Web developer

Result of Service 2. Objectives.

The consultancy will introduce a set of new functionalities (modules) within the existing fully-fledged version of the WESR-LAC platform. Such new modules are aimed at: 1. Supporting the analytical capacity of the region to quickly respond to regional and countries’ environmental management issues by systematically gathering and analyzing data and producing information related to the state of the environment and its trends; 2. Supporting Strategic thinking and capacity to identify gaps and opportunities of the Forum of Ministers of Environment, by identifying, regrouping, and describing (storytelling) transformational pathways of sectors and their pressure and impacts on the environment, including food systems, energy, materials/waste, and nature.

Outputs:

1. Bespoke version of the WESR-LAC webpage for the Forum of Ministers of the Environment of LAC, including 4 main sections (one for each of the transformational pathways as introduced in GEO-7: food systems, energy systems, materials/waste, nature). Each section should include relevant data and information, storylines, targets and state-of-the-art visualization tools.

2. Development and/or adaptation of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or Web Services (WMS/WFS) aimed at consuming information and data from global / regional external databases and data infrastructures. Interoperated data sources shall include CEPALStat, FAOstat, and World Bank, among others (WESR LAC Interoperability - Phase 1).

3. Design and deployment of the synthetic digital version of the Biennial report.

4. Development and/or adaptation of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or Web Services (WMS/WFS) aimed at consuming information and data from national databases and data infrastructures (WESR LAC Interoperability - Phase 2).

5. Manual upload of relevant data and documents from external relevant databases and data infrastructures. At least 100 resources/datasets are uploaded on the WESR-LAC and duly documented.

Deliverables:

Product No. 1: Complete online version of the Forum of Ministers´ new section of the WESR-LAC, ready for final testing, and development´s technical documentation (user´s manual).

Product No. 2: Operational prototype version of the Phase 1 WESR-LAC platform, ready for final testing.

Product No. 3: Fully operational digital version of the Biennial report, including technical documentation (user´s manual).

Product No. 4: Deployment of the Phase 2 of the interoperable version the WESR-LAC platform, ready for final testing, including technical documentation (user´s manual).

Product No. 5: Complete online version of the WESR-LAC improved version, ready for final testing, including technical documentation (user´s manual).

Work Location Home-based

Expected duration 15 months

Duties and Responsibilities 1. Purpose.

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 acts as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. The UNEP Latin America and the Caribbean Office (LACO), located in Panama City, works closely with the 33 countries of the region and its activities are integrated into the Medium-Term Strategy and Programme of Work (PoW) approved by the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA).

At the XXII meeting of the Forum of Ministers of Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), countries of the region agreed on a set of concrete decisions including to promote a regional Integrated Environmental Information System to strengthen the science-policy interface in the region and, notably, to support monitoring the implementation of the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda. Following up on these decisions, CAF and UNEP have established a strategic alliance to contribute to the strengthening of instruments that increase the incidence of the use of scientifically-based information in the formulation of environmental public policies at the regional level, in accordance with Decision 5 of the XXII Forum of Ministers of the Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to facilitate and accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda, La Senda de Samoa, the Paris Agreement, ILAC and other multilateral agreements. In this context, an integrated information system, termed WESR-LAC, has been established in 2022, using the existing IT data infrastructure of UNEP’s World Environment Situation Room (WESR), and fed with relevant data, assessments and reports produced by countries and supplemented by global data and information.

The WESR-LAC platform will ensure the overall goal of harnessing regional relevant actionable data and information on the environment, to strengthen the regional and national environmental science-policy interface through free and open access to high quality data and information.

The purpose of this consultancy is to identify a skilled Web Developer to be tasked with the development and delivery of a new package of functionalities to enrich the current version of WESR-LAC, or SIRIA (Sistema Integrado Regional de Información Ambiental, for its acronym in Spanish).

Such new functionalities will streamline and enhance the capacity of WESR-LAC to provide users with up to date data and information useful to tackle the 3 planetary crises of Climate Change, Biodiversity loss and Pollution in LAC. In addition, it will provide the Forum of Ministers of Environment with policy relevant narrative and data describing the main transformational pathways toward sustainable development.

The incumbent will work from home in close coordination with the Science Unit at the UNEP LACO, and under the supervision of the UNEP Programme Officer for the Subprogramme “Science - Policy”, Latin America and the Caribbean Office.

Qualifications/special skills ACADEMIC Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, data science, or related fields is required.

PROFESSIONAL 5 (five) years of professional experience with proven skills and expertise content management design, implementation in website development and information infrastructure management is required.

The consultant should demonstrate possession of the following skills: - Knowledge of scripting languages: JavaScript, HTML, PHP - Knowledge of content management systems, such as WordPress or Drupal.

LANGUAGE Fluency in Spanish is required; confident level of English 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.