Assessment and GIS Specialist at United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Job description

Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types.

Functional Responsibilities

• Data Management/GIS Specialist will be responsible for supporting data management and evidence based activities for the East Africa portfolio.
• Understanding the accessibility to community services:
• Use the Rural Access Index methodology developed by the World Bank – methodology to analyse of the quality and reach of the road networks,
• Mapping the facilities,
• Understanding the population dynamics and movement,
• Develop an overview of the level of access to socal infrastructures and the services they provide,
• Analysing the functionality of these social infrastructure

This exercise will be useful to:

• Demonstrate the present distribution of service delivery points within the determined area with a focus on health, education, economic growth and other social services,
• Understand the Migratory routes of the nomadic population,
• Provide the rationale for evidence based planning and resource allocation by area/county governments and partners,
• Understand the local potential for growth and development,
• Serve as an advocacy tool for results based programming and investment,
• Develop a tool to measure impact of the interventions.

Specific Output

The Assessment/GIS Specialist, together with his/her team, and as per request may implement a number of the following:

• Conduct a rapid assessment of all social infrastructure and services for a given area;
• Analyse the population distribution & density;
• Analyse the road network accessibility and make the Rural Access Index calculation;
• Create Maps (national and county specific) reflecting the geographic location of community services facilities; population distribution & density; Rural Access Index and the road network characteristics;
• Create a service accessibility index in order to enable the analysis of access to various levels of service facilities in the selected counties
• Conduct further analysis on key indicators and produce spatial maps;
• Provide the dataset that will inform and enable the creation of an interactive mapping site which contains the information gathered through this process as well as the main access routes that reflect the referral system;
• Over-see the integration of the results of the accessibility mapping exercise into the national health database;
• Train local counterparts in data management, GIS, evidence based planning and develop a sustainable and durable programme to hand over.
• Monitoring and Progress Controls
• The Assessment and GIS Specialist will report directly to the Programme Manager.
• The Assessment and GIS Specialist will report progress of the assessment to the UNOPS project team at the end of each segment of the assignment.
• Collect all official data on health and education facilities, social services,economic activities, road networks, update available information with the local authorities – the data will be used on qGIS (an open source software for GIS).
• Work on the process of prioritizing areas within the Area/County that require interventions for a better access to services and can enhance development.
• Identify and classify all critical points encountered on the road network and all social services (Referral services, schools, water points, mosques/churches, police posts etc.).
• Analyse the accessibility to services within the Rural Access Index and analyze the actual distribution of the Community Services facilities for an Area.
• Formulate recommendations on current et future of access to Community Services Facilities.
• Produce a final report on Accessibility to Community Services facilities.
• Produce all visual representations of distribution of services/ schematic maps/ to enable better understanding of the context.
• Develop a Capacity Building program for local counterparts.

Deliverables

• Technical coordination and support of all GIS activities of the RMNCAH Accessibility Project, the KOICA accessibility project, and any other project that required GIS input.
• Creation and maintenance of reference data sets
• Planning and development of the geographic data management system, tools and processes of the projects
• Preparation of online maps for data review and analysis as well as reporting
• Production of printable maps (with ArcGIS or similar software) for M&E
• Support the preparation of presentations and reports related to GIS activities of the projects
• Supervision and oversight on the collection, compilation, or integration of external cartographic data as required for analysis or reporting needs.

Education

• Advanced degree (Master’s level or higher) in Information Management, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), computer sciences or any related area is required.
• A first-level university degree (Bachelors degree or equivalent) in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience

• A minimum of five relevant experience in implementing similar assessment project with Geomapping and Information systems and tools in a multi- faceted program is required
• Superior knowledge in understanding the Rural development, Problematic of Accessibility to services, Rural Access Index, GIS concepts is desired
• Good Knowledge Web Application Concepts, Database design principles, Graphic arts principles is deired
• Significant experience working with research institutes and universities as well as government bodies is an advantage;
• Skills in analysis/feasibility studies,Geographic Information Systems, working with local governments and environment mapping are required