Consultancy – Automated Information Flow and Alert Dashboard Developer, EMOPS, Istanbul, 1 month (REMOTE)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, Hope

How can you make a difference? 

Background: The EMOPS Risk Analysis and Preparedness Section (RAPS) has a mandate to improve risk analysis and forecasting related to contextual risks, at HQ, RO and CO levels. This includes developing methods and tools to support these activities. The product described above will serve UNICEF internally at CO, RO and HQ levels, and be shared with partners via the IASC Early Warning Early Action Report and Inform Warning.

Scope of Work: The objective of this consultancy is to enhance UNICEF risk monitoring capabilities through the automated aggregation of unstructured data from 20 to 25 risk analysis sources in a simple dashboard, integrated with Geosight, UNICEF geospatial dashboard.

• Requirements Analysis: Assess existing capabilities and requirements for integrating with Geosight.
• Data Pipeline Development
  • Data Source Identification and Access: Determine the appropriate method of accessing each data source, such as APIs, web scraping scripts, or existing data feeds.Set up secure access credentials and authentication methods for each source.
  • Data Extraction Methodology: Use Python-based scripts or automation tools to extract data via APIs or web scraping. Determine extraction schedules (e.g., hourly, daily) to ensure data is up-to-date.
  • Data Transformation and Cleaning: Clean and preprocess the extracted data to make it suitable for analysis (e.g., removing duplicates, standardizing formats).
  • Data Storage Setup: Choose an appropriate database to store cleaned and processed data, such as a SQL or NoSQL database. Set up data storage that integrates well with both the dashboard and Geosight for seamless data flow.
  • Data Validation and Quality Assurance: Implement validation scripts to ensure data consistency, accuracy, and completeness.
• Dashboard Development
  • Data Connection: Connect the cleaned data from the storage system to a the PowerBI tool. Ensure real-time or near-real-time updates from the data storage to the dashboard.

Integration with Geosight: Ensure the data from the newly developed dashboard is integrated with Geosight using relevant APIs or data connectors.

Tasks/Milestone:	Deliverables/Outputs:	Timeline
Requirements Analysis & Data Source Identification	Report on existing capabilities, integration requirements, data source inventory	Week 1
Data Pipeline Development – Extraction & Access Setup	Python scripts for data extraction, extraction schedule, secure access credentials	Week 2
Data Transformation & Storage Setup	Preprocessed, cleaned data, database setup (SQL/NoSQL)	Week 3
Data Validation, Quality Assurance, & Data Connection	Validation scripts, quality assurance report, data connection between storage and PowerBI	Week 4-5
Dashboard Development – Visualization & Geosight Integration	Functional dashboard, integrated with Geosight, and feedback-based iterations	Week 6

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Computer Science, Information Technology or related.
• At least five years of experience in Geospatial Data Collection, Analysis, Process Automation and Visualization.
• Proven experience in delivering technical solution development to support analysis processes.
• Experience with Python, SQL, R and PowerBI required. Knowledge of GIS related coding, such as ArcPy.
• Experience in using APIs to access and integrate relevant external data sources.
• Proficiency in using data scraping tools and libraries such as BeautifulSoup, Scrapy, or Selenium to extract data from various online sources, including websites, news portals and forums, required.
• Knowledge of text mining techniques to process and analyze unstructured textual data obtained through scraping.
• Experience required in web mapping, geospatial web applications, and dashboard development, including proficiency in interactive map visualizations, data integration, and design of user-friendly interfaces.
• Experience collaborating with web developers, engineers and non-technical staff.
• Strong knowledge of data analysis and visualization tools.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work remotely, with personal equipment/software.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.

How to apply:

• Interested applicants are required to submit a financial proposal with an all-inclusive fee.  Please see the financial proposal template here: Consultancy Financial Offer template.docx
• Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance
• Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered.

 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.