National consultant to develop a digital map of enumeration area framework for Viet Nam's household surveys and MICS.
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National consultant to provide technical support to the National Statistics Office of Viet Nam on the development of a digital enumeration area framework - to support MICS and future household surveys.
Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
The Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) programme is UNICEF's international household survey programme designed to collect high-quality data on the situation of children, women, and households. In preparation for the next MICS in Viet Nam, the National Statistics Office (NSO) of Viet Nam expressed interest in transitioning from paper-based management of Enumeration Areas (EAs) to a digital geospatial framework to support MICS and future household surveys.
Viet Nam conducted its most recent Population and Housing Census in 2019. Census cartography was primarily paper based. The NSO is interested in developing a national digital geospatial database of Enumeration Areas that can serve as a permanent geographic reference framework for survey and census operations. Such a framework would support sample design, sample selection, household listing, fieldwork management, weighting, dissemination, and future statistical activities. The development of a digital master sample EA framework requires the assessment, preparation, and integration of multiple geospatial datasets, including administrative boundaries, structure coordinates, population estimates, building footprints, roads, waterways, and other geographic features. In addition, the resulting framework should provide standardised metadata for each EA, including population estimates, household counts, administrative identifiers, and urbanisation classifications.
The purpose of this assignment is to support the NSO of Viet Nam in developing a national digital geospatial EA framework for MICS and other household surveys while strengthening national capacity for its maintenance, updating and future use.
UNICEF, in collaboration with the NSO, will recruit a team of an international consultant and a national consultant to undertake this assignment. This TOR is for national consultant.
The two consultants will operate as an integrated technical team. The international consultant will lead methodological design, comparative analytical standards, advanced programming, quality specifications and training design. The national consultant will lead or support national data access, liaison, contextual interpretation, data preparation, local implementation, testing, production processing, validation, exception review, documentation and hands-on knowledge transfer. The national consultant needs to have access to and participate in the development and execution of all relevant open-source code and should not be limited to logistical or clerical support.
Scope of work:
Under the supervision of UNICEF and in close collaboration with the NSO of Viet Nam, the national consultant will undertake the following activities:
A. Support for methodology development, pilot testing, data preparation and management
- Lead day-to-day liaison with relevant NSO units to access, clarify and organise required geospatial and statistical datasets.
- Document data custodians, versions, formats, coordinate systems, coverage, update dates, access constraints and known limitations.
- Work jointly with the international consultant, develop and maintain a structured geospatial database and file management system for the project.
- Conduct and document checks for completeness, positional and attribute consistency, coding, duplication, missing values, geometry validity, topology and temporal compatibility.
- Clean, harmonise and prepare datasets through open-source workflows, executing and where appropriate adapting fully commented R and/or Python scripts.
- Maintain the project database, open-format files, folder structure, data dictionary, processing log, parameter files and version records, documenting all manual interventions and exceptions.
- Implement the pilot EA delineation workflow in the communes approved by NSO; execute the international consultant’s scripts and parameter configurations; conduct contextual and operational checks; prepare maps and diagnostics; document exceptions and recommended modifications; and support NSO review and acceptance of the pilot results.
B. GIS processing and support to EA delineation
- Support the processing and integration of administrative boundaries, structure coordinates, road networks, waterways, building footprints, population datasets, and other relevant spatial layers. Assist in the application and testing of delineation procedures developed by the international consultant.
- Execute, test and document the R and/or Python scripts.
- Contribute national knowledge to thresholds, administrative constraints, physical barriers, accessibility, urban/rural treatment, islands, fragmented territories and justified exceptions.
- Prepare maps, statistics and diagnostics, assess operational plausibility, and document method-specific errors, parameter sensitivity and areas requiring contextual review.
- Implement production workflow and maintain metadata, method and parameter records, quality flags, exception flags and urbanisation classifications using open-source tools and fully commented code.
C. Validation and quality assurance
- Execute automated quality-control routines developed jointly with the international consultant using fully commented R and/or Python code.
- Check boundaries, metadata and supporting layers for geometry errors, gaps, overlaps, slivers, non-contiguity, administrative violations, duplicate or missing identifiers, missing attributes and threshold deviations.
- Review automated results against national geographic knowledge, identify false positives and context-specific exceptions, and prepare method-comparison QA tables and maps.
- Coordinate validation sessions, maintain comments, decision and exception logs, revise assigned datasets and parameters, verify reproducibility, and support final acceptance checks.
