Consultancy - DPG Standard Manager, Office of Innovation, 200 working days, REMOTE, REQ

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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 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 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 Office of Innovation creates opportunities for the world's children by focusing on where new markets can meet their vital needs. We do this by:

● Connecting youth communities (or more broadly -- anyone disconnected or under-served) to decision-makers, and to each other, to deliver informed, relevant and sustained programmes that build better, stronger futures for children. ● Provoking change for children through an entrepreneurial approach -- in a traditionally risk-averse field -- to harness rapidly moving innovations and apply them to serve the needs of all children. ● Creating new models of partnership that leverage core business values across the public, private and academic sectors in order to deliver fast, and lasting results for children.

The Office of Innovation specifically looks to form partnerships around frontier technologies (like drones and UAVs, blockchain, 21st-century skills, urban technologies, new banking tools, wearables and sensors, or 3D-Printing) that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets and 1 billion person needs – and to identify how they can grow and scale profitably and inclusively.

How can you make a difference?

The DPG Standard is a set of specifications and guidelines designed to maximize consensus about whether a digital solution conforms to the definition of a DPG.

UNICEF seeks a consultant who will evangelize, oversee and manage the Standard. The DPG Standard Manager will ensure that the Standard is managed as an open standard, with due process and a transparent governance model that ensures its broad adoption and continual refinement and evolution.

Your main responsibilities will be...

The consultant will manage and lead the DPG Standards Council, and will have three major areas of responsibility for the Standard:, manage and maintain, evolve, and evangelize:

1) Manage and maintain the DPG Standard as an open standard in alignment with open standards principles:

● Oversee and manage the DPG Standards Council ● Set-up and manage expert committee meetings as required ● Maintain excellent and transparent documentation on GitHub of all Standard Council discussions and of all standards-related decisions ● Expand and formalize the expert community around the DPG Standard ● Respond to and, in alignment with the governance policy, respond to any contributions or requests for any changes to the DPG Standard ● Document and publish any changes to the Standard in a timely fashion ● Work with the DPG Product Owner to ensure excellent, ongoing alignment with the DPG nomination and review process

2) Evolve the DPG Standard to meet new needs

● Review and update the DPG Standard Governance processes and documentation ● Expand the community around the DPG Standard ● Interview stakeholders and ecosystem players to identify weaknesses in the standard and develop an approach to address missing components ● Manage a transparent process to enhance the security, open standards, data, and AI components of the Standard ● Develop and maintain a Roadmap that documents required improvements to the DPG Standard and how they will be addressed ● Work closely with the DPG review team to translate their insights into enhancements of the Standard ● Work closely with the DPG Product Owner and Technical Team to ensure changes are sustainably reflected and compatible with the nomination and review process.

3) Evangelize the DPG Standard

● Update and evolve an Endorsement Program for the DPG Standard ● Speak at conferences, events and meetings evangelizing and providing education on the DPG Standard ● Develop written materials and publish materials about the DPG Standard ● Identify opportunities to increase adoption and expand the impact of the Standard

Please click TOR - DPG Standard Manager.pdf to access the full TOR and related information.

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

• An advanced university degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering or in other relevant areas. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 3 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 3 years of progressively responsible professional work experience in a relevant field. 5 years of experience in lieu of an advanced degree.
• Documented understanding of and experience working with standards for example, web standards, content standards, data standards, open source standards, and experience in handling standards-related governance challenges.
• Documented understanding of and experience working with open source licensing related issues for open data, open source and open content.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, excellent technical communication with peers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.

Payment details and further considerations

• Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant. • Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance

Travel

The consultant will need to travel internationally three times during this contract:

• Two standards-relevant conferences: India (August 2023) and the US (February 2024). Each trip will require 2 days of physical attendance per conference in addition to travel time
• One Annual Members Meeting in Africa (November 2023) – requires 3 days of physical attendance

The consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa and travel insurance

Duty Station: Remote with travel

Duration: 200 working days

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.