South Sudan: REACH WASH CLUSTER GIS OFFICER IN SOUTH SUDAN

Background

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis, GIS and remote-sensing. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, which allows particularly IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts, supporting and working within the framework of the humanitarian reform process. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

ACTED is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1993, which supports vulnerable populations, affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. ACTED provides continued support to vulnerable communities by ensuring the sustainability of post-crisis interventions and engaging long-term challenges facing our target populations, in order to break the poverty cycle, foster development and reduce vulnerability to disasters. Their interventions seek to cover the multiple aspects of humanitarian and development crises through a multidisciplinary approach which is both global and local, and adapted to each context. Their 3,300 staff is committed in to responding to emergencies worldwide, to supporting recovery and rehabilitation, towards sustainable development.

We are currently looking for a REACH GIS Officer to support our WASH-related programming in South Sudan.

Department: IMPACT

Position: REACH GIS Officer

Contract duration: 6 months

Starting Date: ASAP

Location: Juba, South Sudan but with minimum 25% of the time in field and deep field settings

Country profile

IMPACT, through its own activities, or through REACH, has been implementing programming in South Sudan since 2012. Responding to the Sudan Border Crisis, REACH initially engaged through coordinated information management support – in the form of refugee camp mapping and service provision analyses, thematic assessments, and multi-sectorial needs assessments – in Maban County, Upper Nile State and Pariang County, Unity State. IMPACT was engaged by DFID to provide a series of impact evaluations of their BRACE programming across Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States in 2013; a programme with run for two years, included 5 total assessments, and touched a total of more than 20,000 households. Immediately following the conflict of December 2013, REACH expanded its programming to include the IDP response, participating in Initial Rapid Needs Assessments of conflict affected areas, providing mapping and monthly service provision analyses for major IDP sites around the country, and running large-scale IDP return intentions assessments.

2016 has seen the expansions of both IMPACT and REACH programming to 9 of 10 states, spanning the refugee, IDP and development responses, and covering diverse activities such as cross-border port monitoring, assessments of hard to reach areas, flood mapping and vulnerability analysis, market monitoring and supply chain analysis, analysis of tensions and conflicts over access to natural resources, and third party monitoring of humanitarian and development programming.

In the coming year, IMPACT and REACH programming will focus on integrating ongoing assessments into a common data stream, expanding the geographic scale of activities, connecting information streams to surrounding countries that are impacted by events in South Sudan, and continuing to adopt a beneficiary-centric approach to data collection that puts that needs of affected populations, and the return of information to them, at the centre of our work.

The project

This project, “Supporting WASH Cluster and WASH-related Activities through Partner Capacitation, Coordinated Assessments and Enhanced Information Management,” is a two year programme to support the South Sudan WASH Cluster through partner capacitation, coordinated assessments and enhanced information management which results in the creation of a common toolkit for assessments and IM, a community of practice which excels in WASH assessment design and execution, and supports a common understanding of needs to prioritise humanitarian interventions. The programme will ensure an entrenchment of best practices, connectivity to other WASH-related assessments and those assessments from other cluster, and support the needs of resilience and development actors.

Position profile

Functions

The GIS Officer shall be responsible for:

· Design, in coordination with the Senior Assessment Officer, IMPACT Country Coordinator, WASH Cluster partners, Country Assessment and GIS team, and IMPACT HQ in Geneva, a common, replicable data management plan for WASH-related data

· Support REACH Database Officer and the contracted team of web developers in the creation of a WASH Knowledge Management and Decision Support Platform (WASH KMDSP)

· Actively advocate for the establishment of a community of practice around common methodologies, tools and analysis developed as part of this programme

· Facilitate a series of monthly workshops - including mobile data collection, IM best-practices, and use of the WASH KMDSP - which focus on building WASH partner capacity to fill information gaps in the WASH landscape

· Draft, troubleshoot and finalise ODK tools for assessments

· Support Senior Assessment Officer in planning and executing interagency assessments with Cluster partners on a bi-monthly basis

· Provide oversight of data analysis and management from collaborative assessments; ensure data is uploaded to WASH KMDSP; validate partner-provided information

· Ensure the writing of timely and accurate assessment reports and factsheets from collaborative assessments

· Work to ensure the harmonisation of WASH-related indicators between the WASH Cluster common tool and other critical, nation-wide assessments (REACH AoO/ AoK, IOM VAS, ICWG IRNA)

· Convene and co-chair Multi-sectoral Analysis Working Group to champion the development of a formalised mechanise that supports close collaboration, open channels of communication and coordinated information management between WASH, Health and Nutrition sectors/ clusters

· Coordinate timely and accurate reporting to IMPACT Headquarters.

1. Assessment and Information Management Coordination

· Objective 1.1: Create of a common WASH assessment tool kit

The GIS Officer will support the REACH WASH Senior Assessment Officer in designing the common methodology, tools and analysis plan for the South Sudan WASH Cluster and development partners according to IMPACT requirements and principles.

