Consultancy Title: GIS Analyst

To assist/support the regional office in collecting, managing and analyzing the cold chain inventory, district coverage and measles outbreak data using the new tools such as Arc GIS and power BI for better visualization of the data.

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.

LOCATION/DURATION:

Duration: Six months

Location: Six months consultancy over the period of 11.5 months

On-site working days: Six months

Off-site working days: No

Field Missions/Travel: No

Estimated Start Date: Oct 8 2017

Estimated end Date: Sep 23 2018

BACKGROUND:

Immunization is among the most successful, most equitable and most cost-effective public health interventions reaching four out of five children globally. UNICEF's work with governments, partners and communities aims at increasing demand for immunization and establishing better cold chain and logistic systems; design approaches to Reach the Unreached; The rising cost of vaccines and the greater storage capacity now required at every level of the cold chain, needs a consistently high standard of supply chain management including in emergency situation.

The MENA region is facing the expansion and evolution of immunization programs. The situation in countries, affected by conflict, is requiring significant operational and structural change to achieve better performance. Results from effective vaccine management (EVM) assessments in the regions also show bottlenecks in the immunization supply chain systems. Until these supply chains are improved, there will be an increasing threat for coverage, equity, and cost-effectiveness of immunization programs. Beyond that, it will jeopardize the implementation of high impact Maternal New Born and Child Health programs. UNICEF will support countries in achieving national immunization goals, with an increased focus on strengthening immunization supply chain aligned with the priorities of the EVM assessment and improvement plan. The objectives of a strong immunization supply chain system is to ensure that potent vaccines are available and that resources are used efficiently. 

In 2015 UNICEF supported GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, to establish and operationalize the Cold Chain Optimization Platform. The platform will support countries to ensure adequate cold chain capacity at subnational level and to accelerate the deployment of higher-performing technologies with lower operating costs and lower total costs of ownership. This will positively impact the availability of vaccines and the quality. For the countries in the region this is an opportunity to help overcome gaps in their cold chain system as identified in their EVM.

Globally moreover, 26 countries reported no change in coverage levels and 25 countries reported a net decrease in coverage since 2010. Strong inequities are hidden behind global and national figures of vaccination coverage. These are associated with differences in urban/rural place of residence, wealth and education status, gender and remoteness. As a result, critical insights that could be made possible through the use of geospatial data analytics are missed, for instance, to answer questions such as: What percent of the population does not currently have access to immunization services/assets, where is this population located? How many health facilities are needed and where should they be located to optimize geographic accessibility to immunization services? Where should outreach services take place? Which geographic areas or populations suffer from low immunization coverage and why?

Considering the availability of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) through the cold chain inventory data with the countries in MENA region, use of geospatial technologies and other data visualization technique such as Power BI would bring more concreate answer to the above mentioned questions. Therefore in consultation with HQ team it has been decided to support the countries in MENA region on more detail analysis of cold chain inventory and coverage data to see and visualize the link in-between the cold chain equipment with equitable coverage to identify the gaps, and to improve the cold chain and vaccine management system to improve the coverage.

We have the cold chain inventory and the facility assessment data of Sudan and part of Iraq (Mosul). Geospatial analysis will be done using these data with the coverage and measles outbreak data. The cold chain inventory and the facility assessment will be conducted in Syria, Yemen, Tunisia and Djibouti in coming months using the mobile tool. This will allow us to do more comprehensive detail analysis of cold chain inventory data to identify the gaps and to see the relationship between the supply and coverage in immunization.

OBJECTIVE:

To assist/support the regional office in collecting, managing and analyzing the cold chain inventory, district coverage and measles outbreak data using the new tools such as Arc GIS and power BI for better visualization of the data.

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT:

• Support in cleaning the cold chain inventory data which have been collected using mobile tool from the countries.
• Upload the cold chain inventory data in the WHO excel based cold chain gap analysis tool to do the cold chain gap analysis, cold chain rehabilitation and expansion plan.
• Support cleaning and preparing the district immunization coverage and outbreak information to make the detail geospatial analysis.
• Support and guide to collect RI Measles SIA data from the field (UNICEF and MoH partner) and update in the data base.
• Support to create and document country based database tables, and share cleaned data, prepare and update data matrix, and reports through power BI dashboards and Geospatial mapping.
• Training the country office focal persons on updating the data visualization dashboard (Power BI and making their own dashboards using internal data.

KEY DELIVERABLES:

1. Generate geospatial mapping using cold chain inventory, district level coverage and measles outbreak data with other standard geospatial variables.
2. Prepare the data visualization dashboard using Power BI and share with countries.

TRAVEL CONSIDERATIONS (PLEASE CHECK IF APPLICABLE):

Commencement travel (consultant's cost)

For individual contractors and consultants, all travel arrangements to commence the assignment, including insurance and visas, will be managed and paid by the individual. Therefore, expected travel costs must be included as a budget item in the financial proposal. Should "mission travel" be required, UNICEF will manage and pay for travel via Travel Authorization. However, this will be subject to the following prerequisites: Medical Clearance, Security Clearance through the Travel Request Information Process (TRIP) system, the Basic and Advanced Security in the Field Trainings, Travel Visa, and liability waiver. Trip prerequisites will be met at the expense of the consultant.

Travel cost shall be calculated based on economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel.  Costs for accommodation, meals and incidentals shall not exceed applicable daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rates, as promulgated by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC at http://icsc.un.org).  The consultant must travel on UNICEF approved airlines.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:

1. Education: University degree and certificate in Arc GIS and certificate in Power BI will be preferred.
2. Work experience: 1 - 2 years experiences (national/international) in the relevant field
3. Technical knowledge: Professional experience in a relevant field with a good knowledge of procedures and practices of an organization in the UN system.
4. Language: Oral and written proficiency in English is required, French and Arabic is considered as an asset
5. Other relevant skills - Prior working experience in Middle East is an advantage.

Payment Schedule:

12. PROPOSED PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Proposed methodology: Monthly

Lump sum payment will be made monthly based on the number of days he or she worked during that particular month on the specified deliverable. It will be inclusive of all professional fees, daily allowances, living allowances, and other administrative costs. Overtime, weekend and official holidays will not be compensated, nor will any holiday/leave time be granted.

EVALUATION PROCESS:

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter/application.
2. Financial quote as lump sum for professional fees, and lump sum for travel/administrative/subsistence, if applicable.
3. CV.
4. Examples of previous, relevant work as applicable
5. Proposed methodology/approach to managing the project.
6. At least 2 Referees
7. P 11 form (which can be downloaded from our website at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.html ).

Late submissions, incomplete packets, or submissions with an incorrect email subject heading will not be considered.

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable).  Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.