Community System Foundation (CSF)
VACANCY
OpenEMIS Project Officer
| Title: | OpenEMIS Project Officer |
| Duty Station: | Nuku'alofa, Tonga, with possible travel to districts |
| Duration: | 12 months with possible extension |
| Start Date: | March 2023 |
Background
Community Systems Foundation (CSF) is a not-for-profit foundation providing IT solutions, data management and web services to the United Nations, governments, and the wider international development community. Over the past sixty years, we have worked with a range of organizations such as UNICEF, UNAIDS, UN Women, the World Health Organization, and governments from 120 countries to enhance the use and dissemination of data for policy planning, monitoring, and decision making.
The vision for CSF’s technical support services is for our innovations to be key components in stimulating the emerging data revolution for sustainable development, with an aim to support accelerated progress to 2030. This data revolution aims to dramatically change access to data through open channels and transparency in the dissemination and use of disaggregated, subnational data from multiple sources for better decision support. Currently, the data innovations delivered by CSF are enabling planners to identify and devise equitable, reliable service delivery systems for communities. In this way, CSF specializes in turning complex information relating to human development into easy-to-understand tools such as databases, dashboards, and publications.
In close collaboration with UN agencies and government partners, CSF’s technologies serve as important dissemination tools for census data, international household surveys, subnational surveys, administrative data and other sources of socio-economic data. The strength of CSF lies in its capacity to monitor a wide range of key performance indicators, while focusing on ways to achieve positive development outcomes through sustainable and efficient development processes. By improving public access to and understanding of information at all levels, CSF strives to empower communities, especially vulnerable populations, to undertake their own monitoring of key development indicators. Communities can therefore hold service providers accountable for public sector programme delivery through transparent and accurate reporting from the ground up.
CSF embraces the collaborative approach of open source software development. Under this software development methodology, the source code is available under open source license to analyze, change and improve its design over time. The prevailing sentiment of this methodology is one of optimism and transparency: the hope and promise that when communities of users and developers from all around the world work together, there will be measurable improvements in evidence-based action for the benefit of all of society. The desired result is a more equitable and prosperous world where CSF contributes to the process of the transformation of data to knowledge, and knowledge to better decisions, and where the CSF technology serves as a public good through its community of users.
The OpenEMIS Initiative
The OpenEMIS initiative deploys a high-quality, royalty-free Education Management Information System (EMIS) to collect and report data on schools, students, teachers and staff. The system was conceived by UNESCO to dramatically change access to data through open channels and transparency in the dissemination and use of disaggregated data for better decision-support. This includes subnational data used by communities to measure their own progress. UNESCO Coordinates this initiative with technical support provided by Community Systems Foundation.
OpenEMIS is helping education planners identify the most vulnerable individuals and devise equitable and reliable education service delivery systems. It therefore supports a robust, government-owned environment for better development outcomes. The software is available via a shared Demo site or a free dedicated trial site. We also offer a range of services to host or set up the software on a local server for approved countries. It is released through an Open Contributor License agreement.
In addition to the provision of the tool itself, CSF works with ministries of education to embed OpenEMIS within larger capacity development frameworks in the area of education planning and management. The aim is to strengthen institutional and individual capacities of the partner organizations so that the technology transfer is done in a sustainable manner, and eventually benefits the global community.
Role
Community Systems Foundation is looking for a highly motivated professional to provide local project coordination, technical assistance, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation support throughout the implementation of OpenEMIS activities in Tonga. The officer will work under the supervision of the Community Systems Foundation and in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Training to assist all stakeholders in the use of OpenEMIS technology.
Responsibilities
- Provide direct technical assistance and support to ministry counterparts in the implementation of the OpenEMIS Education Management Information System (EMIS).
- Develop and maintain good relationships by keeping Ministry of Education and Training counterparts updated on status of project activities, system outages and upgrades, changes, enhancements and issues
- Participate in system implementation and integration testing
- Assist with system administration including security and configuration
- Identify OpenEMIS training needs, develop training materials and deliver training
- Provide proactive system support and escalate any issues to the OpenEMIS Support Team, following up until the issue is has been resolved
- Regularly liaise between the client and the OpenEMIS Support Team
- Other related duties as required
To carry out these responsibilities, it is expected that the Project Officer will become an expert in the features and use of all relevant OpenEMIS applications. The OpenEMIS team will support with knowledge transfer and training to ensure the Project Officer quickly gains the expertise required for the assignment.
Requirements
- Qualification: Minimum Diploma/Bachelors in International Relations, International Education, Information Technology or related field
- Experience: Minimum three to five years in monitoring and evaluation, international relations, information systems, education policy, or related field
- Knowledge: Extensive knowledge in project management, education planning, web/internet applications, mobile applications. Extensive knowledge in the structure and operations of the Ministry of Education and Training, Tonga.
- Skills: Excellent project implementation skills, troubleshooting skills, time management, customer relationship management, teamwork and communication skills (oral and written).
- Based in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.Based in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.
Other Information
- Position: Full time - 40 hrs/week, approximately 22 days / month
- Agreement: Long term consultancy contract. No benefits provided. No taxes deducted. Hourly rate will be negotiated and agreed.
- Monthly salary is payable on the submission and endorsement of a monthly timesheet.
- Work Week: Monday to Friday with the exception of public holidays.
- Hours: Flexible to meet the day to day demands of project execution, while engaging with an international team working in different timezones
Candidates
Interested and qualified candidates should send CV and cover letter to Jon Kapp, Executive Director, CSF at: jkapp [at] communitysystemsfoundation [dot] org using the email subject: OPENEMIS PROJECT OFFICER - TONGA
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