Responsibilities
ORGANIZATIONAL SETTING AND REPORTING: The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the lead United Nations agency for cities and human settlements. The agency is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all and sustainable development. The main documents outlining the mandate of the organization are the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements, the Habitat Agenda, the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements, the Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium, and UN General Assembly Resolution A/56/206.
UN-Habitat, being the focal point for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system, has a role in delivering the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, adopted by Member States in 2015, specifically goal 11: make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
As our cities and towns grow at unprecedented rates, setting the social, political, cultural and environmental trends of the world, sustainable urbanization is one of the most pressing challenges for the global community in the 21st century. In 1950, one-third of the world’s population lived in cities. Just 50 years later, this proportion has risen to one-half and will continue to grow to two-thirds, or six billion people, by 2050. Cities are now home to half of humankind. They are the hub for national production and consumption – economic processes that generate wealth and opportunity. But they also create disease, crime, pollution and poverty. In many cities, especially in developing countries, slum dwellers number more than 50% of the population and have little or no access to shelter, water and sanitation.
UN-Habitat’s Strategic Plan 2020 – 2023: UN-Habitat’s Strategic Plan for the years 2020 – 2023 reinforces UN-Habitat’s position as the global centre of excellence on sustainable urban development and innovation, offering solutions that help seize the opportunities presented by urbanisation while bringing about transformational change for the benefit of millions of people, ensuring that no one and no place is left behind.
The Strategic Plan lays out a recalibrated vision and mission, and a sharpened focus. UN-Habitat proposes to serve Member States, sub-national and local governments, and other key urban actors in the pursuit of four mutually reinforcing and integrated domains of change: 1. Reduced poverty and spatial inequality in urban and rural communities;
Enhanced shared prosperity of cities and regions;
Strengthened climate action and improved urban environment; and
Effective urban crisis prevention and response.
Outcome 2.3 of the Strategic Plan is “expanded deployment of frontier technologies and innovations for urban development”. Frontier technologies are influencing the emergence of smart cities, how we build and manage our cities and human settlements, and how urban managers take more informed decisions. The New Urban Agenda calls for technology and communication networks to be strengthened and for smart-city approaches that use digitalization, clean energy, and technologies to boost economic growth and improve service delivery, while promoting broad-based inclusion, including of persons with disabilities.
The implementation of the Strategic Plan 2020-2030 is also supported by six “organizational performance enablers”: (1) monitoring and knowledge; (2) innovation; (3) advocacy, communication and outreach; (4) partnerships; (5) capacity building; and (6) systems and processes. UN-Habitat needs to put in place the adequate institutional, managerial and financial conditions. Moreover, “drivers of change” for achieving sustainable urbanization have been outlined: (1) policy and legislation; (2) urban planning and design; (3) governance; and (4) finance mechanisms.
United Nations Innovation Technology Accelerator for Cities (UNITAC Hamburg): The United Nations Innovation Technology Accelerator for Cities is an innovation lab in Hamburg, established in March 2021 by UN-Habitat in collaboration with the UN Office for Information and Communications Technology (UN-OICT) and HafenCity University. The Accelerator promotes open and participatory governance of data and digital platforms, innovations related to mapping, spatial analysis and data visualization and people-centered smart cities. UNITAC Hamburg is funded by the Government of Germany for four years.
The Accelerator is creating a team of urban, technology and innovation experts which will develop technologies to solve the world’s most pressing urban challenges and ensure that we speed up progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 11 on sustainable cities and communities.
UNITAC Hamburg works with a bespoke urban technology innovation acceleration methodology that can be used to analyse real urban challenges and urbanization trends. The methodology is based around three themes: (1) Open, transparent and participatory governance of data and digital platforms (2) Mapping spatial analysis and visualization, and (3) People-centred smart cities. Within these fields, particular emphasis is placed on how to generate knowledge and use cases on smart city governance and the development of frontier technologies with a special emphasis on developing countries and cities with large informal populations.
