Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Specialist

In Uganda, wetlands provide many important functions including supporting the agriculture sector, particularly in the context of food and security. Wetlands serve as a source of water for irrigation, watering livestock and other agricultural related activities. Over 80% of the people living adjacent to wetland areas in Uganda directly use wetland resources for their household food security needs. In addition to supporting food and water security, wetlands support income generation and employment. Of a total population of 34 million Ugandans, it is estimated that wetlands provide about 320,000 workers with direct employment and provide subsistence employment for over 2.4 million.

Wetlands have been used for agriculture for thousands of years. They provide a range of valuable ecosystem services, such as the provision of food and clean water, the retention of and recycling of nutrients. However, the value of these services is sometimes underestimated. In some areas, the drainage and reclamation of wetlands for agriculture has been widespread, but there is increasing recognition of the critical interdependencies between agriculture and healthy wetlands.

Duties and responsibilities, among others:

• Review the existing GIS data for the 20 target districts, indentify gaps, propose and implement actions to address the data gaps;
• Conduct field visits (with support and guidance of respective District Natural Resources staff) to all the wetlands in 20 target districts and geolocate all the wetlands in each of the 20 districts, and obtain key wetland characteristics;
• Undertake an organisational capacity assesment for GIS hardware, software, personel and make actionable recoomendations.