REACH Data/R Senior Officer for South Sudan

BACKGROUND ON IMPACT, REACH AND ACTED

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises of specialists in data collection, information management, data analysis, and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarters is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

ACTED is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1993, which supports vulnerable populations, affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. ACTED provides continued support to vulnerable communities by ensuring the sustainability of post-crisis interventions and engaging long-term challenges facing our target populations, in order to break the poverty cycle, foster development and reduce vulnerability to disasters. Their 3,300 staff are committed in responding to emergencies worldwide, in supporting recovery and rehabilitation, and working towards sustainable development.

We are currently looking for a REACH Data/R Senior Officer to develop innovative data solutions to technical problems, and provide assessment and technical support to the REACH South Sudan mission.

Supervisor: REACH GIS Specialist

Title: REACH Data/R Senior Officer

Location: Juba, South Sudan

Contract duration: 12 months

Start date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

IMPACT, through REACH, has been implementing programming in South Sudan since 2012. Responding to the Sudan Border Crisis, REACH initially engaged through coordinated information management support – in the form of refugee camp mapping and service provision analyses, thematic assessments, and multi-sectoral needs assessments – in Maban County, Upper Nile State and Pariang County, Unity State. IMPACT was engaged by DFID to provide a series of impact evaluations of their BRACE programming across Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States in 2013; a programme with run for two years, included 5 total assessments, and reached a total of more than 20,000 households. Immediately following the conflict of December 2013, REACH expanded its programming to include the IDP response, participating in Initial Rapid Needs Assessments of conflict affected areas, providing mapping and monthly service provision analyses for major IDP sites around the country, and running large-scale IDP return intentions assessments.

2018 saw the expansions of both IMPACT and REACH programming to 10 of 10 states, spanning the refugee, IDP and development responses, and covering diverse activities such as cross-border port monitoring, assessments of hard to reach areas, flood mapping and vulnerability analysis, market monitoring and supply chain analysis, analysis of tensions and conflicts over access to natural resources, and third party monitoring of humanitarian and development programming. In 2019, REACH expanded its role within the technical space, increasing involvement in Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), Needs Analysis Working Group, UN technical agencies, and academics. In response, REACH has also expanded into multiple new research cycle streams beyond humanitarian needs monitoring, including sector specific, population movement, and AAP research.

Broadly, REACH South Sudan implements assessments across three core units:

• Monitoring of the humanitarian situation in South Sudan, through monthly assessments covering over 2,000 settlements in South Sudan, conducting an annual representative Multi Sector Needs Assessment to provide a snapshot of needs, and ad hoc rapid assessments in times of sudden escalations in conflict or natural disasters.
• Monitoring population movement trends in South Sudan, including tracking and analyzing large-scale displacement, returns and seasonal movements, through port and road monitoring, ad-hoc assessments, and a population movement baseline; assessing the perceptions of affected populations of the humanitarian response; engaging with the protection cluster in identifying and filling major information gaps; and mainstreaming a context sensitive approach within REACH South Sudan.
• Providing direct technical support to humanitarian clusters through active engagement with coordination bodies, dedicated assessments and information products, and strategic engagement to promote innovative methods towards understanding sector-related needs in South Sudan.

The Data/R Senior Officer would support across all three units and streams of work. More information on REACH’s work in South Sudan can be found here: https://www.reach-initiative.org/where-we-work/south-sudan/.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the direct supervision of the REACH GIS/IM Specialist, the REACH Data/R Senior Officer will be responsible for the design of data processes, the management of large sets of data, and supporting all three research units with data-related tasks, including cleaning, analysis, reporting, and automating recurring tasks. This encompasses:

1. Designing Innovative Data Solutions

• Taking the lead on engaging creatively with new and existing data collection cycles to identify opportunities for innovation, improved data quality, and increased strategic engagement with data;
• Improving data quality by automating data checking and cleaning processes in R, including for large country-wide assessments;
• Automating recurrent data analysis processes to reduce the amount of time between data collection and the creation of information products;
• Designing products and technical processes to improve the use of and engagement with REACH data within the humanitarian response;
• Supporting the development of innovative frameworks for data analysis, such as early warning systems and methods for needs prioritisation, by providing technical expertise

2. Assessment Support

• Supporting team members with designing and implementing assessment strategies and methodologies, including sampling frameworks, data analysis plans, data collection tools, and data quality checks;
• Ensuring the quality and accuracy of REACH data as well as the confidentiality and protection of collected information;
• Managing the analysis of data in line with IMPACT’s guidelines;
• Designing and producing engaging information products, including dashboards, reports, and maps;

3. Technical Support

• Advising staff on IMPACT Initiative’s R based analysis packages, developed by IMPACT headquarters in Geneva;
• Working with staff to troubleshoot issues with existing scripts and data processes;
• Training staff on statistical analysis and programming;
• Pro-actively identifying data support needs across the mission and addressing them.

REQUIREMENTS

• Excellent academic qualifications, including a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Management Systems, Statistics, Mathematics, etc.) including Master’s level Statistics courses in R required;
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to identify outliers and key trends, and to situate findings in a winder context required;
• Advanced experience analysing complex data with R required;
• Advanced understanding of database management required;  Strong skills in Excel required;
• Experience with cleaning large datasets required;
• Experience conducting temporal or spatial trends analysis required;
• Good understanding of various sampling frameworks an asset;
• Experience writing R packages an asset;
• Knowledge of other statistical programming languages and packages an asset;
• Experience with Geographic Information Systems (QGIS, ArcGIS) an asset;
• Experience with JavaScript an asset;
• Experience with Tableau an asset;
• Ability to design and operate Kobo, ODK or similar mobile data collection tools an asset;
• A self-starter with a strong existing ability to work independently;
• Good attention to detail, and commitment to producing high quality work;
• Openness to feedback and willingness to learn;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Flexibility and adaptability to ever-changing needs and responsibilities;
• A sense of humour with bugs and bucket showers required!