The solutions developed by UNITAC Hamburg will be tested and piloted through UN-Habitat’s networks across the world with a particular focus on less developed countries. UNITAC Hamburg also works with the City of Hamburg to establish an urban technology acceleration testbed in Hamburg in which technologies, governance frameworks and approaches can be tested in a simulated urban environment before scaling up internationally. Learning is documented and published through high-quality guides and toolkits that can be used by policy makers to ensure that smart cities are inclusive, sustainable and people-centered.
Objective: The objective of the consultancy is to coordinate the UNITAC Hamburg team in research, monitoring and evaluation of programme activies, in close relation to its communications and knowledge management processes, in close coordination with the UNITAC Hamburg team for a total of 230 working days over a period of 12 months. The consultant will work under the overall leadership of the UNITAC Hamburg Programme Officer, and closely coordinate with the UNITAC Hamburg Programme Manager, team and partner entities.
Responsibilities: 1. Conduct backround research for people-centred smart city project planning and development (at least 6 initiatives), in close collaboration with key stakeholders, the UNITAC
and UN-Habitat digital team.
Coordinate projects and support the team, knowledge, experience and dissemination on digital technologies, urban knowledge, data and innovation, and sustainable urban
development.
Monitor the implementation of people-centred smart city project implementation (at least 6 initiatives), in close collaboration with key stakeholders, the UNITAC and UN-Habitat digital
team.
Facilitate meetings and workshops, supports consultative and other meetings, conferences (at least 6 initiatives).
Delivers presentations on assigned topics/activities, conducts research and prepares reflective texts on urban projects, processes, and best practices (at least 6 initiatives).
Prepares various written outputs (at least 6 initiatives, i.e. background papers, analysis, reports, and publications)
Report on procedure for documentation of project inception, implementation, and post- project review processes, including knowledge products in support of overall UNITAC
objectives and CoPs and recommendations for incorporating knowledge management principles and activities into the communications and advocacy strategy.
Report on evaluation of implementation and lessons learnt of people-centred smart city projects (at least 6 initiatives).
Research and program evaluation (at least 6 initiatives).
Reviews assessments of issues and trends, preparation of evaluations or research activities and studies (at least 6 initiatives).
Coordinate knowledge in line with UNITAC’s communications strategy, including concrete outputs for external audiences on knowledge management and lessons learnt.
Prepare UN-Habitat website content in relation to UNITAC programme efforts and UNITAC sub-page and social media content; Online articles and blog posts on UNITAC inoitiatives (minimum
UNITAC’s quick win projects implementation report, including lessons learnt.
Project-specific work tracker to assist in project and knowledge management processes.
Develops training material and workshops (at least 6 initiatives).
Creates visualizations and reports for requested projects using a different computer-
assisted design tool (at least 6 initiatives).
Final report required to hand over activities to the UNITAC programme, communication and advocacy team.
Qualifications/special skills
Competencies: Professionalism: Knowledge and understanding of theories, concepts and approaches relevant to urban planning and design. Strong analysis of urban form, urban systems, underlying social, legal and financial mechanisms and the political context. Ability to develop strong graphic materials (concept plans, diagrams, street sections) as well as substantive reports. Knowledge of urban development issues. Ability to observe deadlines and achieve set goals. Ability to work and deliver under pressure.
Communication: Speaks and writes clearly and effectively, listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately, asks questions to clarify and exhibits interest in having two-way communication, tailors language, tone, style and format to match audience, demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.
Teamwork: Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals; solicits input by genuinely valuing others’ ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others; places team agenda before personal agenda; supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when such decisions may not entirely reflect own position; shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team shortcomings.
Academic Qualifications:
An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in communication, journalism, international relations, social sciences, political science, international development, urban and regional planning, architecture, innovation or related field is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) years’ experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Experience: A minimum of two years’ relevant professional experience in architecture, urban planning, sustainable urban development and digital transformation, innovation, social and/or political science, international development or related field is required. Experience in research, writing, drawing and preparation of visual/graphical material using computer-aided design tools is desirable. Experience in working with digital platforms and websites, including social media is desirable. Experience in project management, ideally in international organization contexts, is desirable.
Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position, fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN language is desirable.
Apply via :
careers.un.org
