Consultancy - Giga, Connectivity Solutions Specialist, Remote, Office of Innovation, 11.5 months

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 has a 75-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.

UNICEF and ITU have launched “Giga”, a new initiative to connect every school to the internet, and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice. It also serves as a platform to create the infrastructure necessary to provide digital connectivity to an entire country, for every community, and for every citizen.

Providing connectivity to the world remains a challenge. According to the ITU, nearly 2.9 billion people remain unconnected from the internet, and by extension, unconnected to digital products and services that could dramatically improve their lives. Approximately 29% of 18-24-year-olds, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, do not have digital access (~360m people) and thereby lack access to the same information, opportunity, and choice as their more-connected peers. Unless things change, a big part of this rapidly growing group of young people is in danger of being left behind, excluded from the modern digital world.

Closing the digital divide requires global cooperation, leadership, and innovation in finance and technology. Giga leverages data, innovative finance, and new technologies to bring the power of meaningful connectivity to fast-track young people’s access to educational resources and opportunities.

Giga aims to expand school connectivity through its focus on three main pillars of work:

1. Map: Identifying the locations and connectivity status of every school and determining connectivity gaps.
2. Connect: Supporting the expansion of safe, secure, reliable, fit-for-purpose infrastructure to support future digital development needs.
3. Finance: Building affordable and sustainable country-specific models for financing school connectivity.

Giga’s Accelerate prototypes innovative technology solutions and operating models to provide meaningful and sustainable connectivity to schools. Accelerate implements small to medium scale connectivity prototypes, usually connecting up to 1,000 schools in UNICEF programme countries, to test: 1) the use of diverse technologies for last-mile connectivity, 2) sustainable operating models to offset or reduce schools’ connectivity costs, 3) specific procurement or contracting models (e.g., demand aggregation, smart contracts), 4) the use of real-time monitoring of school connectivity to improve quality of service, among other approaches to help leapfrog national school connectivity programmes.

How can you make a difference?

Under the leadership of the Giga Accelerate Advisor, the Connectivity Solutions Specialist will support UNICEF Country Offices and, where relevant, other national stakeholders, for assessing if experimentation and prototyping of new solutions is required to inform national school connectivity programmes, before implementing a particular solution at scale. The Specialist will support UNICEF Country Offices to design, implement, and monitor school connectivity prototypes. This includes acting as the liaison between the Country Offices and the Giga Mapping team, Giga Global Country Engagement team, Giga Finance team and ITU, coordinating analytical requirements to define the objectives and goals of connectivity prototypes, technologies and business models to test, network engineering needs to connect schools up to Giga’s standards. The Specialist will ensure engagement of relevant stakeholders in-country and within the Giga team, and track connectivity prototypes in-country implementation on an ongoing basis.

The Giga Accelerate team supports UNICEF Country Offices to experiment and prototype new solutions to connect schools to meaningful and sustainable internet, and in technical discussions with the government. The team works in coordination with Country Offices to develop and coordinate the implementation of work plans; organize competitive bidding processes to identify service providers with innovative solutions to connect schools to the internet; monitor developments, progress, and challenges for the implementation of the prototypes and for the scale-up of solutions. It also develops and provides guidance materials and ensures coordination with partner ITU at HQ and regional levels. The team is currently supporting over 10 Country Offices in all UNICEF regions (most are in East and Southern Africa, Central and South America, Central Asia, and the Middle East) with connectivity prototypes, but the demand for identifying sustainable solutions to connect schools to the internet through Giga is growing, and the cohort of countries needing support for Giga implementation is expected to increase over the next few months.

The Connectivity Solutions Specialist will provide professional, technical, and operational support to Country Offices that are implementing Giga. The post will contribute to strengthening the quality of support and guidance materials made available to Country Offices who want to test connectivity solutions for schools in collaboration with government counterparts, the coordination of Giga technical support to Country Offices, reporting of country connectivity prototypes’ implementation progress, and the coordination with our partner ITU.

