Context

The Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD) is the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) global organization mandated to leverage the role of the private sector in development. The IICPSD was established in Istanbul, Turkey on the basis of the Partnership Framework Agreement signed between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the United Nations Development Program in March 2011. The center is one of the six global thematic policy centers of UNDP, supports the private sector and foundations to become transformative partners in development through research, advocacy, facilitation of public-private dialogue and brokering partnerships. IICPSD leads UNDP’s global work on private sector and foundations and supports UNDP’s offices all around the world. This UNV assignment is part of UNDP IICPSD’s recent initiative SDG AI Lab, which is volunteer-driven initiative, harnessing the potential of frontier digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and GIS for sustainable development. The lab combines UN values and commitment to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals with the best industry practices of the leading technological companies. Currently, the lab through its partnerships, is exploring and developing digital solutions for sustainable development in 17 countries around the world. Moreover, SDG AI Lab is actively establishing partnerships with the global tech leaders such as Google, Esri and others. The Junior Data Science Officer will join the team of onsite volunteer data scientists and support the work on developing and implementing digital solutions for sustainable development The UN Volunteer will also contribute to data acquisition, preparation, analysis, and visualizations efforts. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, relocation to Istanbul and office presence are not required for this assignment.

Task description

UNDP IICPSD’s initiative SDG AI Lab aims to harness the potential of frontier digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and GIS for sustainable development. The Junior Data Science Officer will support SDG AI Lab’s work in development and implementation of digital solutions using Data Science, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing. Under the direct supervision of UNDP IICPSD Technical Specialist, the UN Youth Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

• Assist the ongoing research efforts on application of big data and machine learning approaches to development issues.
• Support the team in developing and implementing digital solutions to tackle issues in the field of economic and international development. 
• Contribute to data acquisition, preparation, analysis, and visualizations efforts.
• Assist the organization of large datasets to get actionable insights from them.
• Continuously support the data maintenance and data acquisition activities of the SDG AI Lab.
• Support research work to unravel promising fields in development for the application of AI.

Provide as needed support to the Technical Specialist as required for, amongst others, participating in meetings, conferences, providing administrative and communications support, drafting meeting minutes and perform other functions and duties.

Required education level: Bachelor degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Statistics, Econometrics, Mathematics, Economics or other relevant field.

Languages: English, Level: Fluent, Required Turkish, Level: Working knowledge, Desirable

Area(s) of expertise: Information technology

Nationality: Candidate must be a national or legal resident of the country of assignment.

Age: 18-26 

Living allowances: 8500 TRY (approximate amount - with a possibility of increase in line with the UN scale)