Background
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UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
Project Description
INFORM is a multi-stakeholder initiative for developing open-source, quantitative analysis to support climate adaptation, disaster and crisis prevention, preparedness and response. INFORM partnership brings together development, humanitarian and other actors to manage risk and better respond to crisis when they do occur. OCHA is a coordinator of INFORM partnership.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the technical and scientific lead of INFORM and has led the methodologies development for all INFORM tools. JRC has a portfolio of risk assessment, enhanced situational awareness and early warning projects covering technological, man-made and natural disasters. Under the Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC) the JRC is developing a system for storing hazard, exposure, vulnerability and coping capacity data for all types of disasters and collecting knowledge for different phases of disaster risk management. Within this environment, JRC is responsible for the continuous methodological improvements of the operational INFORM tools. To further support the needs of INFORM’s partners from humanitarian and development community, JRC will be offering additional technical and scientific support through the development of new INFORM features and related products.
The selected candidate will work in the INFORM development team at the JRC to develop the INFORM Warning methodology to meet the needs of the humanitarian community. INFORM Partners indicate there is a clear need for open, aggregated, multi-hazard early warning information that is easy to use for decision-making.
INFORM Warning is an ambitious project that will need to integrate scientific/methodological aspects of risk assessment and early warning concepts with system development. The scoping phase has identified the main elements of INFORM Warning which will have to be further refined and designed to be introduced in development and implementation process of the product. The next phase is to develop scientifically sound methodology that will aggregate reliable, quantified, multi-hazard information, risk trends, forecasts, scenarios that warn about events that could lead to crisis impacts in the next 12 months. The new product will create an additional level of analysis that describes the changes of risk at country level over time, as well as elements of specific scenarios that could lead to crises and basic information about the main drivers of risk and the timing, level and type of impacts.
The consultant will be involved in the development and implementation of INFORM Warning from conceptual, methodological, modelling, data processing to result interpretation level. The results of the work will be presented in the form of technical reports and scientific papers, collection of harmonized datasets, causal relation machine learning modelling, early warning risk models.
Duties and Responsibilities
The selected candidate will be expected to contribute to the development of INFORM Warning and be strongly involved in its implementation which encompass the development of innovative early warning risk assessment models for compound and/or cascading hazards and impacts on population.
This work is expected to contribute to the following:
- Develop and cultivate strategic relationships with other technical experts engaged in advanced analytics and keep up to date with and advise on new methodologies in the field.
- Build relationships with key thinkers and practitioners in the academic / research and implementing organization communities
- Application of exisiting scientific research and undertaking new research to develop a methodology for providing early warnings for humanitarian crises using quantitative methods.
- Develop innovative methodological approaches and working with other scientific experts and specialised teams.
- Specifically, develop a methodological framework for the Risk Monitor that links in a consistent way dynamic risk information and early warnings with risk trends, forecasts, scenarios and events that could lead to crisis in a short to medium term:
- collect and model climate related forecasts and their potential impact data as a input for the causal loops
- investigate crisis type-country dependent vulnerabilities
- The analysis that will provide more refined inputs for early warning processes in the form of warnings and alerts consisting of:
- perform a trend analysis for various climate variables in order to identify potential anomalies that could fit in early warning assessment as primary signals
- model exposure and vulnerability to certain climate hazards (e.g. floods and droughts) as the core part of the early warning risk assessment
- explore ways to model causal relations between various climatic signals and their potential humanitarian impacts applying the knowledge on vulnerability drivers
- help with translating the potential anomalies from risk monitor into an aggregated measure that could serve as an anticipatory metric
This work will involve following responsibilities:
- Liaseing at strategic level with implementing partners on methodology and software development.
- Attend and help lead on project meetings, including joining missions, to discuss concept and methodology, as well as present the results to users and partners of INFORM
- Collect, pre-process, and harmonize diverse datasets, with a focus on humanitarian, weather, and climate data
- Develop and implement machine learning and deep learning models using Python and libraries such as sklearn, Keras, TensorFlow, or PyTorch
- Create and deploy early warning systems for climate-related events
- Visualize and interpret complex data, providing actionable insights for our team and stakeholders
- Preparation of technical documentation, evaluation and reporting
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
4. Institutional Arrangement
The advertised position is to be funded by CRAF’d[1] and ECHO. UNDP, as the project lead of INFORM Warning and receiver of the CRAF’d and ECHO (European Commission) funding, will contract his position. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission in Ispra, Italy will host the selected candidate.
Required Skills and Experience
| Min. Academic Education | Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Computer Science, Data Science, Physics, Atmospheric and Climate Science, Earth System Science, Environmental engineer or a related field is required, or A first-level university degree (Bachelor´s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with 2 additional years of qualifying experience, will be given due consideration in lieu of Master´s degree. |
| Min. years of relevant Work experience | Minimum five years (with Master´s degree) or seven years (with Bachelor’s degree) of proven experience as a Data Scientist or similar role, with a focus on disaster risk assessment under a perspective of seasonal to decadal time horizon, crisis management and climate change impacts modelling |
| Required skills and competencies | - Strong programming skills: proficiency in Python and familiarity with libraries such as sklearn, pandas, and numpy
- Solid understanding of machine learning and deep learning concepts: experience with deep learning libraries such as Keras, TensorFlow, or PyTorch
- Familiarity with geospatial data and tools such as GeoPandas, ArcGIS, or QGIS
- Strong ability to interpret and visualize data using appropriate tools and libraries
- Excellent problem-solving skills and creative thinking.
- Proven experience in report writing to disseminate key data and findings to non-technical audiences
- Excellent time management and communication skills
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a multi-disciplinary environment
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| Desired additional skills and competencies | - Experience in data collection, preprocessing, and harmonization, particularly in relation to humanitarian data.
- Experience in socio-economic vulnerability and vulnerable groups in humanitarian context, knowledge on multi-sectoral needs assessment would be a great asset.
- Experience in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation initiatives
- Experience in building early warning systems, particularly for climate-related events.
- Knowledge of explainable AI and/or causal discovery, cause-effect estimation and causal inference approaches is a plus
- PhD in a related field preferred
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| Required Language(s) (at working level) | Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN language is desirable. |
Disclaimer
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UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.
Applicant information about UNDP rosters
Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.
Non-discrimination
UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.
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