Consultancy: T4D (Data Science), WCARO, Dakar, Senegal, 10 months

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, hope

Background:

Under UNICEF West and Central Africa's (WCA) Regional Office Management Plan (ROMP) 2022-2025, and in alignment to the Sustainable Development Goals, robust data and evidence generation are among the core accelerating strategies to achieve Key Results for Children. Specifically, WCA regional office, under the coordination of the ICT4D team, is implementing a multi-sectoral, multi-country initiative called “Reach the Unreached” to deploy innovative solutions based on frontier data technologies, data science models, and satellite vision and generate supporting datasets that can be used to identify and serve unreached children in key countries of West and Central Africa. This consultancy is designed with the purpose of strategically supporting the RO “Reach the Unreached” cross-sectoral team to meet urgent demands on frontier data technologies and machine learning (with a focus on innovations aimed at improved population estimates to support vaccination of zero-dose children) and contributing to the definition and solution of programmatic problem statements. Furthermore, the incumbent, through the design, production, review, and development of new, rigorous, data analytics technologies, will work towards facilitating an easier and more collaborative approach to multi-sectoral programming and contributing to the RO common agenda.

How can you make a difference?

Scope of Work:

The consultant will assume technical expertise and operational responsibilities including the following:

• Frontier data technologies support to cross-sectoral, multi-country problem statements, with a strong focus on the “Reach the Unreached” initiative.
• Support to UNICEF WCA RO programmatic sections such as Health, Emergency, Child Protection to define problem statements that can be solved or improved through the use frontier data and machine learning technologies.
• Design, develop, and maintain data science and machine learning technologies, analysis, and tools that assist country offices and the regional office in their data work.
• Provide specialized guidance to WCA COs and RO in the use of AI tools, big-data datasets, and innovative machine learning technologies and innovations.
• Provide specialized advisory on potential biases of innovative AI and machine learning technologies, and support UNICEF in advocating for fairness, representativeness, and the application of Responsible Data for Children (RD4C) in AI and machine learning technologies.
• Collaborate with external partners to bring the knowledge and data agreement necessary to strengthen the UNICEF LAC RO capacity to use frontier data technologies and innovations.

Tasks/Milestone:Deliverables/Outputs:Estimate BudgetDeliverable 1Data Science support for the Reach the Unreached initiative (participation to all the consultations with participating countries, review and documentation of all the proposed technologies and techniques from the partners)

Quality Assurance on data science and machine learning models to ensure rigor and effectiveness of the models developed as part of the initiative.

25%*Deliverab**le 2*Data Science support to COs for the Reach the Unreached initiative in Nigeria and Cameroon (review and documentation of all the outputs from the initiative’s partners)

Provision of specific data science expertise to participating offices to assure localization, replication, and scalability of models, including providing support to participating countries to fine-tune the population estimates and geo-statistics models developed as part of the initiative.

15%Deliverable 3Data Science support to COs for the Reach the Unreached initiative in Chad and Côte d'Ivoire (review and documentation of all the outputs from the initiative’s partners)

10%Deliverable 4Data Science support to COs for the Reach the Unreached initiative in Mali and Guinea (review and documentation of all the outputs from the initiative’s partners)

10%Deliverable 5Data science problem statement identification support to the Regional Office (at least 3 problem statements identified and recorded as a “Data Use Case”)

With internal and external experts (and listening to and taking advantage of UNICEF’s frontier data network) identify, curate, develop and structure the most impactful scientific and applied science problem statements related to the RO Key Results For Children, analyzing impact, relevance, opportunity moment, most promising approach, techniques, and technologies, potential partners and stakeholders.

10%Deliverable 6Development of impact science for COs and RO sections, including production of applied science tools and peer-reviewed papers (at least 2 documents produced and published as either peer-reviewed papers, preferably, or as UNICEF Policy Briefs)

Based on the identified problem statements, develop “impact science” at CO and RO level. Understanding impact as both, 1) on the ground impact: applied science (models, technologies, tools) that has a direct and important impact on UNICEF programmes and 2) scientific impact: scientific findings and studies that provide a transformative view to a frontier data tech area. Scientific efforts are expected to be collaborative, peer-reviewed and submitted to high impact journals.

20%Deliverable 7Scientific dissemination and capacity building in WCA (at least 4 between webinars and presentations)

Develop events for positioning UNICEF frontier data tech and engaging scientific talent and frontier data tech communities on UNICEF’s relevant aspects: workshops on key scientific conferences (Complex Systems Society, NeurIPS, NetSci, SIGCHI…), video/podcast/talk series with key speakers.

10%To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science with a major in web applications development
• Have no immediate relatives (e.g. father, mother, brother, sister) working in any UNICEF office; and
• Have no other relatives in the line of authority which the consultant will report to.
• Demonstrable hands-on experience designing, maintaining, automating, embedding, and documenting dashboards using the state-of-the-art data visualization technologies (e.g., PowerBI, Tableau).
• Demonstrable advanced skills in PowerBI specifically (including coding in DAX).
• Experience in advising teams and business owners in Data Visualization best practices.
• Fluency in English or French is required

Other Requirements

• Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system /Resume
• Academic credentials/certificates
• Consultancy proposal

• Financial proposal that will include

  • Costs for each deliverable and total all-inclusive (lump sum) fees for the whole assignment
  • Travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TO
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
• Previously relevant consultancy products & final evaluations (if available)
• Indicate your availability
• 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.

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:

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

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.