Database Specialist

Result of Service

A. Improved visual design and user experience of the interactive project map. B1. Updated and enhanced diagrams and visualizations for plastic waste inventories, reflecting methodological updates. B2. Expanded functionalities of the inventory map to support easier navigation, comparison, and interpretation of data. C. Integration of newly submitted national plastic waste inventories into the platform.

Work Location

Home

Expected duration

4.24 months

Duties and Responsibilities

ABOUT BRS SECRETARIAT The Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS Secretariat) bring together the three leading multilateral environmental agreements that share the common objective of protecting human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals and wastes. The services required under this ToR are part of the clearing-house mechanism for information exchange for the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions. The conferences of the parties of the three conventions, pursuant to decisions BC-17/24, RC-12/11 and SC-12/25 on the clearing-house mechanism, requested the BRS Secretariat to implement the activities of the clearing-house mechanism workplan for the biennium, including its sub-activity number 2 that includes the maintenance and enhancement of the plastic waste projects beneficiaries’ information tool. Following the decisions adopted by the COPs, additional activities have been agreed under the BRS-Norad-2 project, with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). Among these, Activity 5-2 seeks to further enhance the Basel Convention’s clearing-house mechanism by improving the design and functionality of the web portal’s project and inventory maps and integrating new national plastic waste inventories to support transparent information exchanges. REPORTING AND COMMUNICATION The consultant will be reporting to the Information System Officer of the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Under the supervision of the Programme Officer, the consultant will improve and expand the web portal displaying initiatives on marine plastic litter and microplastics and plastic waste inventories, by performing the following tasks: A. Improve the design, usability, and navigation of the interactive project map on the web portal. The consultant will update the graphic design of the web portal to better align with the new graphic design implemented on the website in September 2024, in particular optimizing it for improved responsiveness and usability on mobile and other portable devices. In close collaboration with the BRS Secretariat, the consultant will also improve the design of both the project list and the project overview page to ensure a more refined layout and a clearer, more structured presentation of project information B. Update and enhance the visualization tools for national plastic waste inventories, including diagrams and related data displays. Output B.1. The consultant will revise the data model and visualizations components to conform to the October 2025 update of the Plastic Waste Inventory Toolkit, ensuring that the portal continues to accurately display inventories submitted before and after this revision. Output B.2. In close collaboration with the BRS Secretariat, the consultant will improve the design, streamline the graphs and expand platform functionalities to facilitate navigation and to enable clearer, more efficient comparison, interpretation, and analysis of the data. This includes incorporating background information and key definitions for each inventory, improving the layout and structure of the detailed inventory pages, enhancing the Sankey diagram to provide clearer visualization of material flows, and reformatting other graphs to present the data in a more effective and accessible way. C. Expand the inventory map by integrating new national inventories. Using the automatic integration mechanism, the consultant will incorporate up to ten new inventories submitted to the BRS Secretariat through the Plastic Waste Inventory Toolkit. For each integrated inventory, the consultant will verify that all data - including the country name and inventory year - is accurately displayed on the portal. Based on these findings, the consultant will update the automatic mechanism as needed and develop clear guidelines for future automatic integration of inventories.

Qualifications/special skills

An advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in information technology or related field is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible working experience in the field of computer programming, database design and data analysis from complex databases is required. Proven experience in system's analysis and design, computer programming, including advanced programming skills in MS VB or C# for .NET platform, using MS SQL Server databases, latest web technologies such as HTML 5 and CSS.3, and OData restful web services is required. Experience in the development and configuration of web applications using JQuery, Kendo UI, websites content management systems such as DotNetNuke is desirable. Experience in working with international organizations dealing with environmental issues is desirable.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position, fluency in English is required. Fluency in another UN official language is desirable.

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.