables and diagrams. References to reports and other substantive material should be clearly indicated within the text and noted at the end. It is also essential to send, with the completed output, photocopies or scans of at least the first page of books, reports and bulletins, used as reference material as well as copies of the pages quoted. The content of the generated document shall be the sole property of ESCWA.

The consultant shall keep in mind that UN-ESCWA routinely checks all deliverables for plagiarism, using readily available electronic tools. All previously published content, even if written by the selected consultant, must be clearly referenced where required within the text and end-noted at the end of the study. The report submitted by the consultant must not contain quoted and/or previously published text equalling more than 20 percent of the total number of pages.

The consultant shall not publish or announce or reveal the content of the report, partly or entirely, on social media or any other public channel, without ESCWA permission. The content cannot and must not be presented, discussed or published by the consultant without ESCWA authorization of.

Work Location

Remote

Expected duration

2 Months and 1 Week

Duties and Responsibilities

BACKGROUND:

Building on the progress of technology and its use in various domain, immersive technology and metaverse would change the way people communicate, work, and interact together.

The metaverse is considered the next step in the evolution of human-technology interaction and the outcome of the natural progression of developments in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR) technologies, which are currently called immersive technologies. The developments in immersive technologies, along with higher speeds in processing power and lower costs, the convergence of technological trends and blockchain developments enabling digital currencies and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and, by extension, a digital creator economy, created the ideal conditions needed to spread the use of immersive technologies in many countries.

Immersive technologies have gained significant traction in various countries, particularly within design and gaming communities. Similarly, certain Arab countries, especially those with advanced digital technology adoption like the GCC nations, have witnessed their proliferation. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that some other Arab countries, particularly those classified as least developed, are still in the early stages of adopting immersive technologies. This can be attributed to the lack of necessary infrastructure and resources required for widespread implementation.

On a global scale, the economic potential and benefits inherent in immersive technologies and the metaverse have been extensively articulated and underscored in numerous studies. However, the potential advantages specific to the Arab region remain largely untapped and warrant thorough exploration and articulation. Furthermore, the preparedness of Arab countries to cultivate and reap both economic and social benefits from immersive technologies and the metaverse necessitates a profound and serious assessment.

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MODEE) in Jordan is keen to examine the economic opportunities of immersive technologies considering the national, regional, and international markets. This will enable the Ministry to potentially initiate a dedicated program for the promoting immersive technologies in specific field, and thus facilitate the use and the spread of these technologies especially among entrepreneurs.

With its recently approve the Strategy for Games and Electronic Sports for the period 2023-2027, Jordan has identified gaming and esports as a key sector to maximize this economic growth for job creation which is one important target of the Jordan’s Economic Modernisation Vision. Immersive technology is an important technology for advancing gaming sector or other sectors such education and health and will thus certainly be an instrument for generating new job opportunities.

The ITU and ESCWA are collaborating for the preparation of a study that help decision makers in the MODEE for the launch of an initiative for promoting immersive technologies in various sectors such as education, health care, e-gaming and e-sport, etc

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The consultant shall propose to the designated ESCWA focal point a detailed plan of work for the preparation of the report. To produce the report, the consultant is requested to conduct, among others, the main following tasks:

(1) Get knowledge about the assessment components of immersive technologies as it will be suggested by the ITU Consultant. (2) Propose and discuss with ESCWA, ITU, MODEE the methodology to be followed to assess the readiness of Jordan for the use of immersive technologies. (3) Hold interviews with the various stakeholders and realising a summary of their remarks and observations. (4) Examine and evaluate the readiness of Jordan for the use of immersive technologies for social and economic development. (5) Examine and evaluate the readiness of specific sector such as gaming, education and health sector for the introduction of immersive technology. (5) Present and discuss in a virtual meeting with the ESCWA, ITU and MODEE the collected data and findings of the assessment. (6) Prepare a first draft report analysing the collected data and discuss it during a virtual with ESCWA, ITU and MODEE. (7) Update the draft proposal considering the received feedback and comments during the reviewing process by ESCWA, ITU and MODEE. (8) Prepare a presentation to a national workshop, if any.

ESCWA promotes gender equality and integration of youth through its publications and therefore the consultant should pay attention, with the help of ESCWA staff, to gender considerations and youth dimension throughout the research work and thereby ensure that the narrative language should be gender sensitive.

Qualifications/special skills

A Bachelor's degree in the area of computer engineering or any other related fields is required. A Master's degree or Ph.D. in the aforementioned fields is desirable. A minimum of eight years of experience in digital technology and/or immersive technologies is required.

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 English and Arabic is 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

Not available.

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.