Data Science support for UNDP's Data Futures Platform

Contract

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An SDG Integration Team located with UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN) offers a menu of services emphasizing direct short- to medium-term engagements to respond rapidly to requests from country offices for support on national implementation and monitoring of integrated policy solutions, qualitative and evidence-driven analysis for accelerated progress, and knowledge sharing and upscaling of innovative approaches to sustainable development. The team’s work emphasizes the application of evidence-driven data and analytics for SDG implementation and reporting.

In this regard, advances in digital technology are creating data at unprecedented levels of detail and speed, turning the stories of people’s lives into numbers every minute of every day, across the globe. An important focus of the integration work is to complement traditional data (e.g., national statistics,) with new and alternative sources including digital ‘breadcrumbs,’ satellite data, social media to identify emerging trends and gain new perspectives on issues in development.

The team is looking for a bright data science volunteer to support the data & analytics requests received as part of UNDP’s new Data Futures Platform https://data.undp.org/. The Online Volunteer will support the development, training, and testing of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing models and advise on necessary pipelines to ensure high-quality analytics based on non-traditional data sources, including social media.

Background in Computer Science or relevant field. Field of study with a focus on Natural Language Processing or Machine Learning, considered an asset. Experience in data science applied policy issues. Web scrapping and analysis skills are considered an asset.