Consultancy - Giga Country Support 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 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.

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 3.7 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.

How can you make a difference?

Under the leadership of the Country Engagement Adviser, the Specialist will coordinate engagement with UNICEF Country Offices and, where relevant, other national stakeholders, for implementation of Giga in priority countries. This includes acting as the liaison between the Country Offices and the Giga Accelerate team, Giga Finance team and ITU, coordinating analytical requirements for cost estimations, finance models, connectivity procurement. The Specialist will ensure the engagement of relevant stakeholders in-country and within the Giga team, and track Giga in-country implementation on an ongoing basis.

The Country Engagement team supports Country Offices in initiating Giga, and in technical discussions with the government and developing work plans. It also develops and provides guidance materials and ensures coordination with partner ITU at HQ and regional levels. The team tracks developments, progress and challenges for Giga implementation in-country, and iterates implementation processes based on lessons learned. The team is currently supporting over 30 Country Offices in all UNICEF regions (most are in East and Southern Africa, Central America and the Caribbean and Central Asia), but the demand for more information and engagement on Giga is growing, and the cohort of countries needing support for Giga implementation is expected to increase over the next few months.

The 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, the coordination of Giga technical support to Country Offices, reporting of country implementation progress, and the coordination with our partner ITU.

Overall, this position is responsible for:

• Support to Country Offices in their requests for support and information on Giga while coordinating with appropriate UNICEF and ITU Regional Offices;
• Support in-country implementation in active Giga countries;
• Track country engagement status in each region and maintain up-to-date data in project management tool;
• Liaise between Country Offices and Giga Finance team and Giga Accelerate team to support Country Offices with all materials, guidance and feedback required in order to complete the activities under the Giga Finance and Connect pillars.
• Support the organization and implementation of any Giga-related events in-country through prep materials, agendas, etc.

Your main responsibilities will be:

Support technical requests from countries

• Develop standard materials for country level engagement (onboarding decks, guidelines and other supporting materials) and maintain a clean and updated repository of all documents

• Respond to inquiries and requests for support from UNICEF Country Offices and governments

• Define country specific needs and value add to inform engagement with potential funders, partners and financial models

Support in-country implementation in active Giga countries

• Support Country Offices in developing Giga-specific work plans
• Capture lessons learned from in-country implementation and share with global Country Engagement team
• Support the organization and implementation of any Giga country implementation events in-country/ at HQ through prep materials, agendas, etc.

Track country level engagement and implementation status and outcomes of technical assistance

• Maintain up-to-date data in project management tool and coordinate inputs from all teams
• Manage Country Engagement team meeting agendas and ensure notes and follow up actions are well documented

Liaise between Country Offices and Giga technical teams

• Track country requests to ensure they are responded to, and follow up with Country Offices to get responses
• Technical support/advice to deploy solutions to fill gaps

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 statistics, economics, social sciences, development sciences, and management or related degree is required. *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 five (5) years of experience in the field of development, ideally within UNICEF, and with experience or strong exposure to programming in Country Offices is required.
• Experience in facilitating engagements with an array of partners at the national/regional level, i.e. international development organisations, government entities, regulators, or civil society, etc., is highly desirable.
• Experience with business/finance modelling would be considered an asset.
• Understanding of connectivity technology, telecommunications, networks would be considered an asset.
• Experience in monitoring and reporting.
• Strong planning/organizing skills.
• Knowledge of national policy frameworks related to technology development, implementation, and infrastructure development is highly desirable
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including presentation skills.
• Proven capacity to work with collaborative teams across different locations and with different technical skills.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) or a local language is 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.