UNOPS ITRC Researcher – Infrastructure Modelling

Jerusalem Office – UNOPS Project Management and Infrastructure Centre of Excellence

Since the opening of the Jerusalem Office in 2006, UNOPS has significantly strengthened its operations in Palestine. Our expert knowledge, skills and management systems contribute to the sustainable development of public infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank, including Area C and East Jerusalem.

In recognition of its ability to affect and lead positive change, the Jerusalem Office  has been named the UNOPS Project Management and Infrastructure Centre of Excellence.

The Jerusalem Office is the first UN office to receive the Level 4 P3M3 Maturity Model certification in project management by APMG. This certification demonstrates the well-structured, standardized and defined project management processes and methodologies applied to projects, generating the best results desired by our partners.

This achievement is part of a broader agenda to increase the Office’s impact on development projects, by improving our services and adding value to the outcomes of our partners’ works. The office has benchmarked its capabilities against international industry level standards and through this has achieved several prestigious certifications, including ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety), ISO 14001 (Environment Management) and Level 4 P3M3.

UNOPS supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale. 

Background Information – Assignment

Governments need to make the most efficient use of existing infrastructure assets, and make the most effective use of scarce financial resources to support large investment needs for future infrastructure, as well as concurrently attracting new sources and streams of funding, such as impact investment from the private sector. Governments will also need to ensure that decisions made in the short term have positive long term impacts and outcomes. The Evidence Based Infrastructure Development Framework (EBIDF) enables strategic evidence based infrastructure project selection, which is a key factor in addressing these challenges.

Through our knowledge, experience and partnerships, UNOPS are uniquely positioned to assist governments take this fundamental step to shift the current approaches to infrastructure planning, decision making and implementation, to an approach that is based on evidence and transparent investment business cases.

UNOPS and the Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC), University of Oxford have formed a partnership, to provide governments with a state of the art, world’s first national infrastructure system-of-systems modelling tool, NISMOD, enabling the analysis of the impacts and benefits of long-term infrastructure investment strategies, which will also pinpoint vulnerabilities and quantify the risks of failure.  ITRC video link refers: http://www.itrc.org.uk/about-us/outcomes/#.V72TpPl97q

While there is no truly critical start point to the process of developing an all-inclusive capacity for government to develop EBIDF capacities and capabilities, it is generally thought that the 2 best potential entry points are either with the development of a macro level long term vision (National Vision 0 → 50 years) for how their country should develop (as in the case of the UN-ESCWA Syria NAFS) or with the set-up of the database and modelling system (NISMOD-UNOPS) (as in the case of Palestine) that is used to provide the evidence to inform the decision making for infrastructure investments.  UNOPS video link refers: https://www.unops.org/english/News/Pages/The-Systems-of-Systems-Approach-to-Infrastructure.aspx

 
Project description

As part of UNOPS commitment to state building and sustainable development, the incumbent will be supporting the co-development of the application of NISMOD modelling to the developing country context and as part of the UNOPS commitment to implement the EBIDF to participating host countries via its offices around the globe.  The assignment will primarily consist of the assistance to develop the NISMOD infrastructure modelling suite for the developing world context and then to support participating countries and their respective UNOPS country offices with the application of NISMOD.

The ITRC, a research programme of the University of Oxford, is currently embarking on a new phase of development of the NISMOD system-of-systems modelling capability. As part of its MISTRAL program, ITRC together with UNOPS will be developing a NISMOD-International (NISMOD-Int) in order to inform decision making in regard to the future provision of infrastructure in developing, post-conflict, and post-disaster countries.  To this end, UNOPS are looking to recruit a Researcher to assist in this next development of the system-of-systems modelling suite and to provide UNOPS with the capacity, to support the application of NISMOD through its future engagements with host countries wishing to adopt EBIDF.  The first 12 months of the assignment is expected to be primarily based at the University of Oxford, and consist of providing assistance and expertise in the development of the International version of NISMOD, whilst gaining knowledge and experience in its application.  Subject to the development of the EBIDF programme, and completion of the NISMOD-Int development the incumbent will be required to relocate to our Centre of Excellence, Jerusalem Office from where efforts to provide direct support to the countries engaged with EBIDF are expected to be coordinated.

