Global Immunization Budget Database Consultant

<!–

Description

–>

Economic analysis of immunization resources constitutes an important area of work in support of countries’ efforts to protect and increase domestic investments in immunization. However, challenges remain in identifying and analyzing immunization resources in domestic government budgets.

There is substantial variation in how information on vaccine procurement and immunization delivery is presented in national budget documents across different countries, and even year-to-year for a given country. Often this information is only available in non-searchable PDF files, which complicates identification and analysis. Improving the accessibility of immunization budget information and supporting its interpretation through the provision of standardized analysis and data visualizations can provide insights and evidence to strengthen advocacy at a global, regional, and country level around sustainable immunization financing.

Global data on countries’ immunization financing is collected through the WHO-UNICEF Joint Reporting Form (JRF), which captures high-level aggregate information on immunization expenditures by government and external partners. Whilst the JRF remains the most reliable mechanism for the routine collection of immunization-related data from UN member states, the reported data on immunization expenditure has been noted to suffer from issues of data quality and consistency

In response to the demand for reliable national budget data, UNICEF is undertaking the design and development of a global immunization budget database, through the following steps:

Identification of immunization budget data from national budget documents, complemented by data and insights from the JRF.
Development of a web-based data ingestion system to facilitate extraction and harmonization of immunization data from identified sources.
Development of a central database to house government immunization budget data
Development of web-based dashboards to allow users to engage with immunization budget data, including production of country, regional, and global standard analytics

• UNICEF requires the services of an external consultant to support the development of a global immunization budget database ecosystem. The work requires the development of two software products (a web-based data ingestion system and a web-based front-end) and a database housing government immunization budget data.
• The work shall create maintainable, automated processes to perform data extraction from unstructured data sources and harmonize multiple data streams into a central database. The work shall be designed such that it can accommodate the addition of new streams of data as and when they become available.
• The work shall be performed iteratively, beginning with a set of countries that the Frontier Data and Tech Unit (FDTU) will define as part of the minimum viable product (MVP).
• The consultant shall also interact with the Program Group Immunization Team (PGI) and the Social Policy Team to gather data and software requirements, and to design a common data model based on the relevant data sources.
• The consultant shall also research and test potential methods for data mining and extraction from unstructured data sources like images and PDF files.                

Terms of Reference / Deliverables:

The consultant will be expected to take on the following duties:

• Coordinate with relevant stakeholders including UNICEF staff, other UN agencies, development partners, and government officials for overall planning and development of the database and the related software components.
• Design of a data model and database schema for the immunization budget database in consultation with PGI information management specialists and other stakeholders.
• Development of a web-based back-end data ingestion system, which will be used to manipulate multi-lingual unstructured data sources (data extraction, data validation, semantic enrichment) and to harmonize the data and store it in a central repository
• Development of a REST API to provide access to the data stored in the central database. The API will implement a permission framework to authorize access to the data
• Development of a front-end web application to provide access to the data through dashboards and reports
• Iteratively release alpha versions of all the software components for user testing and incorporate stakeholders’ feedback in the development cycle
• Development of automated testing on the software’s functionality and performance
• Research and test potential methods for data mining and extraction from unstructured data sources like images and PDF files
• Collaborate with UNICEF ICTD to comply with all security and design guidelines, and to facilitate the deployment of the software components on the UNICEF Azure cloud and the integration with the UNICEF Azure AD single sign-on

Qualifications:

Education:

• University degree in software engineering, computer engineering, or related fields

Work experience:

• A minimum of five years of experience on projects based on Microsoft technology
• Excellent knowledge of .Net (preferably .Net 7) with web application development and  REST APIs: C# language
• A minimum of five years of experience in SQL development
• A minimum of one year of experience in Microsoft Azure Cloud deployment and integration with Azure AD
• Basic knowledge of Unit Testing
• Experience with Apache Solr and OCR (optical character recognition) is a plus.

Competencies:

• Knowledge of OO software development methodologies, programming patterns, and best practices of development in a distributed environment
• Fluent in spoken and written English. Additional official UN working languages are a plus.

Requirements: 

• Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system and Upload a copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• your rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference
• travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
• Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, as applicable.
• Indicate your availability
• Any emergent/unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/561274

<!—

<!–

–>