National Consultant – Technical Solution (Artificial Intelligence) at World Food Programme: (Deadline 10 Jun 2024)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

POSITION DETAILS

JOB TITLE: National Consultant – Technical Solution (Artificial Intelligence)
TYPE OF CONTRACT: Special Service Agreement (SSA), Level 9
UNIT/DIVISION: Programme Unit/Strategic Outcome 2
DUTY STATION: Kigali, Rwanda
DURATION: 11 months

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 9th June 2024

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP Rwanda works in partnership with the Ministry in charge of Emergency Management (MINEMA) to strengthen national systems and capacities in disaster management, as disasters remain a key driver of food and nutrition security and resilience. WFP delivers various forms of policy engagement, technical assistance and capacity strengthening on disaster prevention and mitigation, response and recovery, and associated innovations.

Rwanda has an ambitious digital transformation agenda that is actively being applied in the Disaster Risk Management sector in the context of the recently approved a National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Policy (2023). The Policy calls for rapid innovation leveraging better and more integrated data systems and digitalisation. MINEMA is seeking to define a data architecture for the sector and identify ways in which AI can be harnessed for more effective management of disasters. Advanced data analytics through ML and AI can add efficiency, speed and accuracy to DRM processes. AI-enhanced systems will not only detect potential risks more accurately but also provide a more nuanced understanding of evolving disaster scenarios and people’s needs. This strategic fusion of technology and disaster management aims to fortify Rwanda’s resilience, ensuring a more proactive and sophisticated approach to safeguarding lives and mitigating the impact of disasters.
WFP and MINEMA are partnering together to advance digitisation and use of advanced technologies with a focus on AI, in the DRM sector. The partners commit to advancing digitisation and advanced technologies in the DRM sector, with a focus on defining the role for AI and ML. The project will assess MINEMA readiness and opportunities for AI to make the generation and analysis of DRM data more efficient and more meaningful for policy makers and implementers. The project takes place in the context of a multi-year Memorandum of Understanding between MINEMA and WFP that aims to strengthen the national DRM system.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of and with support of the MINEMA Chief Digital Officer and WFP Strategic Outcome Manager, the incumbent will be responsible for the following tasks. In all tasks, the incumbent should ensure strong coordination with both WFP and MINEMA stakeholders, with regular coordination meetings and information sharing.

• Support project implementation and coordination within MINEMA, and technical coordination with other Government Ministries and Agencies (Ministry of ICT, RISA, Rwanda Space Agency) and WFP experts.
• Support the development of landscape and capacity analysis to identify opportunities and bottlenecks for use of artificial intelligence in the disaster risk management sector.
• Coordinate the design and implementation of a pilot/use case for the application of an existing, globally sourced artificial intelligence tool, with a focus on pilot testing, identifying and documenting learning and refinement needs, with a focus on disaster impact prediction or automated damage assessment, working in close collaboration with MINEMA and WFP technical experts.
• Provide technical inputs into a broader digitalisation and AI roadmap/strategy to be developed for the DRM sector.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Education:
Advanced university degree in Computer Science or other relevant field, or First University degree with additional years of related work experience or trainings/courses.

Languages Fluency (level C) in English language and Kinyarwanda

Experience:

• At least three years of experience in developing and launching IT solutions with a focus on AI and ML products.
• Experience leading the solution design of large scale/complex software products with government and/or international organizations.
• Demonstrated experience in the planning and coordination of complex IT product deployment projects.
• Hands-on experience with common AI tools and libraries (examples include huggingface, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, Keras etc).
• Experience in data manipulation, analysis, and visualization (examples include tools such as Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn etc).
• Experience deploying machine learning models in production environments would be an added advantage.
• Experience in supporting IT landscape/capacity analysis would be an added advantage

Knowledge & Skills:

• Excellent technical understanding of artificial intelligence/machine learning.
• Proactive attitude and ability to work independently.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to deal patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural backgrounds and to build strong partnerships.
• Good communication skills.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• This position is open for Rwanda national candidates only.
• Qualified females and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Application deadline: 9th June 2024

WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment

WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.