Background

In Mali, despite a return to relative calm in the north, insecurity remains a concern in some areas, especially after recurrent clashes in some northern regions. The restoration of state authority, the return of refugees and IDPs and access to intervention areas remain major challenges. The situation is characterized by significant dysfunctions in the justice sector and local administration, deterioration in the security of people and property, a disintegrating relationship between citizens and state officials and worsening social tensions.

Therefore, UNDP is engaged since 2013 contributing to the transformational change in capacity-building of institutions, the State and local authorities, to improve Citizen-State relations, participation in decision-making, accountability and people’s access to public services and judicial services; It has led the reconstruction of several state administrative building in the north. It has also supported rehabilitation destroyed sites classified sites to world heritage and promotes early recovery activities.

Yet, visibility of achievement gap is still a concern for the Country office and all involved partners. Although communication, monitoring and reporting teams have maintained some efforts to provide timely accurate and updated facts and illustrations from the field, security and access are inevitable constraints that still limit their expectations.

Then, while exploring suitable solutions to address the issues of communicating and tracking change in relation to field results, the Satellite Images Mapping System for Monitoring and Communication for Results appeared to fit this purpose. This concept paper aims at presenting project rationale and objectives.

The objective of this project is to enhance overall UNDP communication, field monitoring of development changes and partnership mobilization though to implementation of a satellite imaging analysis and visualization platform. The first phase would focus in communicating and monitoring UNDP results on the reconstruction of public infrastructures as well as renovation of World Heritage Site in Northern Mali. Next phases would integrate other socio economic and environmental changes that could be visually captured resulting on UNDP and partners interventions on the field in Mali.

Duties and Responsibilities

Project Management:

• Follow UNDP ICT Project Management guidelines and processes;
• Lead the planning and implementation of the project;
• Facilitate the definition of project scope, goals and deliverables;
• Develop full scale project plans;
• Plan and schedule project timelines;
• Track project deliverables using UNDP standard tools;
• Provide direction and support to project team;
• Constantly monitor and report on progress of the project to all stakeholders;
• Project evaluations and assessment of results;
• Proper project documentation and follow-up on implementation;
• Clarify user acceptance criteria and insure the project is progressing towards it.

Business Requirement Analysis and Design:

• Meet with users to define business needs, project requirements and required outputs;
• Analyze the required time to produce the required layers, maps, mosaic satellite images…etc;
• Analyze the geo-localized collected project information;
• Analyze the required multiple layers and maps;
• Analyze spatial data for geographic statistics to incorporate into documents and reports;
• Design a framework with the required layers;
• Design a simple and easy to navigate user interfaces;
• Design and implement an initial prototype that can be easily transitioned to the final product. 

Training and Communication:

•  Present information to users;
• Frequently communicate information with UNDP Mali office, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA), and UNDP Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT) team;
• Provide training to local users on the usage of final products;
• Constantly monitor and report on progress of the project to all stakeholders.

Competencies

Core Values/ Guinding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation:

• Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

• Problem solving skills;
• Planning and organizing;
• Communication skills;
• Team work skills;
• Negotiation skills;
• Conflict management skills;
• Self-management skills;
• Knowledge sharing skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in geography, computer science, earth science, or related fields, with 2 years’ experience, bachelor’s level degree in geography, computer science, earth science or related fields, with 4 years’ experience;
• Project Management certification – PRINCE 2 is an asset.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 to 4 years’ experience in spatial information analysis and project management;
• Experience managing projects in international development or humanitarian context as well as relevant experience within the UN system is highly desirable;
• Knowledge and understanding of GIS systems and tools such as ArcGIS and any other open source GIS system;
• Conceptual analytical and evaluative skills to conduct independent research and analysis;
• Strong knowledge and experience in project management methodologies such as PRINCE2 and Agile Scrum; 
• Experience in providing excellent client/customer services;
• Ability to quickly establish and maintain effective working relations with people of different cultural backgrounds and languages. 

Language:

• Fluency in French, both oral and written, is required;
• Working knowledge of English is required.