Nairobi, Kenya
UN-Habitat Nairobi
Posting Title: Senior Advisor – Digital Transformation in Urban Areas
Department/Office: United Nations Human Settlements Programme
Duty Station: NAIROBI
Posting Period: 09 October 2020 – 19 October 2020
Job Opening Number: 20-United Nations Human Settlements Programme-142724-Consultant
United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity
Result of Service
To contribute to a better normative positioning of UN-Habitat in the field of people-centered smart cities, within the UN Development System at global, regional and country level. It hereby shall strengthen the operational capacity of the agency in support of local governments to better derive evidence-based policies for implementing people-centered ICT infrastructure and governance mechanisms.
Work Location
Home Based
Expected duration
2 months. The consultancy will be on a part time basis with the consultant working for a total of 29 days in the course of the two months.
Duties and
Responsibilities
BACKGROUND OF UN HABITAT
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.
BACKGROUND OF CONSULTANCY
a) 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 center of excellence on sustainable urban development, 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:
- 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.
b) Development of UN-Habitat’s People-centered Smart Cities Flagship Programme
Following the adoption of the Strategic Plan 2020 – 2030, UN-Habitat is developing five global flagship programmes to support its implementation. The flagship programme 2 focuses on people-centered smart cities to act as an umbrella and enabler for mainstreaming the approach across all its work. This function will have a clear mandate to support colleagues in the delivery of their operational and normative work. The function will be supported by committed and mandated smart city focal points with dedicated resources and time in other offices.
The objective of this flagship programme is to ensure that the smart cities field is focused on ensuring sustainable development outcomes aligned with human rights, including ensuring that no one and no space is left behind, and that cities reduce carbon emissions. Together with the other flagship programmes and in collaboration with other UN Agencies, as well as state and non-state actors, this flagship on ‘People-centered Smart Cities’ is expected to achieve the following outcomes:
- DIGITAL POLICY TRANSFORMATION: Increased focus and mainstreaming of people-focused, sustainable and inclusive digital transition as a critical policy topic in high level political forums and global dialogues on smart cities.
- FINANCING DIGITAL URBAN INNOVATION: Increased investment and financing for people-focused smart cities to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs with a specific focus on developing countries, small and medium size cities and grassroots urban communities
- DIGITAL EMPOWERMENT & CAPACITY BUILDING: Enhanced capacity of governments at all levels to adopt a people-focused, privacy-enhancing, and rights-preserving approach to digital technologies for inclusion and sustainable urban development in the achievement of the SDGs.
3. OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the consultancy is to technically develop normative processes related to people-centered smart cities initiatives of UN-Habitat within its wider partnership landscape, particularly to shaping UN-Habitat’s engagement in the Smart Cities arena in line with Flagship Programme 2 on People-centered Smart Cities.
4. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The consultancy is in the Programme Development Branch of UN-Habitat, under the overall guidance of the Branch Coordinator and direct supervision by the Programme Management Officer.
For this consultancy, UN-Habitat is looking for a Senior Advisor – Digital Transformation in Urban Areas to develop the following outputs contributing to shaping UN-Habitat’s engagement in the Smart Cities arena, particularly Flagship Programme 2 on People-centered Smart Cities, including outlining both normative and operational activities: a) Preparation of UN-Habitat definition for people-centered smart cities: The consultant will provide strategic know-how on UN-Habitat’s engagement in the smart cities arena, hereby strengthen the new flagship programme on people-centered smart cities, by introducing the right reference framework regarding smart cities, rethinking their and framework conditions and definition at the light the current development with digitalization and current cities approaches, and in line with UN goals to ensure ‘sustainable development outcomes aligned with human rights, including ensuring that no one and no space is left behind, and that cities reduce carbon emissions’. This will include how to establish a smart cities reference group and a local government ‘chief innovation officer’ forum.
b) Elaboration of UN-Habitat policy brief on positioning the agency within the UN Development System in light of UN-Systemwide Strategy on Sustainable Urbanization as well as the UN Secretary General’s Strategy on New Technologies, including preparation of Guidance note for UN-Habitat’s contribution to relevant coordination/ reference groups at global, regional and country level.
c) Preparation a Partnership and Resource Mobilisation Strategy: The consultant will identify existing and potential partnership as well as resource mobilization opportunities related to the people-centered smart cities field, the related flagship programme in addition to mainstreaming the smart cities discourse into other sectors of engagement, i.e. environmental and climate arena. The consultant will identify potential donors and partners, including relevant member states, policy networks, foundations, investors, private sector entities and tech industry players. The consultant will help map relevant actors, their interests and current activities and provide advice on the best strategy to engage them. Linked to this, the consultant will assist with the establishment of a smart cities/urban technologies reference group that can be the basis of the resource mobilization strategy.
d) Definition of process and preparation of Concept Note for preparing Global Guidelines on People-Centered Smart Cities, in close collaboration with Member States.
e) Elaboration of UN-Habitat Capacity Development Programme on mainstreaming People-Centered Smart Cities into normative and operational work.
Qualifications/special skills
Academic Qualifications: Advanced university degree economics, social science, international relations, urbanism and/ or applied computer science is required.
Experience:
-
Tags
- At least 10 years’ experience working in the field of digital transformation processes in urban areas required.
- Significant experience of developing policies, strategies, guides, and toolkits is desirable.
- Substantial experience of developing and implementing capacity building programmes, delivering training, public speaking and organizing workshops is an added advantage.
- Experience working with and advising cities and local governments on smart cities, digital transformation, digital rights, innovation and frontier technologies is desirable.
- Experience working with and advising multilateral organizations and international organisations is an added advantage.
- Experience in resource mobilization and establishing partnerships with large and comprehensive network in the technology and innovation field is an added advantage.
Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this consultancy, fluency in oral and written English is required.
Additional Information
UN Competencies:
- Professionalism: Knowledge and understanding of theories, concepts and approaches relevant to urban planning and design or sustainable development particularly to the digital transformation processes in urban areas, developing policies, strategies, guides and toolkits.
- Communication: Excellent written and oral presentation skills in English. Excellent capacity to produce reports. Good presentation skills. Ability to communicate complex interventions in a clear language and convincing narratives. Sketching capabilities to effectively communicate in workshop settings and teams.
- Teamwork: Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to achieve agreed goals.
- Planning and Organizing: Ability to prioritize activities and assignments and to easily switch between different projects. Management: Ability to manage capacity building programmes, delivering training, public speaking and organizing workshops.
No Fee
THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.
More Information
-
USD
Month