Web and Information Technology Expert at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Result of Service

• An audit report highlighting the different system platforms (website, CHM, Community of Practice, WIO-Symphony) and the recommended Virtual cloud web service.
• Live, functional different system platforms (website, CHM, Community of Practice, WIO-Symphony, seafloor mapping) with an audit report highlighting the status of the platforms on the virtual cloud web service.
• Functional and updated Clearinghouse Mechanism dashboard with interlinked search capability to the other system platforms and interactive forum pages developed.
• Data, maps, web content, and visualization developed by SAPPHIRE and related projects uploaded on the CHM platform with Search Engine Optimization enhanced to capture the changes in the web content and accelerated search capabilities.
• User guidelines that outline how to maintain and update the web pages and the visualization platforms.

Duties and Responsibilities

• 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. UNEP hosts the Nairobi Convention secretariat for the Protection, Management and Development of Coastal and Marine Environment of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO). The Contracting Parties to the Convention are Comoros, France (Reunion), Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa and United Republic of Tanzania. The Convention offers a legal framework, a forum for intergovernmental discussions and coordinates the efforts of its contracting parties in the protection, management, and development of their coastal and marine environment.
• As part of the work programme 2022-2024 of the Convention, the Nairobi Convention secretariat is executing two projects relevant to this consultancy, namely i) the GEF funded “Western Indian Ocean Large Marine Ecosystems Strategic Action Programme Policy Harmonization and Institutional Reforms (SAPPHIRE). The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – Regional Service Centre for Africa is the implementing agency of the SAPPHIRE project providing oversight in the execution of the project. The main objective of the SAPPHIRE project is to achieve effective long-term ecosystem management in the WIO Large Marine Ecosystems in line with the Strategic Action Programme for sustainable management of the WIO Large Marine Ecosystems as endorsed by the participating countries. ii) The Partnership Project between the Nairobi Convention (NC) and the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) for coastal governance and fisheries management for sustainable blue growth (NC-SWIOFC PP). The partnership project is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and jointly implemented by the FAO/SWIOFC and the Nairobi Convention secretariat at UNEP. The project seeks to enhance the resilience of livelihoods based on Western Indian Ocean marine and coastal ecosystem and habitats, to promote sustainable management of coastal fisheries using the ecosystem approach to fisheries, and to enhance coordination between fisheries and environmental management institutions at national and regional level.
• The Nairobi Convention Secretariat requires the services of a database development expert with experience in data, knowledge and information technology to revamp the Convention’s clearinghouse mechanism to improve its performance and reliability. The activity will contribute to delivery of the SAPPHIRE project Outcome 1.1, Deliverable 1.1.5 which focusses on implementation of the priority national requirements for strengthening and improving national legislation, policy and institutional arrangements in line with the intentions of the LME SAP and to support the ecosystem-based approach, including national commitments to regional and global Agreements, Conventions and Protocols, as well as Output 1.4, Activity 1.4.5 of the NC-SWIOFC PP which seeks to support knowledge, analysis and networking for the sharing of information on successful adaptation through networks, partnerships, knowledge products and knowledge sharing events, and platforms in the Western Indian Ocean.

Objective of the Consultancy

• The objective of the consultancy is to improve the Nairobi Convention clearinghouse mechanism interoperability, migrate, collate and upload data and information generated by partners implementing demonstration projects and from other relevant platforms.
• The position will be home-based with occasional visits to the Nairobi Convention Secretariat office to liaise with project coordination units and other stakeholders as appropriate. In executing the consultancy, the consultant will work closely with the Nairobi Convention Secretariat team and other designated officials and partners in the Western Indian Ocean region, as deemed appropriate and necessary.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities:
Under the overall supervision of the Head of the Nairobi Convention Secretariat and in close coordination with the project managers of the SAPPHIRE and the NC-SWIOFC PP projects, the consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Perform production audit of the different platforms (website, Clearing House Mechanism (CHM), Community of Practice, WIO-Symphony) and recommend a dedicated virtual private cloud web server, to be procured by the Convention.
• Migrate the different web platforms (website, CHM, Community of Practice, WIO-Symphony) to the Virtual web server and perform system upgrades to enable the platforms to be up to date with the latest technology standards to increase their performance and reliability.
• Upgrade and structure the CHM with a dashboard of data visualizations such as the ArcGIS Online and the data categorization by country (under the major themes of ocean governance as addressed by the SAPPHIRE project and the Partnership Project demo activities) and ensure that the visualizations are interlinked and easily accessible from the Clearinghouse Mechanism platform. Develop secure forum pages based on topical issues such as Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Regional Ocean Governance, where the users of the platform can interact with the content by giving their comments or feedback to enhance the Science to Policy within the Western Indian Ocean Region.
• Liaise with implementing partners to migrate data and information from demonstration projects to the CHM and upgrade the country pages with all the relevant data categorized. Structure the visualization relevant to each of the countries to include an online atlas and ensure that the information is easily accessible.
• Standardize and optimize the search capability of the CHM so that all the linked platforms are searchable.
• Integrate the partner-developed platforms and create APIs to increase the visibility and searchability of the CHM.
• Migrate data and information from SAPPHIRE project demo projects to the CHM.
• Develop a dashboard for SAPPHIRE demo projects and activities. Similarly, for each of the Nairobi Convention projects, create a dashboard of project outputs.
• Update the user and technical manuals to incorporate the changes that have been undertaken on the clearinghouse platform.

Qualifications/special skills

• A University degree is required in computer science, information technology, website design and programming or related field is required.
• Minimum of 7 years of professional experience in implementing interactive web-based database applications supporting dynamic online updating of content is required.
• Experience relevant programming, image manipulation tools and web tools such as HTML/XML/ASP/ASP.NET/CSS coding, Drupal, Adobe Designer, Adobe Photoshop, and ArcGIS is required.
• Experience in enabling metadata interoperability standards on both spatial and non-spatial data is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position fluency in oral and written English is required