Somalia’s prolonged humanitarian crisis is characterized by ongoing conflicts, climate shocks including floods and drought, communicable disease outbreaks and weak social protection. Since the beginning of 2020, two additional shocks have contributed to a deterioration of humanitarian conditions: the desert locust infestation and the COVID-19 pandemic. Flooding displaced 840,000 people in the first 10 months of 2020 and destroyed infrastructure, property, and 144,000 hectares of agricultural land. Somalia also experienced the worst desert locust invasion in 25 years; tens of thousands of hectares of cropland and pasture were damaged, with potentially severe consequences for agriculture and pastoral-based livelihoods. Communities living in conflict areas were severely impacted by armed violence. COVID-19 directly impacted the lives of Somalis, worsening patterns of vulnerability. This came on top of ongoing disease outbreaks such as cholera, measles and, recently, vaccine-derived poliovirus. Lower Shabelle Region of South West State continues to bear much of the brunt of those affected by the negative impact of the shocks mentioned.

This job opening is being advertised for the position of Geo Info System Associate located in the OCHA Office in Mogadishu, Somalia. Under the overall guidance of the information management officer, the geographic information system associate will play a key role in ensuring the primary objectives of OCHA Somalia are met.

The post incumbent will be crucial in providing effective and efficient support to the IM unit and the entire OCHA Somalia Officess, staff and partners, focusing on supporting GIS-related activities.

With delegated authority, the Geospatial Information Assistant will be responsible for the following duties (These duties are generic and may not be carried out by all Geospatial Information Assistants):

• Independently provides full range of geospatial data analysis assistance at all phases of a geospatial data analysis initiative, typically, a large and highly complex component of the departmental geospatial data analysis initiatives, seeking guidance only in exceptional circumstances.
• Serves as a focal point for coordination, monitoring and expedition of geospatial data analysis activity, involving extensive liaison with diverse parts of the organization to request geospatial data and to communicate geospatial data needs to other parts of the organization. Follows-up on requests made by other team members and coordinates activities.
• Maintains specific information products in their area and assists more senior staff in providing information products to others.
• Drafts correspondence and communications related to all aspects of geospatial data analysis, including information on available geospatial data sets, geospatial data catalogs and geospatial data analysis, revisions and other related issues, as well as preparing unit contributions for a variety of periodic reports.
• Prepares newsletters and other products related to geospatial data analysis activities; drafts inputs for a wide range of documents/reports, briefings/debriefings, correspondence, etc.
• Provides guidance and training to new/junior staff.
• Supervises other general service staff in the function.
• Assists with the collection and analysis of data as well as preparation of data presentations and reports for information sharing, responding to queries, knowledge management, planning and decision making.
• Assists with visualizations and updating information material such as web pages or brochures.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Results Expected: 

Under supervision/guidance of a Senior Geospatial Information Officer (Coordinator), Geospatial assistant provides consistent, accurate and comprehensive spatial data analysis collection to an essential function of the unit in an efficient and timely manner. Independently provides accurate, well organized reports and/or records. Interprets and applies guidelines to achieve specific outputs.