Information Systems Assistant

Result of Service The Individual Contractor will support the use of information and knowledge management automation tools at ACPC, ACPC website development, experts and events data management and contribute to the management of the ACPC publication pipeline.

Work Location Ethiopia

Expected duration 6

Duties and Responsibilities Background

The African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) is a section within the Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resource Management Division of UNECA. It is also an integral part of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) programme, which is a joint initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the UNECA and the African Development Bank (AfDB). One of the main ACPC deliverables is knowledge and information packaging and dissemination to policy makers, researchers and practitioners. Central to this responsibility is the need to have robust knowledge and information management systems. As contemporary methods for information dissemination, ACPC’s contacts database, websites and online presence plays an important role in the delivery of these goals. To this end ACPC is seeking to recruit an Information Systems Assistant to provide technical support to facilitate timely outreach to stakeholders, national governments, as well as regional and continental partners.

Under the direct supervisor of Information Management Officer of TCND/ACPC the Individual Contractor will assume the following duties and responsibilities;

• Provides support for computer information systems, databases and applications in assigned area; performs complex troubleshooting for various applications at the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC).

• Participates in the development, programming, testing, debugging and implementation of new computer application systems releases, modules and functionalities; conducts version management.

• Supports the designs of and development of computer application systems and programs, typically using more than one programming language as well as UN established standards for IT technologies and tools.

• Supports installation… computer application systems software and hardware according to specifications; monitors applications systems using appropriate monitoring tools and produces monitoring reports.

• Supports management…., designs, creates, produces and maintains technical documentation for relevant computer application systems and products; manages and administers changes to technical documentation in accordance with prevailing change management and operation procedures.

• Assists in developing/refining support and operations procedures for relevant computer applications systems, including programming requirements and recommendations to users for the programming interfaces.

• Contributes to feasibility studies, systems analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation and testing of computer application systems improvements and new computer application systems.

• Assists in the identification of user computer application systems needs, including business process and document workflow analysis, organization and maintenance of document repositories; identifies classification schema, retention and archival procedures; designs and develops workflow systems; conducts research on document/information/knowledge management computer applications’ tools, procedures and standards.

• Provides support on computer application systems development matters, including security and data backup and recovery.

• Keeps abreast of developments in the field; conducts research on new technologies; performs benchmarking and proposes new acquisitions; assists in the implementation of new technologies.

• Provides guidance and training to new/junior staff; plans day-to-day work.

• In consultation with the ACPC Information Management Officer and other ACPC staff, design web-pages, format content and upload ACPC content onto the ECA and ClimDev-Africa websites.

• Create and facilitate online discussion forums, blogs, wikis and surveys.

• Create activity and event sub-sites on the ACPC subsite, including graphics, audio-visual content and linkage to social media in line with agreed web publishing guidelines, and as directed by ACPC.

• Disseminate ACPC communication and knowledge products to stakeholders through the UNECA website.

• Participate in maintaining the Section’s reference database, web and multimedia related activities of the ACPC.

• Update and maintain data in the ACPC events and contacts database.

• In maintaining expert and organization data records, ensure that all duplicates are identified and removed and using any acceptable mechanism, ensure that all email contacts are validated.

• For email addresses, ensure that all available addresses for each expert are recorded.

• For experts who are identified as key to ACPC activities and events e.g. perennial speakers, panelists, authors, consultants, reviewers etc. obtain and record their bios in the database.

• Performs other related duties as required.

  Qualifications/special skills Advanced university (Master’s degree) in Information Science, Computer Science or related fields is required.A first-level university degree in combination with additional two years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the master's degree. A minimum of ten years of experience in information systems analysis and programming, systems administration and maintenance, software development, technical writing or related area is required.

  Languages English and French are the working languages of the UN Secretariat. For this consultancy, fluency in English is required. Working language of the other is desirable. Knowledge of another UN language is desirable.

  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.