Global Project Coordinator - Consultant

Result of Service Successful coordination and implementation of the project “Application of the DEGURBA approach to generate comparable urban data in selected countries” in the 13 pilot countries, including production of all relevant project reports

Work Location Kenya

Expected duration 11 MONTHS (21 March 2022 - 20 January 2023)

Duties and Responsibilities BACKGROUND

As part of UN-Habitat’s efforts to provide technical support to countries worldwide for efficient monitoring and reporting on urban development agendas, the Data and Analytics Unit, under the Knowledge and Innovation branch, is currently leading SDG 11 and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) monitoring at the global level. This task involves development of methodologies which are globally applicable and adaptable to the country level for urban data generation, their piloting, building the capacity of countries to use these methods and undertake continuous reporting on the urban related indicators, and supporting countries and cities to generate accurate and up to date data which is used for national and global reporting on the progress towards sustainable cities and human settlements.

A major cross-cutting aspect that significantly contributes to how urban monitoring is implemented is how the unit of analysis - the city/urban area - is defined. In a bid to promote the production of urban data that is comparable within and between countries, UN-Habitat has been working with the European Commission and other global partners to harmonize how cities and urban areas are defined, particularly for reporting against the SDGs and NUA. Between 2018 and 2019, UN-Habitat and the European Commission successfully implemented a project titled “Assessing the feasibility of applying a global definition of cities/urban areas in support of global monitoring of SDGs and NUA urban targets”, through which the people based harmonized approach to defining cities and urban areas, titled the Degree of Urbanization concept (DEGURBA), was introduced to 85 countries Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Arab States and Asia and the Pacific regions. Following these consultations, UN member states, during the 51st UN Statistical Commission meeting (held in March 2020) endorsed DEGURBA as a sound approach to defining urban and rural areas for statistical comparisons. With this endorsement, the statistical commission asked the method’s promoters to pilot its implementation and built capacities of countries to apply the approach, and report back progress in subsequent sessions. To respond to this recommendation, UN-Habitat and the European Commission, in coordination with other partners developed the project titled “Application of the DEGURBA approach to generate comparable urban data in selected countries”. The project, which will be implemented in 13 countries between September 2021 and June 2023 has a goal of strengthening the capacity of national governments to adopt and apply DEGURBA in the definition of urban areas for the computation of SDG 11 indicators.

A project coordinator (consultant) is required to support the implementation of the abovementioned project. The consultant will work in collaboration with other personnel engaged in the project and will report directly to the project manager and the Chief of DAU.

RESPONSIBILITIES The project coordinator (consultant) will work in the Knowledge and Innovation Branch, under the direct supervision of the Chief of the Data and Analytics Unit. The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks: 1. Oversee the day-to-day implementation of the DEGURBA pilot project, including timely communication with pilot countries; 2. Organize all capacity development workshops for the 13 countries involved in the project, in coordination with the national statistical offices, the finance officers at UN-Habitat and partners, including preparation of relevant workshop material where applicable; 3. Compile progress reports on the project; 4. Working with the finance office, ensure timely production of financial reports for the project; 5. Compile, in partnership with regional coordinators, country-specific lessons-learnt reports on the experiences with implementation of DEGURBA and key emerging issues

Qualifications/special skills Competency: - Professionalism: Proven expertise in project planning and management, understanding of data/ geospatial data workflows, clear communication skills and ability to diagnose challenges and propose solutions in real-time. Ability to conduct an independent analysis and ability to observe deadlines and achieve set goals.

• Planning and organization: ability to work under pressure, prioritize and plan, coordinate own work plan, use time efficiently and apply common sense in the context of the terms of competition. Ability to observe deadlines and achieve set goals. Ability to work and deliver under pressure.

• Communication: Excellent skills in oral and written communication, ability to articulate ideas clearly and precisely for different audience. Interpersonal skills, ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

• Creativity: Strong conceptual thinking, is not bound by current thinking or traditional approaches, takes calculated risks on new and unusual ideas; thinks “outside the box”, and offers new and different options to solve problems or meet client needs Academic Qualifications: A first university degree in urban planning, geography, urban studies, development studies, urban management, project planning and management or any other related field is required. Experience: At least 5 years’ experience working in project management, urban data production and management, urban development and research on urban social, economic or development issues is required. For this position proven experience is required in the areas of urban data production and/or geospatial data workflows, project planning and implementation, clear writing, compilation of both meeting notes and technical / analytical reports and synthesis of evidence including data interpretation. Prior experience working in multi-stakeholder projects around the sustainable development goals or the New Urban Agenda is desirable. Language: For this consultancy, fluency in oral and written English is required. Although not a requirement, knowledge of any other UN language will be an advantage.

  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.