Search Development Consultant

Result of Service Enhanced capacity and technological advancement for WESR through delivery of API gateway and authentication functionality.

Enhanced capacity for the GEO process through delivery of three nomination portals, and capacity development for the GEO partners.

Work Location Nairobi

Expected duration 4 months

Duties and Responsibilities Background and Organisation Settings

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 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. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action.

This consultancy is managed by UNEP’s Science Division. The Science Division is responsible for analyzing the state of the global environment, providing early warning information and assessing global and regional environmental trends to catalyze and promote international cooperation and action on the environment.

The World Environment Situation Room (WESR), situated in the Big Data Branch of UNEP’s Science Division, provides the UN Member States open access to information and knowledge on the environment at the global, regional and national levels. It supports Environmental Policy through Foresight, Outlooks and Assessments and providing Capacity Building for countries to achieve the Goals of Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development, supporting the capacity building services of UNEP. The World Environment Situation Room provides up-to-date information for citizen science, communities of practice and impact stories and case studies on the environment and people with the impact felt by people and livelihoods across countries, regions and the world.

Assessing and reporting on the state of the world’s environment is a fundamental mandate of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) process emerged out of this mandate. It is a consultative, participatory process with a strong element of capacity building for global environmental assessments aimed at the interaction between science and policy decision-making. The GEO process has many elements. It supports multi-stakeholder networking, provides a platform for the exchange of knowledge, promotes intra and interregional cooperation in identifying and addressing key environmental issues and concerns and builds capacity at many levels. Meeting user needs cuts across all elements of GEO outputs. To meet user needs and in response to Governing Council, UN Environment Assembly decisions and Agenda 21, since its inception of GEO in 1995, the process has been expanded, refined and applied to a wide range of GEO products resulting in a family of reports and publications. Each has its own purpose, process and identity but is unified by the expert-driven, participatory and consultative characteristics of the GEO approach. The GEO-6 specialized reports (so-called major advocacy products) build on the findings of UN Environment Global Environment Outlook report (GEO-6) and provide scientific analysis on the environment and the implications for various stakeholders such as businesses, local government, policy makers, technical experts and the youth. They will contribute to strengthening the Science-Policy Interface.

Specific tasks and responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Head of the World Environment Situation Room Unit, Big Data Branch, Science Division. The Head of Unit, WESR unit, the consultant will work in the World Environment Situation Room (WESR) and in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) units to deliver three nomination portals to facilitate effective nomination of GEO-7 advisory groups, experts and inaugural meetings, conduct WESR Monitoring and Observability and develop authentication and authorization functionality for the API and provide technical support to partners and ensure hand over, training and orientation of the web and technical work of the GEO.

Qualifications/special skills Skills: Programming skills in PHP, MVC Frameworks and Docker hub is required. Additionally, strong communication skills and planning skills is desirable.

Academic Qualifications: Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Computer Science, Information Systems, Computational Intelligence or a related field is required. A first-level university degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or Information Systems in combination with two years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree is acceptable.

Experience: A minimum of three years of experience in information technology or related area are required for this consultancy. Proven experience in system's analysis and design, computer programming including advanced programming skills. Experience in the development of applications using MS SQL and relational databases and a good understanding of latest web technologies such as HTML 5 and CSS.3 is desired. Experience in working with international organizations dealing with environmental issues is desired. UN experience is desirable. Must be able to work with minimum supervision, while being an integral part of a team involving members of staff from a wide range of disciplines.

Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the consultancy, fluency in oral and written English is required. 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.