International IT Data Archiving Systems Specialist

Organizational Settings

The NDC Partnership (NDC-P) is an alliance of over 100 members, including developed and developing countries in all regions of the world, as well as major international institutions and non- state actors. The NDC-P works directly with national governments, international institutions, civil society, researchers, and the private sector to fast-track climate and development action.

As part of the current efforts to deliver on the numerous country commitments linked to the UNFCCC and other environmental regulations, the government of Benin has requested NDC-P’s assistance in establishing a national environmental archiving system for storage of relevant data and documentation. This will be instrumental to facilitate the production of the greenhouse gas inventories and to satisfy the other requirements of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) including the NDC tracking.

In response to this request, the FAO HQs (NDC-P supporting unit in OCB) has liaised with the FAO Representation in Benin to demand and secure funding from the NDC Partnership Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP) initiative.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the FAO representative, and in close collaboration with the FAO NDC-P team members in OCB and OCI team members, the consultant will have the following responsibilities and functions.

Technical Focus

The consultant will have full responsibility to steer, supervise, complement and approve the products of the national IT consultant in designing the architecture of a national environmental data archiving system for Benin, which, once operational, will serve the numerous country needs related to monitoring and reporting of environmental variables, including storage of all data, documentation and process results for the production and long-term retrieval of greenhouse gas inventories and tracking of NDCs.

The consultant will have to travel twice to Cotonou, Benin, at the initial and final stage of the consultancy and for a limited number of days.

The consultant will supervise and participate in the preparatory phases for assessing any possible existing archiving system infrastructure in relevant ministries, agencies and universities (as relevant to the ETF), the needs, the existing policies and ongoing initiatives that could be complemented, homogenized and unified to achieve a single, efficient, secure IT/environmental data archiving system.

The outcome of this consultancy is a comprehensive document which will indicate the current status of the infrastructure and the way forward, including the best possible architecture of the future data archiving system, technical specifications of the minimum IT equipment needed within the budget allocated and the TORs for the IT company that will implement the system at each ministry or agency identified.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

To achieve the objectives, based upon the available project budget, best-practices and standards in the domain of national data archiving systems, the expert will carry out the following tasks:

1. Propose an overall work plan for the consultancy to ensure timeframes are kept;

2. Steer, supervise, complement and approve the work and products of the IT National Consultant, consisting of:

1. 1. A comprehensive assessment of the national policy framework on digital data/archiving systems (strategy, priorities, funding, timeline) and of the current endowment of related IT equipment and needs of selected ministries (at least Ministère du Cadre de Vie et du Développement Durable -MCVDD-, Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Élevage et de la Pêche -MAEP-, Ministère de l'Énergie -ME-, Ministre des Infrastructures et des Transports -MIT-, Ministère du Numérique et de la Digitalisation -MND-, Institut National de la Statistique et de l’Analyse Economique -INSAE-);

1. 2. An IT architecture for a secured, long term, scalable national environmental data and metadata archiving system in Benin (either centralized or decentralized) contributing to, complementing or integrating any ongoing parallel national efforts and existing systems as far as practical. The architecture must be based on the above comprehensive assessment and proved to be the most appropriate, fit-for-purpose, cost-effective, efficient while capable of addressing all requirements of the Enhanced Transparency Framework of the UNFCC, including all needs related to the production of greenhouse gas inventories and NDC tracking of progress;

1. 3. The detailed technical IT specifications for procurement of any additional hardware available on local/international market and/or software (with mandatory preference to open source solutions) needed to achieve the system in Benin, seeking pre-emptive clearance from the FAO CSI technical service if requested by FAO procedures;

1. 4. An administrator manual for managing the archiving system, which must include suggestions on clear roles and responsibilities within each Ministry;

1. 5. The ToRs for the recruitment of an IT company to install and operationalize the procured hardware and software at each Ministry, in close collaboration with FAO Benin, seeking pre-emptive clearance from the FAO CSI technical service if requested by FAO procedures;

3. In close collaboration with FAO CSI technical service and the IT National Consultant, assist FAO Benin in ensuring that all internal procedures are followed to procure the needed hardware/software, identified through the above assessment;

4. In close collaboration with IT National Consultant, assist the IT company contracted to ensure installation and operationalization of hardware and/or software at each Ministry is achieved;

5. Liaise with CBIT Bénin LTO and project director in MCVDD for ensuring that CBIT activities planned on data management and archiving are best delivered on the new/improved archiving system;

6. Perform two travels to Cotonou, Benin, as required to accomplish at least tasks B2 and D;

7. Supervise and approve the preparation of quarterly reports and final reports on the activities, as requested by the NDC Partnership;

8. Undertake any other action as required to achieve the above tasks.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in IT archiving and networking solutions.
• At least 10 years of experience in supervising, designing and implementing IT archiving and networking solutions for public institutions.
• Working knowledge of French and English.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Selection Criteria

• Proven knowledge of UNFCCC greenhouse gas inventories and ETF requirements will be an asset
• Right to work in and travel to Benin.