GIS Specialist for Sudan Consultancy at Management Systems International (MSI)

Location: Sudan
Last Date: October 20, 2010

GIS Specialist for Sudan Consultancy

Company Profile:
Management Systems International (MSI) is a global international development firm based in Washington, D.C. providing specialized short- and long-term technical assistance. Today, it has over 100 projects under management worldwide and its technical expertise has been expanded to include implementation of a range of analytical and field projects in democracy and governance, economic growth, organizational capacity building, education, and natural resource management.

At the beginning of 2008, MSI joined Coffey International, Ltd., a global multi-disciplinary professional services organization with offices in 20 countries around the world. MSI became a part of Coffey International Development (Coffey ID), one of seven divisions which comprise the Coffey Group. Together, we aspire to create extraordinary outcomes for our clients, our staff and the communities in which we work. For more information on MSI, please visit our website at www.msiworldwide.com.

Project/Proposal Summary:
MSI was awarded a three-year contract with USAID/Sudan on a project named SUPPORT (Services Under Program and Project Offices for Results Tracking), and tasked with the responsibility of executing functions normally associated with USAID’s Program and Communications offices. As a part of the SUPPORT project, MSI is currently establishing an office compound suitable for USAID and partner meetings in Southern Sudan, hiring technical and support staff and facilitating VIP visits. For more information on our Sudan project (Services Under Program and Project Offices for Results Tracking – SUPPORT) please follow this link: http://www.msiworldwide.com/index.cfm?msiweb=project&p_id=150.

Position Summary:
MSI is seeking one GIS consultant to complete the following activities and products while working with the Southern Sudan Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Responsibilities:

Cartographic products

1. Publish cartographic products, including developing a MAF map series with current spatial information in support of current strategy planning and policy development in MAF. Standard maps such as soil, seasonality, rainfall, agro-ecological zones, fire and growing seasons, markets, roads.
2. Analyze long-term vegetation indexes to provide detailed growing season statistics (start of growing season, inter-annual variation, length of season).
3. Develop ecological crop suitability map, including an assessment of available data (point 1 and 2) and products (FAO, etc.)
4. Map agricultural prioritization areas using spatial overlays of crop suitability, distance to roads, season accessibility, distance to major markets, other land-use categories (forest concessions, national parks, etc.) to develop cartographic representation of opportunities and constraints throughout Southern Sudan.

Central spatial datasets and archiving

1. Assemble, verify, and, where necessary, digitize the spatial areas of existing agriculture and forestry projects and concessions.
2. Initiate spatial data management including archiving available base line datasets utilized in the activities above for future reference and utilization by MAF.

Qualifications:
? Masters degree in agriculture, natural resource management, environment or related field.
? 2 or more years’ overseas work experience on natural resource management issues in a developing country context. High degree of familiarity with southern Sudan’s natural resource management issues and political environment.
? Advanced resource management computer skills including 2 or more years’ experience with GIS and survey software, database management, and web design in relation to natural resource management.


This is a short-term position starting ASAP for 30 days. Only candidates who have been selected for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls, please.

To apply, please visit our website: http://www.msiworldwide.com