GIS Impact Assessment Specialist

Organizational Setting

The Office of Emergency and Resilience (OER) is responsible for ensuring FAO’s efforts to support countries and partners in preparing for and effectively responding to food and agricultural threats and crises. Within the OER, the Data In Emergencies (DIEM) information system aims to generate timely, meaningful, granular, and publicly available data and analysis on agricultural livelihoods, shocks, food security, and needs to directly inform and design evidence-based emergency action, anticipatory action, resilience programming and impact monitoring. Driven by regularly collected primary data in fragile and shock‑prone environments, DIEM consists of five pillars: 
•     DIEM-Monitoring is a monitoring system of agricultural livelihoods and food security in the context of multiple shocks in 18 food crisis countries. DIEM-Monitoring relies on periodic household and key informant data collection, through phone and in-person surveys, and analysis;
•     DIEM-Impact conducts ex-post assessments to understand the impacts of large-scale hazards on agricultural livelihoods and value chains, using phased methodological approaches such as remote-sensing, damage & loss analyses, Post-Disaster Needs Assessments (PDNA), and other food security & livelihood surveys. 
•     DIEM-Risk consists of risk profiles derived from geographic baselines of past events and their impacts on agricultural livelihoods. 
•     DIEM-Research ensures that the vast volumes of data and analysis undertaken through the DIEM programme are harnessed to answer some critical questions relevant to better programming in support of agricultural livelihoods in fragile and risk prone contexts. 
•     DIEM-MEAL uses DIEM Monitoring data to conduct impact evaluations of assistance received by agricultural households. This is also combined with project level MEAL data for FAO specific evaluations.  
The various outputs of these five streams are processed, visualized and disseminated through the Data in Emergencies hub (https://data-in-emergencies.fao.org/).

Reporting Lines

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the OER Senior Technical Officer. He/She will work closely with the OER Data in Emergencies specialists tasked with coordination of assessments integrating GIS and non-GIS elements. He/She will liaise technically with the Land and Water (NSL) Geospatial Unit, Global Information and Early Warning Systems (GIEWS), and other remote-sensing service providers inside and outside the Organization.

Technical Focus

The GIS Impact Assessment Specialist is responsible for providing remote-sensing and other GIS inputs into DIEM analyses and products, particularly for the rapid analysis of the impacts of large-scale natural hazards, conflict and other shocks on agriculture.

Tasks and responsibilities

•     Participate in assessment coordination processes following a large-scale hazard, by exploring existing data and imagery and proposing technical approaches relevant to the type of hazard and information needs; 
•     Collaborate with FAO needs assessment specialists and country officers, including GIS Officers, for the integration of GIS inputs into phased assessments;
•     Conduct GIS analysis of agriculture exposure to large-scale hazards and the potential impacts of these hazards on agricultural livelihoods and food security; 
•     Support the interpretation, triangulation, ground truthing, and validation of remote-sensing outputs in light of other sources of information (including field surveys and crowdsourced data) and technical limitations; 
•     Contribute geospatial inputs into DIEM Monitoring in view of triangulating household data, particularly for hazards and crop seasonal monitoring; 
•     Liaise with NSL geospatial unit for deeper analyses, including land cover mapping, crop monitoring, and damage to infrastructure assessment; 
•     Contribute to the development of visual and analytical assessment products such as briefs, StoryMaps and interactive maps; 
•     Ensure that data and outputs are in the right format and in line with standards adopted at FAO and users’ needs; 
•     Regularly update key geospatial data catalogues, including land cover, crop type, and yield estimates maps, and contribute to expanding and centralizing country-level geospatial baseline data, according to Organizational standards, common metadata, and geospatial repository system (Agro-informatics platform)
•     Contribute to the development of new geospatial assessment methods, including GeoAI and machine learning, particularly for thematic areas insufficiently covered (e.g. livestock, fisheries); 
•     Contribute to the development and adoption of automated hazard monitoring and assessment applications on the DIEM hub, such as Events Visualization in Emergencies (EVE); 
•     Contribute to the development of Standard Operating Procedures, training materials, and user guides; 
•     (For Consultants only) Nurture partnership and synergies with lead geospatial organizations in the agriculture sector (WFP, NASA Harvest, EU JRC); 
•     (For Consultants only) Participate in relevant FAO geospatial working groups and multi-stakeholders arenas; 
•     Perform other duties as required; 
•     Undertake travel, if needed and possible.  

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•     (For Consultants) Advanced university degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO / (For PSA Subscribers) Relevant educational background in Geographic Information Systems, Geomatics, Geography, Information Science, Agronomy or other relevant field; Consultants with bachelor`s degree need two additional years of relevant professional experience. 
•     At least 3 years of relevant experience in GIS and remote sensing applied to the humanitarian and/or agricultural sector; 
•     Working knowledge (level C) of English required.

FAO Core Competencies

•     Results Focus
•     Teamwork
•     Communication
•     Building Effective Relationships
•     Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

•     Working knowledge of another UN language is an asset. 
•     Excellent knowledge of remote-sensing and GIS applied to food security, resilience and agricultural interventions, ideally for risk analysis, impact assessment and recovery monitoring; 
•     Familiarity with Esri products and tools (ArGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, Operational Dashboards, Web App Builder, Experience Builder…); 
•     Experience in data workflow design, integrating GIS and non-GIS data; 
•     Experience of using Python to develop geoprocessing solutions; 
•     Familiarity with spatial databases; 
•     Advanced GIS development skills; 
•     Proven familiarity with the humanitarian remote sensing community, open datasets, charters and practice; 
•     Reporting and editing skills; 
•     Capacity to interact with and provide adapted solutions to stakeholders from various backgrounds (remote-sensing, data engineering, food security analysis, programming); Ability to perform in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary context.