GIS Expert

POSITION TITLE: GIS Expert

LOCATION: Kathmandu, Nepal

GROUP/UNIT: Enterprise and Agriculture

REPORTS TO: M&E Coordinator and Business Contracts Director

PROJECT SUMMARY:

The USAID/Nepal funded KISAN project is improving food security in twenty Hill and Terai districts in the Western, Mid-Western and Far-Western regions of the country. The project is in its third of five years. The goal of the project is to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger in Nepal by achieving inclusive growth in the agriculture sector, increasing income of farm families, and improving the participation of the private sector in promoting agriculture growth. Many farmers in Nepal, particularly smallholder farmers in rural areas, lack access to quality inputs, technologies, information, and markets. KISAN is interested in improving the efficiency of key supply and value chains, and expanding their reach to rural farmers, to help increase smallholder farmers’ productivity and income.  To ensure sustainability, the KISAN project is working with the private sector to take on the role of engaging famers in commercial or semi-commercial agriculture.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The GIS Expert will collaborate with the M&E Coordinator, Chief of Party, Business Contracts Director, Agriculture Expert, USAID, and project partners to develop a spatial database for the purpose of creating KISAN project maps for planning and reporting.  

The GIS Expert will carry out the following responsibilities under the direct responsibility of the M&E Coordinator and Business Contracts Director:

Geographical Information System (GIS) Related

• Develop parameters of GIS mapping with USAID. This will include defining data points (beneficiary Household, Market agro vet shops, LSP locations and range, nurseries, MIT suppliers, MUS, DU, etc.) and identifying the reports (maps) required.
• Spatial reference database and map for physical infrastructure and project specific activities and groups
• District Cluster wise and inter component wise mapping 
• Collect existing data layers for the project use
• Gather additional data from field and develop plan for collecting data which will define who collects data, what they will collect and how data will be collected.  This will be tied to a time line and include steps to collect of existing data layers. 
• Assist Program Managers to implement activities according to plan using GIS output.   
• Prepare and produce resource maps of structures and Project specific information in original base maps and in updated digital maps of settlements, roads and major land marks.
• Train field staffs on GPS device and data collection process define what each staff will be responsible for collecting.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Documentation Activities

• Data collecting process, validation and reporting, 
• Data Quality Assurance
• Produce a comprehensive overview of program achievements on a monthly/quarterly basis, disaggregated by programmatic area;
• Document the Case study, FGD, impact survey result 
• Develop annual work plan with log frame in consultation with Program Manager, Field Projects Managers and other Unit Heads.
• Support for effective implementation of program/project activities in the field.
• Monitor and provide timely feedback to the supervisor on the programs/projects for strategic directions.

Other

• Training and providing support to end-users for MS Office, Outlook and other tools.
• Troubleshooting IT-related problems and issues, as needed; 
• Other related work assigned by the COP and BCD.

QUALIFICATIONS 

• The GIS Expertmust be a team player, have good creative analytical skills and communication skills, and the ability to work in a multicultural, post-conflict environment.  We encourage the application of women, janajaties and those from disadvantaged communities.
• Education:  a minimum of a bachelor’sand preferably a master’s degree in the natural or social sciences or similar field.
• Experience: Minimum of five years of experience in development of spatial databases for agriculture or community development assistance programs in Nepal. Preference will be given to those with USAID experience and/or work with a contractor or international NGO managing GIS for program(s) of similar complexity and scale and have a knowledge of database.
• Language: Fluency in spoken and written English is a prerequisite
• Computer/IT/GIS: Candidate must be expert in Arc GIS (10) fully able to work with MS Access, MS Office- Word, PowerPoint and Excel.  They must also be able to do highly skilled in all aspects of database management.  

HOW TO APPLY

Interested candidates can post their CV to Jobs.KISAN@winrock.org within July 14, 2015. Mails received after the stipulated date will not be entertained