D. Capacity building and workshop support
- Jointly develop a comprehensive competency-based five-day training programme for NSO staff and adapt examples and exercises to Viet Nam’s institutional, geographic and data context.
- Prepare and test training datasets, open-source environments, fully commented R and/or Python scripts, practical exercises, expected outputs and troubleshooting guidance.
- Co-deliver technical sessions and provide hands-on support while participants run, inspect, modify and troubleshoot the five or more approaches and the selected or hybrid workflow.
- Support assessments, record questions and capacity gaps, identify potential technical focal points or internal trainers, and organise editable materials for continued NSO use.
E. Documentation and reporting
- Maintain detailed records of national data sources, preparation steps, parameters, processing runs, validation comments, exceptions, decisions and revisions.
- Contribute substantive national-context sections to the comparative methodology report and prepare maps, comparison outputs, QA summaries, decision logs and technical annexes.
- Review and test README files, data dictionaries, execution instructions, environment specifications and troubleshooting guidance for usability by NSO staff.
- Document national arrangements for ownership, approval, updating, versioning, code custody, maintenance and training, and support final open-source handover and reproducibility verification.
Conditions for the work:
In compliance with Viet Nam’s Personal Data Protection Law, Law on Statistics and all data security, confidentiality, and information management requirements, the consultant team are not provided with data when outside the country or not in NSO’s premises. They can only access the data while working physically on NSO’s premises.
All access, storage, processing and transfer of data shall follow applicable national laws, NSO security requirements and UNICEF data-protection requirements. Source data shall not be copied, transmitted, stored, or accessed outside authorised NSO systems or premises without prior written authorisation.
The international and national consultants will be recruited by UNICEF in close coordination with NSO. Day-to-day management will be performed by the UNICEF Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. NSO will designate technical and managerial focal points; facilitate secure, authorised access to agreed datasets and relevant documentation; clarify data definitions and national standards; identify and approve pilot locations; participate in methodology review, validation and training; consolidate technical comments from relevant NSO units; and provide documented acceptance or revision requests for each deliverable.
The international and national consultants will work as an integrated technical team with designated NSO technical staff as focal points. The national consultant will have substantive responsibilities for national data access, contextual analysis, open-source processing, local validation, documentation, training support and institutional handover. The international consultant will lead the overall methodological architecture, advanced programming, quality framework and training design. A coordinated workplan shall allocate complementary responsibilities across the international-consultant days and national-consultant days and avoid duplicative production.
If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete TOR here: 
TOR_GIS national_consultant_final.pdf
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum requirements:
Education:
Master's degree in Geography, GIS, Geoinformatics, Geomatics, Cartography, Statistics, Demography, Spatial Data Science, Computer Science, or related fields.
Work Experience:
+ At least 10 years of professional experience in GIS, geospatial analysis, cartography, or spatial data management.
+ Experience working with government geospatial datasets and administrative boundary data in Viet Nam.
+ Experience using GIS software for spatial analysis, database management, and map production.
+ Experience supporting census, survey, statistical, land administration, or planning activities is desirable.
+ Experience working with national statistical offices, government agencies, development partners, or research institutions is an asset.
+ Experience supporting GIS training, technical workshops, or capacity-building activities is desirable.
Language Requirements:
+ Fluency in Vietnamese.
+ Good written and spoken English.
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills:
+ Proficiency in QGIS and R and/or Python for geospatial processing; familiarity with spatial SQL/PostGIS is desirable. Ability to execute, inspect, troubleshoot and make documented adaptations to reproducible geospatial workflows is required.
+ Good skills in geospatial data cleaning, integration, management, and validation.
+ Working knowledge of spatial databases and GIS file management.
+ Familiarity with administrative boundary datasets, transport networks, hydrographic datasets, demographic data, and census-related datasets.
+ Experience producing GIS maps, technical documentation, and metadata.
+ Ability to work collaboratively with government counterparts and international technical experts.
+ Strong ability to document data sources, parameters, processing decisions, validation comments, exceptions and reproducibility procedures.
Submission of applications:
a. Updated CV/Resume;
b. 03 references including at least one from a past supervisor;
c. A technical proposal (less than 10 pages) which clearly explains the outline on how to deliver the tasks and deliverables and demonstrates candidate’s knowledge and expertise relevant to this topic. At least a sample of R or Python geospatial code, technical documentation, data-quality work, maps or comparable non-confidential products demonstrating the candidate’s practical contribution.
e. Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee and any other relevant costs for this assignment as attached Financial Proposal.docx.
For every Child, you demonstrate...
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The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…
(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others
Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.
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Remarks:
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