Information Systems Assistant

Contract

This is a UNV National Youth contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Youth contracts.

UN Environment is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.

This assignment is in UN Environment 's Policy and Programme Division but hosted in the Corporate Services Division/Enterprise Solutions Section at the Nairobi duty station.

UNEP’s Policy and Programme Division performs strategic planning, coordination, and monitoring of UNEP's programmes as well as coordinates UNEP's engagement with the wider UN system and global processes. Enterprise Solutions Section (ESS)of UN Environment’s Corporate Services Division is mandated to enable efficient and timely UN Environment Programme delivery using ICT standards, solutions, and overall business process automation in support of UN Environment’s programme of work. It undertakes a wide range of services, activities and projects. It works closely with clients throughout the project life cycle to tailor the services to their needs ensuring that the solution meets the required objectives from a specification, resource and time perspective.

One of the workstreams within Enterprise Solutions Section is called development and operations (DevOps) Unit. Its overall goal is to develop and maintain systems and services to facilitate the delivery of UNEPs mandate and automate business process. The UNV will be mainly working under the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) monitoring platform and other related systems.

Under the direct supervision of an Officer in the unit and in close engagement with the UNEP Enterprise Solutions Section (ESS) in the Corporate Services Division, the National Youth Volunteer will be part of a team to design, develop and implement various workflow automation and service request tracking systems. The specific tasks of the Volunteer include the following:

· Development of new features and improve functionalities of the UNEA Monitoring and reporting portal based on business input. · Support for the live UNEA Monitoring and reporting portal. · Integration of Member State login (implementation of AzureAD). · Creation of new reporting dashboards. · Maintenance and update of reference data (rewording of resolutions). · Maintenance of roles for submitters and reporters. · Support integration with other systems such as the Open data portal.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to:

· Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark IVD). · Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country. · Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities. · Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc. · Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers. · Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Results/Expected Outputs

As an active UN Environment Programme team member, the volunteer will contribute to, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly, and high-quality support rendered to UNEP and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of their functions, including the following outputs:

· The new features and improvements of the UNEA Monitoring and reporting portal are managed, de-bugged and maintained to ensure proper functionality for end-users. · Member states integrated log in is tested and completed. · New reporting dashboards are developed and maintained for end-users, according to established UN standards for IT technologies, programming languages and tools. · Evaluate and monitor member states integrated log in (on AzureAD). · Contribution to work on integration of UNEA portal with the Open data Portal

Adaptability and Flexibility Creativity Professionalism Technological Awareness

0-3 professional work experience at the national and/or international level in application software systems analysis, design, and development; and data management.

Technical skills descriptions:

· High proficiency in the following: Jira, Git, PHP(Laravel), Python, JavaScript, MySQL databases, Azure Active Directory (B2C & B2B). · Demonstrated writing and speaking skills in English. · Experience working in teams, including coordination of junior members, and in engaging with clients. Working with multi-cultural teams would be an advantage. · Experience in developing workflow automation and service request tracking solutions would be an advantage.

The Republic of Kenya is an equatorial nation on the coast of East Africa, neighboring Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Indian Ocean. Kenya has two levels of Government; National Government and 47 sub-national Governments called Counties. Counties are further divided into sub-counties. Kenya is a multi-party state with Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Kenya’s population of more than 40 million is growing at an annual rate of 2.2%. The country’s GNP per capita estimated at purchasing power parity (PPP) is $975, and the GNP is growing at an average rate of 0.1% annually. More than 26% of Kenya’s people live below the international poverty line of $1 per day. Kenya’s main food crops are “maize, wheat, pulses, roots and tubers.” (FAO).

Nairobi is a modern metropolitan city where most basic goods and services, health facilities, public transport, telecommunication and banking services, and educational facilities are readily available. The city is widely connected through its main airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and the smaller Wilson Airport. Air transport is also available to many up-country destinations. The city is home to some 3,000 UN personnel mainly attributed to the fact that it serves as the headquarters for both the UN-HABITAT and UNEP.

The socio-economic and cultural background of the immediate society the UNV would be living and working in is diverse and prevailing security conditions at the place of assignment are modest. The topographic and climatic features of the assignment location are highland cool and warm tropical climates.