Background

United Nations Secretary-General on Big Data. Its vision is a future in which big data is harnessed safely and responsibly as a public good. Its mission is to accelerate discovery, development and scaled adoption of big data innovation for sustainable development and humanitarian action. UN Global Pulse is building a catalytic network of in-country innovation centres, which will test new tools, data and analysis, share what lessons with the global community, mainstream successful approaches for real-time impact monitoring into policymaking. The first Lab has been established in New York (Pulse Lab New York) followed by Jakarta, Indonesia and Kampala, Uganda.                                                                                                                                                                       

Pulse Lab Kampala (http://www.unglobalpulse.org/kampala) is an inter-agency initiative of the United Nations in Uganda. The first of its kind in Africa, it brings together researchers from Government, the UN, non-governmental organizations and private sector to explore the utility of new sources of digital “Big Data” (such as social media, mobile data, online information) and real-time analysis techniques for social development monitoring and program planning.

A data revolution is underway in Uganda and in Africa. There is more data now than ever. New technologies are leading to an exponential increase in the volume and types of data available, creating unprecedented possibilities for informing and transforming society and protecting the environment. There is more data produced in the last 2 years than in all of human history. There is a tremendous potential in new technology; indeed, this is the forefront of the data revolution already well underway in in the private sector.  The new SDGs agenda will have increased demands – and opportunities- for the use of data. Pulse Lab Kampala supports the UN Country team to tap into the revolution obtaining more and better data to support development work and humanitarian action supporting: 

  • Enhance Early Warning: Detection of anomalous trends and patterns of events enables early warning of emerging crises and earlier responses to prevent long-term harm;
  • Real-Time Awareness:  An up-to-date picture of trends, hotspots and dynamic changes in population behaviour enhances programme planning and monitoring of implementation and;
  • Rapid Impact Monitoring and Evaluation: Timely feedback on the impact of programmes and policies allows for adaptive course correction and accelerated achievement of results.
Duties and Responsibilities

Under the leadership of UN Global Pulse, Pulse Lab Kampala will develop experimental technology packages for different African languages. Under the guidance of the Programme Analyst at Pulse Lab Kampala, the role of the language’s expert is to support developing language tools.

Methodology;

  • The consultant is expected to work in close consultation with the team at Pulse Lab Kampala, UN Global Pulse and partners;
  • Copyright and ownership - all materials produced and other intellectual property will be solely owned by Pulse Lab Kampala. Any material provided to the expert will remain the property of Pulse Lab Kampala.

Expected deliverables:

  • Technical inputs provided attending a 3-day workshop;
  • Translate 680 English words to Fulani:
  • Proofread a text of 330,000 words and correct spelling;
  • Provide a text corpus in Maasina Fulani of 200 000 word tokens. The text corpus should consist of sources of modern Maasina Fulani from sources as for example newspapers, blogs, debates… etc.
  • Provide a word list for Fulani of at least 10,000 words.
Competencies
  • Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals;
  • Generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
  • Demonstrates substantive and technical knowledge to meet responsibilities and post requirements with excellence;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view.
  • Excellent communication skills;
  • Produces timely, quality outputs.
Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Ph.D in linguistics.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 3 years of research in Fulani.

Language Requirements:

  • Proficient knowledge of Maasina Fulani;
  • Working knowledge of English;
  • Knowledge of Dogon languages is an advantage. 

Duration:

The contract will be effective from date of signing and will have a duration of 6 months on a need basis.

Working arrangements:

Institutional Arrangements:

  • The consultant will report to the Programme Analyst on a regular basis on the progress in line with the set deliverables of the assignment;
  • The consultant will liaise, interact, collaborate/meet staff at Pulse Lab Kampala, UN Global Pulse and partners;
  • UNDP (Pulse Lab Kampala) and UN Global Pulse (New York) will support the consultant in the following:
  • Access to all reports and data relevant to the assignment. These will include donor reports, project documents and donor reports;
  • Support and assistance to gain access to relevant stakeholders for consultations to the extent possible

Duty station:

  • Home based.

Evaluation method and criteria:

Individual Consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative Analysis methodology. The ranking of the consultant shall be made based on proposals that are;

  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
  • Having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria and financial criteria as per below weightages (technical-financial): 70%-30%.

Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.
Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points).

Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Education: PHD – Maximum 20 points;
  • Years of working experience - Maximum 20 points
  • Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation (30%).

Payment:

  • Services will be paid for upon completion of specific milestones as agreed in the TOR.

Submission of Application:

The candidate is required to submit an electronic application directly uploaded on the UNDP jobs website with all the requirements as listed here below. Annexes and further information may be downloaded on http://procurement-notices.undp.org no.62913.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document to this website - http://jobs.undp.org no. 89892.

  • Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
  • Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Technical proposal:

  • Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
  • A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
  • Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II);
  • Annexes 1 and II - may be downloaded from the UNDP Procurement Notices Website -http://procurement-notices.undp.org/. For further clarifications, please contact; janet.anyango@undp.org; moses.lutwama@undp.org

 


This vacancy is archived.

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