Search Development Consultant at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

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.

Closing: 19 August 2022