The UNOPS NISMOD Researcher will provide the necessary assistance to the collaborative effort between UNOPS and ITRC for the development of NISMOD.  They will report progress in the development of NISMOD and act as an addition, ‘on the ground’ means of interface with the ITRC.  They will be expected to draft, edit and consolidate material for input into technical manuals, presentations and reporting for the implementation of EBIDF. The incumbent will be expected to liaise with the JRSO on a regular basis on various issues related to NISMOD and EBIDF.

• Refine and test the NISMOD-Int process and platform, interacting closely with modelling teams  at the University of Oxford.
• Assist in the design and implementation a decision analysis component for NISMOD-Int, to enable the appraisal of options in order to improve system performance and enhance system resilience.
• Test and apply the integrated modelling capability to real-word infrastructure investment planning challenges in developing, post-conflict and post-disaster countries, and generate innovative insights for journal publication.
• Interact with government and aid agencies in order to transfer the new models into practice.
• Assist in publishing the methodology and results from this research in peer reviewed literature.
• Develop guidance documents for use by other UNOPS Offices on how to introduce and establish the capacity and capability for governments to adopt and utilise NISMOD for UNOPS support to host government national infrastructure planning and development.
• Produce presentations, reports, briefing papers and generic project documents to support the promotion of NISMOD/EBIDF at various national and international forums.   
• Participate in business development and stakeholder relationship building.
• Undertake occasional mission travel in and outside the country if and when required.
• Develop material based on multiple sources, including secondary data, interviews, minutes, memos and so on.
• Compile and incorporate feedback and comments from the technical review and peer reviews.
• Produce material in a clear, unambiguous and easily digestible format.
• Conduct additional research where necessary for context and reference purposes.
• Ensure that all documents follow the UNOPS standardized writing requirements.
• Assistance in the production of all documentation in other UN languages where possible.
• Additional tasks related to editing, writing and proofreading for clarity, as required.
• Perform other duties as requested by the Head of Programme.

• Successful completion of the tasks explained in the previous paragraph
• Successfully meeting the measurables specified for each assignment
• Ongoing assessment of task completion, which meets quality expectations
• Successfully meeting deadlines based on the work plan
• Completing progress reports as required
• Gaining an in-depth understanding of the ITRC NISMOD modelling system and its application to the developing world context

• Ability to work well with others and under pressure
• Shares knowledge and experience.
• Keen interest in the engineering and long term sustainability of infrastructure systems in developing countries.
• Ability to utilise an on-line database system to collect, track and analyse data.
• Computer skills to include Microsoft, Adobe, Excel, Internet.
• Planning and Organization – Proven ability to plan and organize work and establish priorities.
• An enquiring, enthusiastic and ambitious individual who is able to apply new research ideas and approaches and pursue them to fruition.
• Communication - Ability to effectively communicate (oral and written), within all levels of the organization.
• Team Work  - Good interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with sensitivity and respect for gender, diversity and culture
• Planning and Organization - Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies   Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required
• Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work; foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning; monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary; Uses time efficiently.
• Accountability - Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honors commitments; Delivers outputs for which one has responsibility within prescribed time, cost and quality standards; Operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules; Supports subordinates, provides oversight and takes; responsibility for delegated assignments; Takes personal responsibility for his/her own shortcomings and those of the work unit, where applicable.

Education

• A first-level University degree/Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in International Law, Political or Social Science, International Relations or other relevant field.

In addition to:

• Master of Science Degree (MSc) (or be near to completion) or equivalent research experience in a field involving development economics and systems analysis.

Work Experience

• Experience of system modelling, preferably in at least one of energy, transport, water or waste systems.
• Experience in programming in a high level computing language (e.g. python) and an understanding of how relational databases operate (e.g. Microsoft Access, PostgreSQL).
• A track record of applying research to real world problems.
• Excellent organisational, teamwork and communication skills.
• Experience of gathering, cleaning and combining datasets from a variety of sources including: socio-economic datasets and remote sensing

                Desirable

• Expertise in optimisation and decision analysis for system models
• Skilled in GIS and geospatial database system implementation
• Experience with software version control and SQL database design
• Experience of team work in interdisciplinary research projects.
• Experience of working with stakeholders in industry and government on applied research projects

Languages

• Excellent English language skills, both written and oral
• Fluency in another UN language, both written and oral is considered a valuable asset

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.