Geospatial Advisor - Wajir
Description
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is powered by
the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do
their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they
belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can
be stronger and have long term impact.
Mercy Corps Kenya
Mercy Corps has been working in Kenya since 2008, partnering with Kenyan communities to drive peace and development. Last year, our programs reached over 905,000 people across the country in the areas of strengthening governance, empowering young people, promoting peace and stability, and supporting resilient livelihoods.
The ASAL Adapts program
aims to strengthen ecosystem health in Wajir and Garissa counties by enhancing
the uptake and use of digital information services and tools among county
governments and other key stakeholders in the rangeland management
decision-making chain. This approach is highly participatory and guides decision-makers
to think more broadly about the relationship between natural resources and the
productivity of their livestock.
The Position
The Geospatial Officer,
working under the ASAL Adapts Geospatial Advisor, is responsible for providing
geospatial technical support and capacity building on insights generated from
geospatial technologies with county governments in Wajir and Garissa.
The duties of the
Geospatial Officer include daily management and implementation of technical
activities including data collection and cleaning, tool development, and
creation of digital maps. The Geospatial Officer will also ensure appropriate
technical systems and support mechanisms are in place to track, analyze, and
report on results. They are responsible for maintaining partnerships with local
governments in Wajir and Garissa counties, translating geospatial analyses to
ward development committees, and working closely with the Geospatial Advisor
and Natural Resource Managers to prioritize land management activities in
consultation with ward development committees. The Geospatial Officer will also
have the opportunity to participate in Mercy Corps’ wider GIS Working Group
with colleagues around the world.
Essential Responsibilities
GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS & DEVELOPMENT (50%)
- Use
a range of available geospatial tools (GPS, remote sensing, geofencing,
etc.) to map the locations of assets such as vegetation, soil water
content, underground water availability, population density, and county
infrastructure like health facilities, schools, roads, etc.
- Digitize
paper maps on land ownership and access rights.
- Support
the County staff to maintain and update existing GIS databases with
additional information, other datasets as required, and as new data is
collected.
- Support
County staff to manipulate, analyze and present geographical information
by joining different types of GIS data and create new information in order
to investigate patterns and create informative dash boards for the County
executive.
- Consider
gender, youth, and people with disabilities in land use analysis and
planning.
LAND USE EXPERTISE (20%)
- Work
with Geospatial Advisor in collaboration with county government and ward
development committees to make decisions about natural resource management.
- Apply
a sustainability lens to land and water use decisions, balancing the need
for livelihood activities and long term landscape ecology.
COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIP BUILDING (20%)
- Be
able to communicate learnings from geospatial analyses using written,
oral, and visual tools to less technical audiences, including ward
development committees.
- Work
collaboratively with county government and ward development committees to
build buy in for geospatial technology.
INFLUENCE, REPRESENTATION & FUNDING (10%)
- Works
with Geospatial Advisor to support future geospatial funding proposals or
geospatial elements of other proposals in Northeastern Kenya.
- Collaborates
with Technology for Development (T4D) to communicate results and learnings
on the use of geospatial technology for climate change adaptation.
Supervisory Responsibility
Direct Reports: None
Accountability
Reports Directly To: ASAL Adapts Geospatial Advisor
Works Directly With: ASAL Adapts program team, Kenya MEL team,
county governments and Ward Development Committees in Wajir and Garissa,
Technology for Development team.
Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders
Mercy Corps team members
are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our
program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to
international standards guiding international relief and development work. We
are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design,
monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills
- Master’s
degree or bachelor’s with 3-5 years experience in geospatial technologies,
information science, quantitative analysis, statistics, or natural
resource management OR 6-8 years technical experience without a degree.
- Must
have demonstrated experience working with geospatial data, software (QGIS
or ArcGIS), and methods including experience with raster datasets and
remote sensing analysis.
- Background
in land use planning, natural resource management, rangeland ecology, or
water resources highly preferred.
- Demonstrated
experience in training/capacity-building and in fostering collaborative
relationships with data users and other stakeholders is preferred.
- Ability
to work effectively with geographically dispersed teams.
- Excellent
oral and written English skills required; proficiency in Swahili and/or
Somali preferred.
- Attention
to detail.
- Ability
to work with a team and independently.
- It
is not required, but we encourage you to share a small portfolio of
geospatial work products with your application to get a sense of your
skills and experience. This could be web based or through attachments to
your application.
How to Apply
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling
basis. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Mercy Corps does not charge any fees at any stage of the
recruitment process.
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