Summary
Date Posted: Friday, March 11, 2022 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Background
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
Pulse Lab Kampala (https://www.unglobalpulse.org/lab/kampala/) is part of a network called UN Global Pulse (https://www.unglobalpulse.org) with other Labs in New York, Jakarta in Indonesia, and Helsinki in Finland. In Uganda Pulse Lab Kampala operates under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator. Established in 2009, UN Global Pulse (UNGP) is an initiative of the Executive Office of Secretary-General (EOSG) with a globally distributed team in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. In support of the Secretary-General’s priorities, and in advancement of the UN Charter, Global Pulse serves as a cross-pillar lead and hub for experimentation and digital innovation.UN Global Pulse works with digital innovation, real-time data, and artificial intelligence to further sustainable development, humanitarian and peace outcomes. UNP’s vision is ‘A world in which responsible and inclusive digital innovation serves to empower people and protect the planet’. Our mission is to work at the intersection of digital innovation and science to inform, inspire and support the entire UN and those it serves, to anticipate and respond to the challenges of today and tomorrow. The goals of UNGP are: i) to generate knowledge, capabilities and approaches that support the transformation of the United Nations into a more agile and resilient ‘next-generation’ institution; ii) to create and accelerate the development of globally accessible approaches that help communities and partners anticipate and address emerging global challenges; and iii) to advocate for the global transformation of policies, practices and culture required to maximize the impact of digital innovation, minimize its risk of harm, and ensure pathways to scale and sustainability.

Scope of Work
Pulse Lab Kampala developed a radio content analysis system, with an AI powered Automatics Speech Recognition (ASR) tool, that makes the public radio discussions (voices of the people) readily available for programming. The current language support includes Luganda, Acholi, and Ugandan English. The Research Assistant will be responsible for:

Duties and Responsibilities
Provide day-to-day support for project implementation:
• Creation of speech – text pairs through annotation, compiling large text corpus and language vocabulary list with their equivalent English translations;
• Performing FM radio landscape analysis to capture broadcasting stations with metadata, including listenership/ geographical coverage, broadcasting frequency, nature, and schedule radio programming;
• Support the preparation and actual analysis of radio content analysis that includes defining search and tagging taxonomies; and perform rapid evaluations, tagging and translations.
Carry out research based on programmatic needs:
• Conduct background research and/or supporting studies for the project;
• Compile research materials in a systematic way and prepare background briefs/briefing notes as and when required;
• Conduct other activities in support of data, innovation, digital transformation, behavior sciences, futures, and foresight implementation.
Provide support to knowledge building and knowledge sharing:
• Codify and share knowledge by capturing best practices, lessons learned and client’s feedback;
• Support activities related to assessing capacities and needs of government organizations and partners, in close collaboration with national counterparts, at both central and local level;
• Facilitate team’s learning and knowledge sharing;
• Perform other duties as required.

Institutional Arrangement
The Research Assistant reports directly to the Data Associate.
Competencies
Core
Achieve Results:
LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline
Think Innovatively:
LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements
Learn Continuously:
LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback
Adapt with Agility:
LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible
Act with Determination:
LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident
Engage and Partner:
LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships
Enable Diversity and Inclusion:
LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies
Customer Satisfaction/client Management:
• Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers’ needs. Provide inputs to the development of understand the real customers’ needs. Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy. Look for ways to add value beyond clients’ immediate requests;
• Ability to anticipate client’s upcoming needs and concerns.
Communication:
Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication methods depending on the audience.
Working with Evidence and Data:
Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions and supporting decision-making.
Data Collection:
Being skilled in Data sorting, Data Cleaning, Survey, Administration, Presentation, and Reporting including collection of Real-Time Data (e.g., mobile data, satellite data, sensor)
Digital Awareness and Literacy:
Ability and inclination to rapidly adopt new technologies, either through skillfully grasping their usage or through understanding their impact and empowering others to use them as needed.
Event planning and execution:
Ability to plan, manage and execute of public and private events to ensure that they support and amplify individual communications and advocacy initiatives, as well as UNDP’s overall brand and mandate.
Knowledge Generation:
• Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.
Professionalism:
• Generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
• Shows pride in work and in achievements;
• Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges;
• Remain calm in stressful situations.
Teamwork:
• Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals;
• Solicits input by genuinely valuing others’ ideas and expertise;
• Is willing to learn from others.
Planning and Organizing:
• Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required;
• Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work;
• Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary;
• Uses time efficiently.

Functional Competencies:
• Displays open, co-operative behavior with other team members;
• Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view;
• Sets priorities, produces quality outputs, meets deadlines, and manages time efficiently.

Required Skills and Experience
Education:
• Completion of Secondary Education with 5 years of experience. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Business Administration, or related field with 2 years’ experience would be desirable.
Experience:
• A minimum of 1 year of paid working experience in translating, data management, analytics, and visualization, preferably in a developing country;
• Experience in collecting text corpus, and meta data on radio station programming;
• Experience in preparing training and test data for Automatic Speech Recognition using Praat software or related software;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.)
• Experience in conducting research, analysis and generating reports.
• Past UN experience is desirable.

Required Language(s) (at working level)
Fluency in both written and spoken English and Lugbara are required.

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 24

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Job application procedure
Use the link below to apply.
https://estm.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1/requisitions/job/2614

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