job Description
National Consultant to support Data Visualization, Harare, Zimbabwe, 80 days (Open to Zimbabwe Nationals Only)
Job no: 586102
Position type: Consultant
Location: Zimbabwe
Division/Equivalent: Nairobi Regn'l(ESARO)
School/Unit: Zimbabwe
Department/Office: Harare, Zimbabwe
Categories: Research, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
UNICEF seeks a Data Visualization Consultant to develop a Power BI dashboard that:
Maps vulnerabilities across Health, Nutrition, Adolescent Development, WASH, Education, Child Protection, and Social Protection.
Highlights areas of severe or overlapping vulnerabilities, enabling joint, multi-sectoral prioritization of interventions.
Supports evidence-based decision-making on where UNICEF interventions should be scaled up, reduced, or converged, based on data-driven insights.
Guide Strategic decisions on UNICEF operational areas across Zimbabwe.
This assignment will strengthen results-based management and integrated program design by transforming raw data into clear, actionable visualizations at province and district levels. The dashboard will incorporate cross-cutting themes (gender, education, health, disability, wash, climate resilience) and ensure accessibility for stakeholders, supporting UNICEF’s commitment to advancing children’s rights through data-driven strategies. . The consultant will play a key role in building a robust, maintainable Power BI dashboard that translates evidence into clear actionable, province-level and district-level insights on child deprivations/inequities across the programme areas, transforming data into visually appealing and easy-to-understand formats, aiding in evidence-based decision-making and communication strategies.
The dashboard will leverage innovative digital approaches to ensure data accessibility for relevant stakeholders, helping UNICEF monitor results, understand the environment enabling children’s rights, and inform strategic programmatic decisions.
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of PPM Chief (for all programmatic aspects) and ICT/T4D (Technical), the Consultant is expected to:
Design, develop, and deploy interactive dashboards that support evidence-based decision-making, leveraging data from multiple sources, and ensuring integration with existing systems and workflows.
Enable overlap analysis (co-occurrence of high vulnerabilities across sectors) to inform joint interventions and resource allocation.
Map UNICEF interventions to guide decisions on scaling up, reducing, or converging programs.
Embed equity disaggregation (e.g., sex, location, disability where available) and support drill-downs to districts levels where data allow.
Produce a complete data model, indicator dictionary, and user guide to ensure sustainability and proper handover to UNICEF ZCO.
Scope of Work
The consultant/role holder will be responsible for the following tasks:
Data Assessment and Planning Needs
Translating raw data into compelling narrative (i.e. dashboards).
Conduct consultations with ICT/T4D and PPM teams to understand dashboard requirements.
Together with Programme Planning & Monitoring (PPM), identify key indicators, data sources, data updating protocol, and visualization needs.
Develop a dashboard development plan including timelines, tools, and data integration strategies.
Dashboard Design and Development
Produce digital mapping for ZCO highlighting our operational areas in Zimbabwe.
Provide real-time visibility into KPIs and trends for evidence-based decision making.
Design user-friendly and visually engaging dashboards including a set standard page to track interventions and administrative indicators.
Develop a convergence dashboard that visually shows interventions and results for every program in UNICEF including the crosscutting thematic areas. Results presentation will be by district up to the lowest entity e.g, facility, school, ward, village etc.
Integrate data in a star schema in Power BI from internal databases and platforms, information systems developed internally by UNICEF or in collaboration with/in support of institutional partners, surveys, and geospatial platforms.
Identify/set up necessary connections (API, web hooks, etc.) for data retrieval and sync.
Ensure usability and user-friendliness by adopting intuitive KPI tiles, traffic-light thresholds, narrative annotations, etc.
Setup a user-friendly protocol for updating the data sources, by respective UNICEF Programme Officer for usability and sustainability of the final product.
Ensure dashboards are responsive, accessible, and optimized for various devices.
Data Management and Integration
Work with PPM to validate data quality, consistency, and relevance.
Implement automated data refresh mechanisms where applicable.
Testing and Validation
Conduct usability testing with stakeholders to ensure dashboards meet analytical and operational needs.
Refine dashboards based on feedback and ensure alignment with ZCO requirements.
Documentation, Training, and Handover
Prepare user Guide for the dashboards.
Run training sessions for users in the agreed number of cohorts (Section Chiefs and Programme Officers) – To be determined with Chief PPM.
Expected Deliverables
Fully functional interactive dashboards that map UNICEF interventions across Zimbabwe.
Dashboard development plan and requirements document.
User guide and final report summarizing activities, challenges, and recommendations.
Other Jobs
