National IT Data Archiving Systems Specialist

Organizational Settings

The NDC Partnership (NDC-P) is an alliance of over 100 members, including developed and developing countries in all regions of the world, as well as major international institutions and non- state actors. The NDC-P works directly with national governments, international institutions, civil society, researchers, and the private sector to fast-track climate and development action.

As part of the current efforts to deliver on the numerous country commitments linked to the UNFCC and other environmental regulations, the government of Benin has requested NDC-P’s assistance in establishing a national environmental archiving system for storage of relevant data and documentation. This will be instrumental to facilitate the production of the greenhouse gas inventories and to satisfy the other requirements of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) including the NDC tracking.

In response to this request, the FAO HQs (NDC-P supporting unit in OCB) has liaised with the FAO Representation in Benin to demand and secure funding from the NDC Partnership Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP) initiative.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the FAO representative, and in close collaboration with the FAO NDC-P team members in OCB and OCI team members, the consultant will have the following responsibilities and functions:

Technical Focus

The main objective of this consultancy is to design the architecture of a national environmental data archiving system for Benin, which, once operational, will serve the numerous country needs related to monitoring and reporting of environmental variables, including storage of all data, documentation and process results for the production and long-term retrieval of greenhouse gas inventories and tracking of NDCs.

The consultancy includes all the preparatory phases for assessing any possible existing archiving system infrastructure in relevant ministries, agencies and universities (as relevant to the ETF), the needs, the existing policies and ongoing initiatives that could be complemented, homogenized and unified to achieve a single, efficient, secure IT/environmental data archiving system.

The outcome of this consultancy is a comprehensive document which will indicate the current status of the infrastructure and the way forward, including the best possible architecture of the future data archiving system, technical specifications of the minimum IT equipment needed within the budget allocated and the TORs for the IT company that will implement the system at each ministry or agency identified.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

To achieve the objectives, the expert will carry out the following tasks:

• Propose an overall work plan for the consultancy to ensure timeframes are kept;

• Produce a comprehensive assessment of the national policy framework on digital data/archiving systems (strategy, priorities, funding, timeline) and of the current endowment of related IT equipment and needs of selected ministries (at least Ministère du Cadre de Vie et du Développement Durable -MCVDD-, Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Élevage et de la Pêche -MAEP-, Ministère de l'Énergie -ME-, Ministre des Infrastructures et des Transports -MIT-, Ministère du Numérique et de la Digitalisation -MND-, Institut National de la Statistique et de l’Analyse Economique -INSAE-).The assessment has to include individual meetings and interviews with relevant governmental staff in each Ministry for up-to-date details on the real status and functioning of the equipment and to seek approval on receiving any hardware and software procured by FAO under the NDC-P CAEP project;

• Based on the above assessment, on the available project budget, and on recognized best-practices and standards, design the most appropriate, fit-for-purpose, cost-effective and efficient IT architecture for a secured, long term, scalable national environmental data and metadata archiving system in Benin (either centralized or decentralized) contributing to, complementing or integrating any ongoing parallel national efforts and existing systems as far as practical. The architecture must take into account all requirements of the Enhanced Transparency Framework of the UNFCCC, including all needs related to the production of greenhouse gas inventories and NDC tracking of progress;

• In close collaboration with FAO CSI technical service, deliver detailed technical IT specifications for procurement of any additional hardware available on local/international market and/or software (with mandatory preference to opensource solutions) needed to achieve the system in Benin;

• Produce an administrator manual for managing the archiving system, suggesting clear roles and responsibilities within each Ministry;

• In close collaboration with FAO CSI technical service, assist FAO Benin in ensuring that all internal procedures are followed to procure the needed hardware/software, identified through the above assessment;

• In close collaboration with FAO Benin and FAO CSI technical service, produce ToRs for the recruitment of an IT company to install and operationalize the procured hardware and software at each Ministry;

• Assist the IT company contracted to ensure installation and operationalization of hardware and/or software at each Ministry is achieved;

• Liaise with CBIT Bénin LTO and project director in MCVDD for ensuring that CBIT activities planned on data management and archiving are best delivered on the new/improved archiving system.

• Prepare quarterly reports and final reports on the activities, as requested by the NDC Partnership; provide updates on the status of implementation of activities; provide inputs for the completion of narrative reports.

• Undertake other tasks as required to achieve the above tasks.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Relevant University degree in IT archiving and networking solutions

• At least 5 of years of experience in designing and implementing IT archiving and networking solutions at government level

• Working knowledge of French and English

• Be a national of Benin with appropriate residence and working status in the proposed duty station prior to the start of the assignment

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Proven knowledge of UNFCCC greenhouse gas inventories and ETF requirements will be an asset
• Candidates should be able to adapt to an international multicultural environment and have good communication skills