Consultancy - Giga, Strategy Advisor, Office of Innovation, Remote, 11.5 months

Consultant Programme & Policy Innovation

Overview

Join UNICEF as a Strategy Advisor for Giga to develop innovative solutions in connecting schools to the internet

You have:

• An advanced university degree (Master's or higher) in business administration, public administration, communication, design, or other relevant field
• A minimum of five years of experience in project management, partnerships, strategic planning, stakeholder/network/community management and engagement of communication
• Demonstrated experience in project management for complex initiatives, including use of innovative tools and systems
• Demonstrated experience with communication tools and channels for distributed projects
• Experience in working with and coordinating diverse groups of stakeholders at senior levels and across sectors
• Experience in data analysis and presentation for a range of audiences
• Experience in partnership development and management
• Some knowledge of open licensing desired
• Some knowledge of technology for development will be considered an advantage
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset

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

About Giga

Launched in 2019 as a joint initiative between UNICEF and ITU, Giga has set the ambitious goal to connect every school in the world to the internet.

Half of the world’s population has no regular access to the Internet. Millions of children leave school without any digital skills, making it much more difficult for them to thrive and contribute to local and global economies. This has created a digital divide between those who are connected and those who are not, a divide that has become even wider during the Covid-19 pandemic. UNICEF and ITU have therefore joined forces to create Giga, an initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet and address this new form of inequality.

Giga focuses on connecting schools so that children and young people have access to information, opportunity, and choice. It also uses schools as anchor points for their surrounding communities: if you connect the school, you can also connect local businesses and services. This creates opportunities for service providers to generate revenue from paying users, making connectivity more sustainable. A recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%.

You cannot fix a problem unless you can see it, so the first step is to map schools and their connectivity levels. Giga uses machine learning to scan satellite images and identify schools. These are then marked by coloured dots on an open-source map: green where there is good connectivity (over 5mb/s); amber where it is limited; and red where there is no connectivity at all. The project has already mapped over 1,000,000 schools in 42 countries, including several which were previously unknown to governments.

Connecting every school in the world could cost US$428 billion or more. Much of the funding already exists but it is not always well aligned. Giga therefore works with governments to unlock public funds for use in delivering connectivity and to attract private investors by reducing the risks in harder-to-reach areas.

Once school connectivity has been mapped and financing secured, Giga works with a range of partners to bring the Internet to schools. We support governments in designing competitive procurement processes. We are also developing real-time payment mechanisms, meaning that if a dot on the connectivity map is only green for three hours a day, the provider only gets paid for three hours of access. Giga is already connecting schools in 19 countries and is prototyping several test solutions, including in refugee camps and remote, mountainous regions.

Just as building railroads allowed previously isolated towns to flourish, providing good quality Internet access will allow communities to participate in the digital economy for the first time. But Giga’s work in laying the tracks for connectivity is only one part of a wider effort to bridge the digital divide. UNICEF’s Reimagine Education initiative brings all of this work together and has set the goal of connecting every child and young person – some 3.5 billion - to world-class digital learning solutions by 2030. In addition to Giga, it includes components focusing on the affordability of data and content, access to devices, teacher certification and the engagement of young people. Along with ITU’s digital skills programme and other initiatives, Reimagine Education aims to ensure that, once connected, young people are empowered with the tools they need to shape their own futures.

Our partners are a huge part of our work, supporting us with both financial resources and in-kind support. We currently have a portfolio of a small group of major financial partners, and a larger group of others who provide technical assistance on important projects, including data sharing, cost model development, and more.

You can read more about Giga’s work at https://gigaconnect.org/ and by following us on twitter @Gigaconnect

How can you make a difference?

We are seeking a strong and committed Strategy Advisor who is:

• Motivated to create and grow Giga’s program across multiple functional areas of work
• Interested in exploring the ways in which Giga can achieve its mission to connect every young person to the internet
• Inspired to redefine partnership models and find new ways of collaborating to bring value to our work

Your main responsibilities will be ...

• Support Giga Lead to scale and develop strategic partnerships for programmatic growth, support across team functions on an as-needed basis
• Lead on select team-wide coordination activities, including bi-weekly team meetings, tracking of executive-level priorities, and workplanning
• Develop strategies for organizational change, resource management, strategic planning, executive reporting and messaging, etc.
• Advise and guide team leads (particularly on Mapping and Data/Technology) on an as-needed basis to identify needs for and guide development of core products, and report on progress and challenges to Giga Lead
• Identify “team needs” (during regular team meetings, for example) and advise on development of solutions, with support of Programme Coordinator and inputs from leads
• Provide coordination on efforts related to process tracking, issue and external request prioritization and triage, product development, and general upkeep of core deliverables

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in in business administration, public administration, communication, design, or other relevant field *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 years of experience in project management, partnerships, strategic planning, stakeholder/network/community management and engagement of communication
• Demonstrated experience in project management for complex initiatives, including use of innovative tools and systems
• Demonstrated experience with communication tools and channels for distributed projects
• Experience in working with and coordinating diverse groups of stakeholders at senior levels and across sectors
• Experience in data analysis and presentation for a range of audiences
• Experience in partnership development and management
• Some knowledge of open licensing desired
• Some knowledge of technology for development will be considered an advantage
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English 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).

The competencies required for this post are….

• Builds and maintains partnerships - Lv 2
• Innovates and embraces change - Lv 2
• Manages ambiguity and complexity - Lv 2
• Thinks and acts strategically – Lv 2
• Works collaboratively with others – Lv 2

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 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.

Apply now

Potential interview questions

Added 4 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org