Data and Platform Manager (For the nationals of Sierra Leone only)

Contract

This is a NPSA-10 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally only for nationals. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education. More about NPSA-10 contracts.

Background

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

• Personal CV - indicating all part positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) references.
• Cover letter - indicating why the candidate considers him/herself to be suitable for the position.

The UN Secretary-General established the UN SDG Action Campaign to inspire people and organizations from all backgrounds and every part of the world to take actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, while holding decision-makers to account for progress society-wide. The UN SDG Action Campaign is hosted and supported by UNDP and is based in Bonn (Germany) with a lean team that marshals rapid support for new initiatives as opportunities arise and provides partners with on-demand strategic creative services that inspire SDG local action.

The UN SDG Action Campaign is working closely with cities and local governments to showcase how they are actively contributing to implement Agenda 2030, accelerating transformative action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for all, and everywhere. The UN SDG Action Campaign, together with the office of UNDP in Sierra Leone are supporting the city of Freetown to implement a component of their #FreetownTheTreeTown project, one of the winners of the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, is among the world’s rainiest cities. They have also experienced rapid tree loss in recent years, estimated at some 555 hectares – or 500,000-plus trees – annually since 2011. The national government oversees the legal framework governing urban greening and land use, limiting Freetown’s options for curbing tree loss, and requiring reforestation. Heavy rains, coupled with this deforestation, have resulted in devastating landslides, including an event in 2017 which claimed nearly 1,000 lives.1 #FreetownTheTreetown is an initiative to reforest the city and surrounding areas to reverse tree loss and reduce disaster risks. The overall goal is to increase canopy cover by 50% from 2018 levels by the end of 2022.

In the first two years since its launch in January 2020, 560,000 trees have been planted, digitally tracked and ‘tokenised’, with 578 hectares of urban land in and around Freetown restored. The project is targeting the following objectives:

• To improve the equitable distribution of trees and green space, as 35% of areas targeted for new trees or vegetation are informal settlements that currently have low coverage.
• Planting by roadsides, schools and in residential areas (totaling almost 165 hectares to date) aims to reduce heat stress and improve air quality.
• Planting in Freetown’s water catchment and greenbelt (104 hectares) aims to improve water security.
• Planting in the upper water catchment and on high slopes around Freetown (280 hectares) aims to reduce the risk of flash flooding and landslides.
• Mangrove reforestation (32 hectares) aims to reduce coastal erosion and flooding.

As well as planting new trees, #FreetownTheTreetown is helping to discourage environmentally harmful practices, such as sand mining, and to reduce deforestation and mangrove destruction in targeted areas. The full ecosystem services from the trees planted during the initial three-year campaign will come later, around 2030, once they are more established. There has already been a discernible reduction in flooding and landslide risk because of planting in the upper catchment areas. The campaign has also directly or indirectly created over 1,000 green jobs along the value chain, from workers in tree nurseries to community growers – of whom 80% are youths and 48% are women.

Within this context, the UN SDG Action Campaign is seeking to recruit a Data and Platform Manager to support the implementation of the #FreetownTheTreeTown project in the City of Freetown in Sierra Leone.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Data and Platform Manager will work with the designated third-party Fund Manager, the Freetown City Council and the technical team, UNDP Sierra Leone to implement the following functions:

General:

• Coordinate with Greenstand to localize the build-out and manage the TreeTown Impact Investment Platform based on the existing TreeTracker Platform;
• Initiate and customize front-end and back-end development of the platform;
• Manage a tree / data verification team of junior Data Technicians;
• Front-end Development: Select an appropriate open-source dashboard that fully meets the specifications of the project’s required language and frameworks. The selected platform must be customizable, fully in compliance with the project, and can be scaled into a full-fledged and functional integrated web-based M&E dashboard;
• Design the user-facing interface of the web-based M&E dashboard and webmap and Back-end Development;
• Design Token and impact Wallet functions.

