Consultancy: GBV Technology Consultant - Req

Consultant Programme & Policy

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, hope.

Consultancy Title: Consultant – GBV Technology Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: Child Protection Section, Programme Group - NYHQ

Duration: July 15, 2024 to January 2025

Home/ office Based: Home-based

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does - in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life - in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions - her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens, not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital.

UNICEF is directly involved in addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in some of the world’s most complex conflicts and disasters. GBV in its various forms constitutes a global crisis which undermines social and economic progress. GBV must be addressed to ensure universal rights and principles with regard to equality, security, liberty, integrity and dignity of human beings. Preventing and responding to gender-based violence in emergencies (GBViE) is recognized as a life-saving measure and an essential component of humanitarian action. As a lead agency in addressing GBViE, UNICEF has expanded its on-the-ground programming and made GBViE prevention and risk mitigation and response one of its targeted priorities in its new Strategic and Gender Action Plans (GAP) 2022-2025, as well as in the new Child Protection Strategy. GBViE contributes to the results under Goal Area 3 and is also now a cross-cutting priority across the Strategic Plan.

UNICEF’s Executive Director issued a call to innovate to fill gaps in accessibility and availability of services in 2019 at the Oslo Conference on Ending GBV in Emergencies. Since 2020, UNICEF has embarked in developing new technologies for gender-based violence programming.

The Digital Referral Pathways (eRPW) seeks to address challenges in updating referral pathways remotely and making information on the services available widely accessible to women and girls. The eRPW initiative has been carried out in close coordination with the GBV Area of Responsibility at global, regional and country level. The product is now at its second iteration and is deployed in four contexts (i.e. Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Turkey Cross-Border and Sierra Leone). In 2023, efforts have been focusing on (1) maintaining and supporting to ensure increased number of users are registered on the app and sustainable use of the product; (2) initiating discussions on possible modalities of administration of product; and (3) making the product open source. In 2024, UNICEF is progressively transferring the product administration in existing implementation contexts.

An other innovative solution is Laaha, a Virtual Safe Space (VSS) platform for women and girls. Women and girls' safe spaces have long been established as a key approach to provide information, links to services, skills-building, and peer connection. Yet, as access to physical safe spaces is often limited, UNICEF has been developing Laaha, a VSS platform to access information safely. A second version of Laaha has been piloted in Iraq and Ecuador. Investment on human-centered design consultations with girls aims at identifying strategies to overcome the gender digital divide to ensure greater access. UNICEF is also creating a virtual forum which enables girls to seek support, ask questions, receive linkages to specialized services, and in time, replicate the sense of a safe social network on the platform with peers. Laaha is currently deployed in Afghanistan, Ecuador, Iraq, Lebanon, OpT, Ukraine and Venezuela and reaches over 275,000 users. By end 2024, the platform will expand to Bangladesh, DR Congo, Haiti, Moldova, Myanmar, Sudan, Turkey. Laaha aims at reaching 1 million users and 15 languages by 2025.

The consultant will technically support the UNICEF GBViE Innovation portofolio through the specific tasks listed below.

Scope of Work:

Under the supervision of the GBViE Specialist, the consultant will:

• Improve language technology, including text synthesis (text-to-speech) in Swahili for Laaha;

• Support the development of the legal framework for eRPW, including Terms & Conditions and Privacy Notice;

• Support the eRPW socialization to promote its use by other actors;

• Support the technical requirements to improve the Laaha chatbot;

• Contribute technically to the DRC CO proposal development to Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF);

• Increase social media engagement of Laaha;

• Develop multi-country workplan for Laaha.

The consultancy will be home-based with travels to emergency-affected contexts, as feasible.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Deliverables/ Outputs

1. Improve language technology, including text synthesis (text-to-speech)

- Text synthesis used in Swahili

30 November 2024

2. Support the development of the eRPW legal framework, including Terms & Conditions and Privacy Notice.

- Legal framework approved

31 December 2024

3. Support the eRPW socialization to promote its use by other actors.

- E-RPW presented in at least 3 fora

31 December 2024

4. Support the technical requirements to improve the Laaha chatbot

- Detailed technical requirements shared with Developers

30 September 2024

5. Contribute technically to the DRC CO proposal development to Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF)

- DRC CO proposal submitted

31 August 2024

6. Increase Laaha social media engagement

- Comms/Social Media plan developed

31 January 2025

7. Develop Laaha multi-country workplan

- Multi-country workplan approved

31 December 2024

Qualifications

Education:

University degree in Computer Science, Business Administration or related technical field.

Language Proficiency:

Fluency in English is required.

French, Spanish or Arabic is considered an asset for this role.

Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• At least six years of experience in supporting and coordinating tech project activities across a large organization and with other international partner organizations.

• Specific experience as a product manager for users in emerging markets.

• Experience preferably including GBV programming in humanitarian contexts.

• Progressively responsible professional work experience in communication, technology fields, youth participation and gender.

• Familiarity with Agile development methodology and Software development project management using GitHub e.g., Pivotal Tracker, Redmine, Trello, etc.

• Technical skills and track record on Apps development processes.

• Creative, innovative thinker who can also translate ideas into practical applications.

• Understanding of UNICEF programmes, communication, technology, user-centered design, youth participation and partnership goals.

• Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to manage relationships with partners, including women and girls.

• Proven capacity to work with and lead collaborative teams across different locations with different technical skills.

Requirements****:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

• Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :
  • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory 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.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.

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

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

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.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.

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Added 3 days ago - Updated 1 hour ago - Source: unicef.org