· Objective 1.2: Design and facilitate partner training workshops

The GIS Officer, in close coordination with the REACH WASH Senior Assessment Officer and IMPACT Country Coordinator, is responsible for design and facilitating partner training workshops which will be used as the basis for bi-monthly assessments. Workshop will cover topics including, but not limited to: identifying assessment locations; sample selection; collecting data using ODK; cleaning and managing quantitative data; analysing, visualising and reporting on quantitative data.

· Objective 1.3: Support coordinated assessments

The GIS Officer will support the REACH WASH Senior Assessment Officer in coordinating assessment logistics with partner organisations, identifying assessment areas, managing the data collection and cleaning processes, analysing and reporting on findings, and managing assessment budgets.

· Objective 1.4: Convene and co-chair Multi-sectoral Analysis Working Group

The GIS Officer will convene and co-chair Multi-sectoral Analysis Working Group to champion the development of a formalised mechanise that supports close collaboration, open channels of communication and coordinated information management between WASH, Health and Nutrition sectors/ clusters. The working group will focus on connecting the vast amount of data available through all three clusters/ sectors and designing a common analysis framework to drive collaborative learning between their closely related activities. This will enhance both the effectiveness of humanitarian/ development action and create a deeper understanding of the interconnection between investment and outcomes related to WASH, Health and Nutrition

· Objective 1.5: WASH Information Management

The GIS Officer, in close coordination the WASH Cluster IM, partner organisations and the REACH Senior Assessment Officer will be responsible for the analysis and management data collected during collaborative assessments. S/he will also support the REACH Data Base Officer and the contracted team of web developers in the creation of the WASH KMDSP, and ensure all available WASH related data from South Sudan is uploaded to app. S/he will also provide both formal and ad hoc trainings in-country once the platform is online, and validate, in coordination with WASH Cluster IM, all data being uploaded by partners.

2. General Database/Data Management Activities

REACH GIS Officer will manage the maintenance of database(s) for the consolidation of all WASH assessment related and GIS data in country. He/she will ensure the capitalization of tools and procedures related to mapping and databases. Furthermore, he/she will support the assessment team in the collection and management of spatial datasets, verification and update of the collected data. He/she will monitor the accuracy of collected data. Design information products for in-country release

3. HR Management

The GIS Officer is responsible for day-to-day management of project and field staff both directly and remotely. He/she is expected to guide and direct IMPACT staff and prepare and follow up workplans with each staff member that directly reports to him/her. The GIS Officer will be required to take the lead in the recruitment of staff in coordination with the ACTED HR Officer. This will include the preparation of ToRs, observation of recruitment procedures by planning recruitment needs in advance, and undertake interviews.

The GIS Officer will ensure that all field teams are comprehensively briefed on the objective, expected outputs and that the overall implementation strategy of any given activity is clearly understood. He/she will ensure that project/field staff are given training and complete all the necessary documentation in line with program requirements set by IMPACT.

4. Representation

Representation of IMPACT in cluster and multi-sector meetings/ technical working groups in country and follow up on technical issues identified in cluster meetings in other parts of the country. This specifically will include liaising with external partners to identify potential for data sets to be integrated into existing databases and mapped to support the coordination of the broader humanitarian community.

The GIS Officer will further represent IMPACT vis-a-vis current and potential donors and communicate relevant information to the IMPACT Country Coordinator. He/she will participate in inter-NGO meetings and those of UN agencies and any other relevant inter-governmental institutions at the national or state level.

More generally, the GIS Officer is expected to contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organisation, notably through the application of IMPACT’s mandate, ethics, values and stand-point with regard to other actors.

5. Internal Communication Processes

The REACH GIS Officer will liaise with IMPACT in Geneva to guarantee a quality product that suits the needs of the field office. He/she will respond to information requests from IMPACT Initiatives and keep Geneva informed of the GIS/ IM activities in the field.

Accountability to Communities and Beneficiaries

The staff member is responsible for ensuring that all relations with the communities we work are conducted in a respectful and consultative manner. Due attention must be paid to ensuring that communities are adequately consulted and informed about IMPACT programme objectives, activities, beneficiary selection criteria, and methodologies. This is the responsibility of every IMPACT staff member.

REQUIREMENTS

• A good sense of humour about bugs, snakes and bucket showers required;
• Master degree in Geography/GIS or a related discipline;
• 2 years of experience in GIS / Database management, preferably in humanitarian context;
• Advanced knowledge of Access (or similar) databases required;
• Previous experience with mobile data collection (ODK, ONA, KOBO);
• Knowledge of analytical software packages (R, SPSS, Stata, Tableau, etc.) prefered;
• Knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign;
• Knowledge of JavaScript and related libraries (D3, Leaflet) preferred;
• Excellent team management skills;
• Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility;
• Familiarity with the aid system, and understanding of donor and governmental requirements;
• Prior knowledge of the region an asset;
• Fluency in English required;
• High level of autonomy and willingness to spend time in deep field locations away from IMPACT/ ACTED support;
• Ability to work independently.

Please send, in English, your cover letter, CV, and three references to jobs@impact-initiatives.org

Ref: 17/SSD/GISO02

Please indicate the reference in the subject line of your email.