Data Management:

• Implementation of tree tracking and verification operational strategies through the Treetown Treetracker mobile App and Platform;
• Ensure mapping and registration of planting areas and tree stewards through the FCC Treetracker mobile app;
• Ensure Basic quality assurance and verified planting audits are conducted;
• Ensure field teams provide daily reports and uploads to the FCC Tree Tracking and Monitoring Platform through the tree tracker mobile App Support to knowledge building and knowledge sharing;
• Accurately track trees survival rates over time through image quality analysis through mobile phone;
• Ensure species tagging and geo-analysis of planting locations;
• Support building initial datasets for ongoing survival measurements via satellite images and drone mapping;
• Provide a collection framework for all sizes of tree planting projects;
• Data Analysis using analysis software’s like, SPSS, Stata, R and Python.

Institutional Arrangement:

Under the overall guidance of the Mayor of Freetown and through the Mayor’s Delivery Unit, the Data and Platform Manager will directly report to the Program Lead (the Green Infrastructure Ecosystem Manager) and the Team Leader, Mayor’s Delivery Unit, Office of the Mayor, Freetown City Council. The Data and Platform Manager will work closely with #FreetownTheTreeTown Component Leads, Third-Party Fund Manager, Project Technical Advisors, the Mayor’s Delivery Unit, FCC Climate and Disaster Risk Unit, Delivery Associates, and the technical team, UNDP Country Office in Sierra Leone .

Competencies

Core:

Achieve Results:Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, having lasting impact.Think Innovatively:Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.

Learn Continuosly:Creat and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversity experiences.Adapt with Agility:Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.Engage and Partner:Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.Enable Diversity and Inclusion:Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

Cross-Functional and Technical Competencies:

Thematic Area****Name****DefinitionBusiness Direction & StrategyStrategic Thinking- Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with project objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks, and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions. - Ability to layerage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for #FreetownTheTreeTown.

Business Acumen- Ability to understand and deal with a business situation in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome. - Knowledge and understanding of the operational frameworks in the organization and ability to make good judgments and quick decisions within such frameworks.

Effective Decision Making- Ability to take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one’s authority, area of expertise and resources.

Business ManagementCustomer Satisfaction/ Client Management- Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs. Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy. Look for ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests. - Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.

Digital & InnovationData Analysis- Ability to extract, analyze and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making.

Data privacy and digital ethics- Knowledge of ethical usage of digital technology (e.g. AI, robotics, automation) and data. Ability to assess ethical implications when using, combining or sharing data, when building or implementing AI systems, and when advising on robotization and automation etc. - Ability to design privacy protocols to ensure data is protected and used for legitimate purposes without unnecessary privacy risks.

Data Collection- Being skilled in Data Sorting, Data Cleaning, Survey Administration, Presentation and Reporting including collection of Real-Time Data (e.g. mobile data, satellite data, sensor data).

Data storytelling and communications- Skilled in building a narrative around a set of data and its accompanying visualizations to help convey the meaning of that data in a powerful and compelling fashion.

Required Skills and Experience

Min. education requirements:- Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Data Science or any related field, or a - Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Data Science or related field with seven (7) years of relevant work experience, is required.

Min. years of relevant work experience:- A minimum of five (5) years with Master’s Degree or seven (7) years with Bachelor’s Degree of relevant professional work experience in areas related to data management is required.

Required skills:- Data management skills as well as technical leadership is required.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies Section:- Experience working as a Full Stack Developer and Platform Manager experience in GIS is preferrable; - Experience using data analysis software such as, SPSS, STATA, as well as programing language such as SQL, R and Python is an asset; - Experience in data collection, storage, management, sharing, visualization and analysis is desirable; - Experience managing one or more of unior Data Technicians is an advantage; - Experience in an environmental and/or technical business / project management is a plus; - Proven experience working with local governments and/or nonprofit organizations is desirable; - Ability to write clean code and documentation is highly desirable;

Required Language/s:- Proficiency in the English language is required. - Working knowledge of another UN language is desirable.