Consultancy – Climate Data consultant, Climate and Environment Unit, Data Team, DAPM NYHQ/Florence (remote-based)

Consultancy Title: Climate Data Consultant 

Section/Division: Climate and Environment Data Unit, Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring, NYHQ/Florence (remote-based)

Duration:  01 September 2024 – 31 December 2024 (4 months)

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

Background

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

Disasters, climate change, and environmental degradation present significant and escalating threats to the well-being of children globally. To protect the lives, health and well-being of children and the resilience of their communities to adapt essential social services to a changing climate, more frequent/extreme disasters and a degrading environment, comprehensive child-centred risk assessment along with data systems and policies that work across development and disaster management to identify and prioritize the most vulnerable children and services are needed. This data can be used to inform multiple purposes: disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, preparedness planning, and wider development agendas.

UNICEF is seeking a dedicated, proactive consultant to work closely with UNICEF Data and Analytics (DAPM) to support the development of the core data processing pipeline for the Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) within the Climate and Environment Data Unit including but not limited to collecting, managing and processing data from various global sources. This pipeline will leverage existing computing resources and cloud-based climate and environmental data to build a comprehensive database of climate risk indicators. Additionally, the consultant will conduct ad hoc analyses of climate and environmental data, as needed.

Scope of Work:

Under the supervision and guidance of the Climate & Environment Data Science Specialist, the incumbent will have the following duties and responsibilities:

• Support the selection process for indicators and reliable data sources to be included in the global Climate and Environment Database.
• Understand the existing data processing framework within the unit and support the development of future processes.
• Support the lead data science specialist in developing and/or adapting existing data codes to process various climate and environmental datasets.
• Support analysis of processed data, as and when needed.
• Work in close collaboration with the Statistics and Monitoring Manager and the Data Science Specialist to document and support with the knowledge management of existing and new processes.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

Task 1: 

Support the development of a dictionary of climate indicators and best available data sources to build a global climate and environment database and conduct a desk review of raster data management and processing platforms.

Deliverables: Report (document, excel, or any other relevant format) on potential data sources and possible platforms to be considered for data processing, storage and visualization.

Timeline: 15 September 2024

Task 2: 

Support the design and development of core climate and environment data pipeline to ingest data from diverse sources relevant to climate change and environmental degradation, including the architecture design. Support to develop a data transformation process to ensure consistency, quality, and usability within CCRI.

Deliverables: Core data pipeline and data transformation architecture diagram and prototype

Timeline: 15 October 2024

Task 3: 

Support in the identification of platform-agnostic integration of results including but not limited to UNICEF Geosights, UNICEF Data Warehouse and ArcGIS Online.

Deliverables: A summary report and a prototype on data visualization with improved user accessibility,  including advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Timeline:  30 October 2024

Task 4: 

Develop detailed documentation of the data pipeline architecture, processes and user manuals for future maintenance and development.

Deliverables: Relevant documentation on data pipeline, analytical process and others, as needed

Timeline:  15 November 2024

Task 5: 

Collaborate with UNICEF climate and data environment leads to analyze and provide insights on the current and proposed aggregation methods for CCRI.

Deliverables: Ad-hoc on-demand support to analysis provided, as requested.

Timeline: 15 December 2024

Qualifications

Education

• Masters in computer science, data science, geospatial technology, or any other related discipline
• Knowledge on machine learning and predictive analysis in climate change domain is a plus.

Work experience

• Demonstrated 2-3 years of expertise with geospatial analysis is required.
• Experience using python and geospatial packages including an ability to code and work independently investigating and resolving program bugs is required.
• Experience in python-based Google Earth Engine programming is required.
• Knowledge and understanding of key issues and modeling challenges for climate and environmental data.

Competencies

• Strong interpersonal skills with internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent excel data management skills.
• Knowledge of climate, environment, and disaster risk reduction concepts and frameworks is an asset.
• Familiarity with analytical frameworks and approaches to children and young people’s rights, gender, and inclusion is an asset.
• Fluent in spoken and written English. Additional official UN working languages are a plus.

Requirements: 

• Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system
• Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• the costs per each deliverable and the total all-inclusive (lump-sum) fees for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

Health Insurance:

The Consultant is fully responsible for arranging at their own expense, such as life, health, and other forms of insurance covering the term of the Contract as he or she considers appropriate.  The Consultant is not eligible to participate in the life or health insurance schemes available to UNICEF and United Nations staff members.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit  here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks: 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.