| Overview : lobal Pulse (http://www.unglobalpulse.org/about-new) is an innovation initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Big Data. Its vision is a future in which big data is harnessed safely and responsibly as a public good. Its mission is to accelerate discovery, development and scaled adoption of big data innovation for sustainable development and humanitarian action. Global Pulse is building a catalytic network of in-country innovation centers, which will test new tools, data and analysis, share what lessons with the global community, mainstream successful approaches for real-time impact monitoring into policymaking. The first Lab has been established in New York (Pulse Lab New York) followed by Jakarta, Indonesia and Kampala, Uganda. Pulse Lab Kampala (http://www.unglobalpulse.org/kampala) is an inter-agency initiative of the United Nations under the Office of the Resident Coordinator in Uganda. The first of its kind in Africa, it brings together researchers from Government, the UN, non-governmental organizations and private sector to explore the utility of new sources of digital “Big Data” (such as social media, mobile data, online information) and real-time analysis techniques for social development monitoring and program planning. A data revolution is underway in Uganda and in Africa. There is more data now than ever. New technologies are leading to an exponential increase in the volume and types of data available, creating unprecedented possibilities for informing and transforming society and protecting the environment. There is more data produced in the last 2 years than in all of human history. There is a tremendous potential in new technology; indeed, this is the forefront of the data revolution already well underway in in the private sector. The new SDGs agenda will have increased demands – and opportunities- for the use of data. Pulse Lab Kampala supports the UN Country team to tap into the revolution obtaining more and better data to support development work and humanitarian action supporting: - Enhance Early Warning: Detection of anomalous trends and patterns of events enables early warning of emerging crises and earlier responses to prevent long-term harm;
- Real-Time Awareness: An up-to-date picture of trends, hotspots and dynamic changes in population behaviour enhances programme planning and monitoring of implementation and
- Rapid Impact Monitoring and Evaluation: Timely feedback on the impact of programmes and policies allows for adaptive course correction and accelerated achievement of results.
Radio is a vibrant medium for public discussion in Uganda. Variety shows and phone-ins hosted by community radio stations are popular ways for Ugandans to voice their needs, concerns and opinions, particularly in rural areas. By using technology to capture audio and transcribe the content into text, radio can become a digital big data source. Pulse Lab Kampala is working closely with Stellenbosh and Makerere Universities to develop the technology to conduct radio mining in Uganda. The project will capture radio audio in Ugandan English, Acholi and Luganda and transcribe the content into text. Pulse Lab Kampala is currently analysing around 40 stations in Kampala and will soon expand to other locations in Uganda. Speech recognition pronunciation dictionaries, and language and acoustic models are under development. Details on the project are available at: http://pulselabkampala.ug/radiomining/ Under the guidance of the Pulse Lab Kampala Data Scientist, the consultant will help to set up a speech recognition system for deployment of radio mining in Uganda. This system will be based on open source speech software, and will take radio recordings in Ugandan English, Luganda and Acholi as input and produce text transcripts. PS:Interested applicants should submit applications through uploading of all their required documentation in one single pdf document on the jobs website only https://jobs.undp.org/ -reference # 57508. | 
