Consultancy, Mentor, Evidence of impact, 50 days within 6 months, Remote

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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 the realization of children’s rights are key to improving children’s lives.

Worldwide, we innovate to tackle the most pressing problems faced by the most vulnerable children. We take a systematic approach to innovation, applying skills and energy across new tools and technologies, products, innovative financing and new ways of working to boost our impact.

The Office of Innovation is a creative, unique and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organisation that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, the tools, the know-how and the partners that turn ideas and energy into scalable solutions for children.

The UNICEF Innovation Fund, coordinated by the Office of Innovation, has been specifically designed to finance early stage, open-source technology that can benefit children. The core motivation of the Innovation Fund is to identify "clusters" or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology - so that UNICEF can both shape markets and also learn about and guide these technologies to benefit children. We invest in solutions that can impact the lives of the most vulnerable children. We find these solutions clustered around $100 billion industries in frontier technology spaces, such as: UAVs, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, nano-satellites, and human dynamics. With $34,9M raised to date, the Innovation Fund is scaling its investment portfolio with the aim of investing in 20 start-ups every year, and provides funding to UNICEF’s Country Office -led projects. The current portfolio of companies consists of several cohorts developing and piloting solutions in virtual and augmented reality, data science and artificial intelligence, blockchain, UAVs, IoT, and in assistive technology.

How can you make a difference?

This is a part time mentor role within the Office of Innovation, reporting to the Venture Fund team. You are an experienced professional in impact evidence generation, particularly in the context of early stage innovation. You have the ability to integrate the generation of evidence of impact (improved effectiveness, efficiency or reach) and insights that bring value for business. You will work with emerging technology startups onboarded to Venture Fund investment to integrate lean impact evidence generation to their workplans from the beginning of the investments. You will also develop basic onboarding tools / checklists for startups to help them generate and track impact evidence. Building on the learnings from working with a cohort of investees, you will support the Venture Fund team in defining how impact results measurement and evidence generation can be integrated into the existing support structure and process for startups.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Review of how the Venture Fund is framing the evidence of impact and provide recommendations
• Develop onboarding tools and checklists for startups that receive investment from the UNICEF Venture Fund, to support them in setting up lean and agile ways to track and generate evidence of impact (improved effectiveness, efficiency or reach) of the solutions
• In close coordination with the portfolio manager and business mentor, work with 3 cohorts of startups at the early stage, bridge funding stage and acceleration stage (total approx. 15 companies) to support each company in defining a social impact evidence and insights gathering plan
• Building on the learnings from working with a cohort of investees, develop recommendations on how lean impact results measurement and evidence generation can be integrated into the existing support structure and process for startups

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

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields: social science, technology, international development, business administration or other relevant field.

• A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 10 years of professional experience may be used in lieu of an Advanced Degree.

• A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in impact management and evidence generation, particularly in the context of early stage innovation & technology

• Experience in applying lean methods of data collection and on quantitative and qualitative evidence generation methods to produce actionable insights and robust evidence
• A track record of providing mentorship and assistance to start-ups
• Experience of identifying and developing technical assistance tools for companies

• Demonstrable understanding (and ideally experience) of how frontier technology can be applied to social impact solutions

• Experience of working (and ideally innovating) with and for children in resource poor environments

• An understanding of UNICEF programmes, policy, and principles
• Proven capacity to work with collaborative teams across different locations and with different technical skills
• Experience in knowledge sharing, capacity building or training for innovation is desirable
• 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) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Drive to achieve results for impact (Level 2)
• Innovates and embraces change (Level 2)
• Thinks and acts strategically (Level 2)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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.

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

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.