The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
  BACKGROUND
A collective picture of Arab cities’ urban conditions and trends is non-existent and detailed analyses of Arab Cities’ competitiveness, productivity, inclusiveness and urban sustainability are difficult to find. Furthermore, many existent international assessments, reports and publications do not aggregate Arab States at a single regional level, limiting policy-makers comparative understanding of the region as a whole, as well as common trends unique to the region and different sub-regions as well. Within the international community, classifications for the region have varied greatly, creating an inconsistency in geographic scope and definition that has created incompatible information in reports.
A problem for urban policy-making in the Arab States is the widespread lack of appropriate, accurate and timely data disaggregated at the city level. Most major economic aggregates, which can measure the health of the urban economy (such as city product, investment or trade) are not available. Data that measures current conditions and trends of the population, of infrastructures and of the environment is available in some places but not in others. Throughout the Arab States, data is seldom collected in a consistent framework, despite continuous efforts to survey and analyse the urban sector. Data for analyzing the internal spatial structure of cities, their interrelations with the economy and the distribution of opportunities and wealth are often not collected either. Moreover, inequalities in social and economic conditions and access to services within cities are neither well-documented nor understood. As a result, Arab Cities’ managers and decision-makers all too often operate in a knowledge void.
The State of Arab Cities 2012 report is envisaged to address the challenge of providing the Arab States’ decision makers and provide urban practitioners and scholars with numerical and analytical information on cities and towns in the Arab States through collection and analysis of timely, accurate and objective data on socio-economic and social conditions, environmental matters, housing, governance and other human settlements-related issues. It also endeavours to review existing public policies for the urban sector.
The overarching objective of the consultancy is to make available for the first time, information on Arab States’ cities and urbanization processes and to assess current and emerging urban challenges, opportunities and particularities at the local, national and regional levels. The report is expected to provide; 1) a collective picture of Arab cities’ urban conditions and trends; and; 2) a detailed analyses of their competitiveness, productivity, inclusiveness and urban sustainability.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The Consultant will report to the Chief of the UN-HABITAT Kuwait Office. The UN-HABITAT Office in Kuwait will have the overall day-to-day management and coordination responsibilities for the study and the production of the final draft of the report. To ensure optimal coordination at the regional level, the Arab Towns Organization will partner with UN-HABITAT in the organization and implementation of expert group and draft review meetings and in the identification of local, national and/or regional experts. The Nairobi-based Regional State of the Cities Report Coordinator will provide overall substantive backstopping and guidance.
The consultant lead author is expected to proactively engage in city-level data generation and analyses through the identification of reliable sources of local urban data. He/she will be expected to provide a list of proposed partners and networks for collaboration in the drafting of the report, to actively engage in online exchanges with UN-HABITAT, and  to alert UN-HABITAT of any emerging issues within the region that need the attention of policy makers at the local and central government levels.
More specifically, the Consultant will be expected to undertake the following agreed activities within the assignment:

To provide a review of the annotated table of contents in no more than 25 pp inception report within two weeks of contract signing. In this report the consultant will list all expected data sources, intended partners and networks as mentioned above.
To guide consultants recruited  in data collection, analysis and preparation of text boxes;
To provide analysis of the relevant statistical data and indicators – available from various sources – to be compared and streamlined, for the preparation of the report;
To carry out systematic and comparable analysis of sustainable urban development issues in selected cities across the region;
To review and analyse regional disparities and competitive advantages;
To prepare essays, boxes, maps and other visuals for the key chapters with sources;
To share a preliminary draft of the State of Arab Cities report with Kuwait Office halfway through the consultancy to ensure that content (on or before December, 15, 2010), conclusions or recommendations are in line with SACR expectations;
To participate in the expert group meeting and the Editorial Board Meeting during the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2011;
To revise the draft report as per the successive reviews and submit the final draft report to UN HABITAT; and
To prepare a presentation on the key report findings to be used in the launch of the Report at WUF in Bahrain 2012.
The expected output will be the first State of the Arab Cities 2012 report of approximately 220 pages (including, tables, boxes, graphs, illustrations and photos with copyright certification) in the English language (which will be translated to Arabic language). A detailed annotated table of content was reviewed and endorsed during an expert group meeting in Kuwait on 28-29 April 2010. The consultant is expected to follow this table of content; however, he/she can suggest changes if important issues/trends are deemed necessary to feature strongly.

COMPETENCIES

Professionalism: Demonstrated ability to develop and deliver high quality report drafts, observing standards and timeliness;
Communication: Excellent communication skills and ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing complex information in a clear and concise manner to all audiences;
Teamwork: Ability to work effectively with a diverse team of people, fostering team spirit through building trust and commitment to common objectives; and
Leadership: Provides leadership and takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work. Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, and comes to the heart of the problem quickly; considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them; takes decisions with an eye to the impact on others and on the consultancy; proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information.
QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree at Ph.D. (or equivalent) level in one or more of the following areas: urban studies, urban and regional planning, statistics and data analysis, or a related discipline;
Work Experience: A minimum of 20 years proven experience in urban data analysis, research, development of high quality international reports and publications, with a strong publication record and proven experience conducting research at academic and/or research institutes and international organization. The preferred candidate will have experience working in; and writing about the region and demonstrate ability to access information from various sources at regional and country levels.
Language: English and French are the two working languages of the United Nations secretariat. For this assignment knowledge of spoken and written Arabic is required

Other skills: demonstrated ability to collate, analyse and interpret data sets in raw and processed forms as well as urban indicators.

Remuneration
Payment will be based on deliverables over the project period. There are set remuneration rates for consultancies.  The rate to be determined by functions performed and qualifications and experience of the consultant.

Applications including a motivation letter in electronic format and curriculum vitae should be  submitted to:

Ms. Lusungu Kayani
P.O. Box 30030
Nairobi, Kenya
Email:  and

Deadline for applications: 18th June 2010

Please be advised that since April 15th 2010, applicants for consultancies must be part of the UN-HABITAT Consultants database (e-roster) in order for their application to be considered. You can reach the Consultant Web site through the following link: http://e-roster.unhabitat.org/

More Jobs at UN-HABITAT  CLICK ON THE LINK; http://www.unhabitat.org/list.asp?typeid=12&catid=1

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