Consultancy: Innovation Engagement Consultant, Office of Innovation, Stockholm, Sweden, 96 days over eight (8) months (Part-Time /Home-Based))

Contract

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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 start-up 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, ideas and solutions can meet their vital needs. We do this by:

• Connecting children, adolescent, and 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 Global Innovation Strategy 2.0 strategy and aims to achieve critical shifts in the way UNICEF currently works on innovation, building on what has been successful, while also addressing lessons learned and capitalizing on new opportunities. These critical shifts are:

1. Setting global priorities based on the needs of children and young people, focusing on those areas with the largest need.
2. Focusing on scaling innovations
3. Catalyzing inventions where no known solution exists.
4. Connecting the organization and convening critical stakeholders to solve the most pressing challenges facing children and young people.

These shifts will be enabled by:

1. Establishing a portfolio management approach
2. Innovative funding and financing and the application of financial engineering
3. Ensuring rapid learning and fostering collaboration
4. Building innovation culture and competence across UNICEF.

For every child...innovate

How can you make a difference?

The incumbent will be responsible for providing support with focus on engagement, technical writing, and portfolio support, working closely with the innovation governance secretariat, innovation portfolios, and relevant teams.

Key areas of work:

• Board/committee engagement coordination.
• Portfolio Support.
• Technical writing.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Support in the management of the innovation governance secretariat with focus on communication and engagement.
• Provide portfolio support to drive the innovation portfolio discipline and approach in alignment with the governance frameworks working closely with division, regions, and countries.
• Assist in design and preparation for governance and portfolio engagement materials (Global Innovation Board, Innovation Steering Committee, Thematic team, Regional/Country Innovation meetings) not limited to articles, background documents, presentation, position papers, newsletters, meeting summary, presentations, and relevant materials including folders.
• Develop country support packages, lesson learnt and best practices on innovation portfolio governance, approach, and discipline with a cross-portfolio lens.
• Monitor and document follow-up actions and next steps.

Please find attached the full ToR (Terms of Reference) with related information. TOR Engagement Consultant_Updated.pdf

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in one of the following fields is required: International Relations, Business Administration, or related field.
• A minimum of 1-2 years of relevant professional experience is required in the areas of innovation and/or social and economic development and cooperation.
• Proven thematic experience in supporting innovation portfolio management and coordination.
• Proven written communication, presentation, and coordination skills, working with multiple audience.
• Good design and documentation experience.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Travel:

• Home based.

  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.

• Payment schedules as per outlined tasks are: Please see more details in the above attached ToR (Terms of Reference). TOR_Engagement Consultant_Updated.pdf

How to apply:

• Interest applicant is required to submit a financial proposal with all-inclusive fee. Please see the financial proposal template. Consultancy Financial Offer template.docx
• Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance.
• Applications 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.

Contact: For any queries, please contact: swe-ooi-recruitments@unicef.org