Consultancy - Deployment Specialist (USupport digital Mental Health solution), Office of Innovation, 6 months, REMOTE, REQ

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, innovate...

UNICEF Innovation

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives. The Office of Innovation (OOI) is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

UNICEF's OOI creates opportunities for the world's children by focusing on where new markets can meet their vital needs. The Office of Innovation supports UNICEF’s Strategic Plan by creating ways for UNICEF’s mission to intersect with, and drive new digital technologies, data solutions, programming approaches, innovative financing and frugal ideas that bring positive change for children, and by scaling innovative solutions to millions.

UNICEF’s Global Innovation Portfolios

Matching Today’s Challenges with Tomorrow’s Solutions ensures that all investments we make in innovation fit with our global aim of ensuring that every child can survive, thrive, and live and learn in a safe, inclusive space, and that innovation is applied to the most pressing problems faced by some of the most vulnerable children and young people. In line with the Global Innovation Strategy, UNICEF’s innovation portfolio management approach aligns technical and financial resources to promising projects from across the organization that can accelerate results for children. Through the development of UNICEF’s Global Innovation Strategy, nine portfolio focus areas were identified: learning, water and sanitation (WASH), maternal and newborn health, immunization, climate change, gender equality, humanitarian, youth, and mental health and psychosocial support. Through a problem-driven approach guided by the respective UNICEF Programme Groups (PG), each portfolio is committed to supporting the identification, development and scale-up of country-level innovative solutions, to meet the demands and priorities in line with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and ultimately the attainment of related SDGs.

USupport: a digital Mental Health solution for facilitating on-demand access to MHPSS services and support for adolescents and young people Adolescents today are facing a compounding mental health crisis: more young people than ever are struggling with anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. 50% of all mental health conditions start by age 14 and 75% by age 24. Most cases are undetected and untreated.

UNICEF is interested in increasing access to quality psychosocial counselling and support for young people by providing access to affordable, inclusive, and accessible support to all adolescents and young people through online mental health platforms that would provide quality support and services. The USupportMe product vision is to increase:

1. access to psychosocial support for adolescents and youth by meeting them where they are; providing them with opportunities to connect with peer and professional counsellors, offering flexible payment options, fast response times, etc; 2. increase demand for quality MHPSS, reduce barriers to care-seeking, improve information and uptake of services by young people. 3. increase quality of care through professional and vetted counsellors that adolescents can trust; 4. increase engagement of young people with lived experiences in programme design and in developing approaches/methodologies that would empower them as actors in their own care (by providing access to eMH tools such as self-assessments, self-monitoring etc.) 5. improve integration between the online MHPSS services and the local care system supported by the Ministry of Health, national MH professional associations and local service providers through improved collaboration with local care providers (e.g. youth friendly health services, student policlinics) and exploring future integration with the national health insurance schemes.

The user benefits for choosing USupportMe platform would be: Option of anonymous access to video/audio/chat sessions with providers, focus on the most common and prevalent MH and psychosocial issues, online payment options including support for no-cost sponsored sessions.

How can you make a difference?

Scope of Work Given that there are multiple online MHPSS solutions that have already been developed mostly by private sector companies, UNICEF is interested in exploring what is already available online and gauge what would be the potential interest and range of online support that might be accessible and adaptable to a range of different contexts, population segments and geographic locations. The innovations must be validated, with strong evidence so we know they work to international and UNICEF standards, and critically do no harm. The contractor will work with scaling of the innovations in mind by mapping pathways to demand, validating the need, and identifying sustainable business models.

Tasks and Deliverables The purpose of this assignment is for a contractor to analyse the market and negotiate with global digital mental health companies of existing commercial solutions for digital mental health that are fit-for-purpose in supporting adolescents, teens, and youth from Eastern Europe & Central Asia in the areas of psychosocial issues, anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress. If the terms are agreeable, suitable solutions are to be then showcased online and contracted for pilot or wider scale implementation initially in Eastern European and Central Asian countries, with subsequent possible expansions to other geographic locations worldwide. The contractor will work in close collaboration with key UNICEF staff to facilitate any potential partnership agreements.

Proposed Tasks

1. Identify relevant companies globally that have developed and can support digital mental health solutions for adolescents, teens, and youth in the areas of psychosocial issues, anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress. Make outreach to them, organise meetings with the senior leadership of and make in-depth presentation on the psychosocial and mental health needs and requirements of adolescents, teens, and youth in Eastern European and Central Asian countries. 2. Develop assessment criteria & validation framework for digital mental-health tools - apps &/or platforms. That evaluate vendors on capacity, product features, and technical architecture. Interview vendors and review their capacity to deliver and support the solution. Review the solution offering and rate the efficacy of the solution for the proposed cohort. 3. Review the technical architecture and multi-tenancy of the products to gauge suitability for a large international user base and multi-country deployment. 4. Discuss the high-level requirements of a potential solution with the vendor and solicit high-level estimated total costs for a specific installation. 5. Discuss and update the office of innovation at UNICEF on actions and progress.

Expected Deliverables 1. List of the most appropriate vendors to contact and detailed justification as to why. 2. Validation framework and assessment criteria for digital mental-health tools that meet UNICEF Office of Innovation standards, for possible entry into App catalogue & innovation marketplace. 3. Document vendor feedback and level of interest, including product features and benefits. Report on the technical suitability of the products and implementation requirements. 4. Develop costing estimate for each solution including potential licence and implementation costs. 5. Final report including list of platforms or apps with a brief description of each, for UNICEF to consider highlighting for potential pilots or adoption.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Bachelor's degree in IT, computer science, business management, or a related field; OR at least 10 years digital mental health experience, and currently servicing the mental health sector.
• The contractor must possess negotiation and presentation skills.
• Knowledge of the current public mental health sector and leading digital mental health solutions are essential.
• Technical and software architectural skills will be required to analyse the capabilities and scalability of these vendor solutions for the target cohort.
• Knowledge and operational understanding of international software security and privacy standards are essential.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Payment details and further considerations

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed deliverable, certified by relevant UNICEF staff from ECARO and OOI • first payment upon certification of deliverable 1- 25% of total fees • second payment upon certification of deliverable 2 & 3 – 50% of total fees • third payment upon completion of deliverable 4 – 25% of total fees

Duty Station : Remote.

Duration: 6 months

Insurance:

UNICEF will not be responsible for costs arising from accidents and/or illness incurred during the consultant’s service. Therefore, the selected candidate must provide proof of enrollment in a health/accident plan prior to starting his/her work.

How to apply:

• Interested applicant is required to submit a financial proposal with all-inclusive fee. Please complete your profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system. • Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class), daily subsistence allowance (limited to UN official rates), and other estimated costs such as visa and travel/health insurance. Please indicate your ability, availability and financial proposal (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. • Applications submitted without a financial proposal will not be considered.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.