Overall, this position is responsible for:

• Supporting UNICEF Country Offices in their requests for Giga’s advice in the design and implementation of innovative solutions and sustainable operating models to connect schools.
• Tracking progress of the implementation of school connectivity prototypes and sustainable operating models in each country/region and maintain up-to-date data in a project management tool.
• Documenting and sharing lessons learned with the Giga Global team and across different UNICEF Country Offices.
• Liaising with all Giga teams to support UNICEF Country Offices with the materials, guidance and feedback required to complete the activities under the Giga Connect pillar.
• Supporting the organization and implementation of any Giga-related events in-country through prep materials, agendas, etc.

Your main responsibilities will be:

Supporting UNICEF Country Offices in their requests for Giga’s advice in the design and implementation of innovative solutions and sustainable operating models to connect schools

• Based on Giga’s school and infrastructure mapping data, as well as the country’s regulatory and policy context, develop materials (overview decks, analysis of different technologies and operating models) to advise Country Offices on innovative solutions and operating arrangements for school connectivity that could be tested in the country.
• Ensure proper collaboration with UNICEF Country Offices, ITU regional and area offices, government counterparts, and the Giga teams to define connectivity prototypes’ objectives, goals, hypothesis, duration, selection criteria, budget, procurement processes to implement, and key performance indicators.
• Support Country Offices in developing workplans to implement school connectivity prototypes in their respective countries
• Recommend strategies to identify and engage key stakeholders in the public and private sectors for the implementation of innovative school connectivity solutions.
• Support in-country implementation of school connectivity prototypes across Giga countries, by providing UNICEF Country Offices with all materials and guidance required.
• Provide expert ICT advise to UNICEF Country Offices to technically assess proposals from bidders in competitive tender processes.
• Respond to inquiries and requests for support from UNICEF Country Offices and governments.
• Maintain a clean and updated repository of all documents and guidance materials.

Tracking progress of the implementation of school connectivity prototypes and sustainable operating models in each country/region and maintain up-to-date data in a project management tool.

• Maintain constant communication with UNICEF Country Office teams to support the implementation of school connectivity prototypes.
• Ensure the prototypes run smoothly and progress according to planning, identify challenges to implementation and work with UNICEF Country Office teams on the solutions.
• Maintain up-to-date data in project management tool and coordinate inputs from all teams.
• Support in managing Giga Accelerate team meeting agendas and ensure notes and follow up actions are well documented.

Documenting and sharing lessons learned with the Giga Global team and across different UNICEF Country Offices.

• Keep updated statistics about schools, young people and children connected through the connectivity prototypes.
• Consolidate reports on the connectivity prototypes’ key performance indicators: CapEx and OpEx costs, quality of the connectivity service delivered to schools, effects of extending school connectivity to the surrounding community.
• Conduct unstructured interviews with UNICEF Country Office teams and other stakeholders to learn what has worked well and what has not in the implementation of connectivity prototypes.
• Provide the Giga Communications team with the inputs to produce human-centered stories about the impact of school connectivity for children, young people, and marginalized communities.

Liaising with all Giga teams to support UNICEF Country Offices with the materials, guidance and feedback required to complete the activities under the Giga Connect pillar.

• Track requests to ensure they are responded to and follow up with Country Offices to get responses.
• Recommend strategies for scaling-up the Giga Accelerate connectivity prototypes into national-scale school connectivity initiatives.

Note: Giga reserves the right to engage more than one Specialist, based on the pool of applications and budget availability.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in computer science, information technology and information systems, systems and network administration, or a related technical discipline. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience in the field of development, ideally within the United Nations system, or at an International Non-Governmental Organization, foundations, governments, or academic institutions is required.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience in communications infrastructure systems, or experience working with technical management teams to develop and deploy systems and solutions, or network/systems engineering, or technical product/program management experience is required.
• Experience in facilitating engagements with an array of partners at the national/regional level, i.e., government entities, telecommunication regulators, international development organizations, or civil society, etc.
• Experience providing hands-on program management support.
• Organizational, coordination, and multi-tasking experience. Capacity to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Analytical and problem-solving experience.
• Experience establishing work relationships across multi-disciplinary teams with different technical skills and multiple partners in different time zones is highly desirable.
• Proven experience in translating complex ideas from various fields into unified, clear guidance.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA). To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Payment details and further considerations

• Monthly payment, based on monthly tasks and progress reports, approved upon monthly review with supervisor.
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance
• Consultant is eligible for standard DSA for all work-related travel

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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.