International data expert to support selected country Parties with UNCCD reporting in English and French

Overview

Provide technical assistance in English and French to selected country Parties for the 2026 UNCCD reporting process, ensuring timely, complete, and high-quality report submissions.

Tasks Summary

• Provide technical support for capacity-building workshops, including planning, organization, and facilitation.
• Conduct practice runs of UNCCD indicator calculations using Trends.Earth and identify process gaps.
• Assist countries in understanding reporting requirements, indicators, and default data, and support data processing.
• Develop French-language technical notes on dataset specifications and advise on dataset selection.
• Test the suitability of high-resolution global land cover and productivity datasets.
• Guide countries in using the PRAIS 4 system, including data entry and system features.
• Manage topic-specific PRAIS chat rooms in French.
• Support the progression of national reports in PRAIS 4, including expert review.
• Host demand-driven technical webinars in English and French.
• Respond to country queries through the UNCCD online helpdesk within 48 hours and compile FAQs.
• Monitor reporting progress in assigned countries and maintain liaison with Parties.
• Update a shared Gantt chart schedule to reflect progress and risks.
• Maintain ongoing contact with assigned Parties and provide French-language communication support.
• Participate in online technical sessions with tool developers and data producers.
• Attend regular coordination meetings and provide progress updates.
• Assist with reviewing translations of e-learning materials and disseminating capacity-building resources.
• Contribute to a final Technical Backstopping report.

Experience Requirements

• Minimum 5 years working experience in Geographical Information systems (GIS) and remote sensing applications.
• Demonstrated experience in providing capacity-building support to countries, particularly in environmental monitoring, data management, or international reporting frameworks.
• Experience in processing, managing and analysing geospatial data in the land domain, including spatial and multi-temporal analysis of land cover, land productivity, soil organic carbon stocks and/or drought.
• Experience with human population data would be an added advantage.
• Good knowledge of the Francophone Africa region.
• Experience in geodata processing software (e.g. QGIS); familiarity with Trends.Earth.
• Experience in dealing with numerical data in different formats, importing/exporting, translating formats etc.
• Familiarity with a programming language such as Python.
• Experience in or familiarity with the UNCCD reporting modalities would be advantageous.

Qualification Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in data science, environmental science, natural resource management or a related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Other Details

Languages Required: Proficiency in both English and French language, spoken and written, is required.

Languages Preferred:

Contract Duration: 09 months between Mid-March 2026 to Mid-March 2027.

Work Modality: Home-based.

Remuneration: