Consultancy: The Innovation Specialist (Hub Resource Mobilization & Coordinator) Office of Innovation, 11.5 months (Remote)

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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.

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 can meet their vital needs. We do this by:

• Connecting 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.

Our team We're an interdisciplinary team around the world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling new technologies and practices. With our partners, we focus on convening and collaborating on new and different solutions, low- and high-tech.

Unlocking transformational change for children on a global scale requires us to come together with committed, forward-thinking partners to rapidly and significantly expand investment in the development and scale-up of innovations that address the most pressing problems facing children.

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF has embarked on a major initiative to reimagine its innovation function and ambition to achieve the SDGs for children. UNICEF Global Innovation Strategy and Framework 2.0 sets the direction and outlines the deliberate choices that align innovation with UNICEF’s strategic goals. The Office of Innovation (OOI) is accountable for implementing the strategy.

We need to urgently delineate new partnership and social development business models, promising a radical disruption towards “business as usual”, effecting transformational change and driving impact for children.

UNICEF is establishing a distributed organizational model for innovation anchored by OOI HQ and a network of issue-focused innovation Hubs that work in close partnership with key field locations, supported by deep expertise knowledge nodes. We have established 3 Global Innovation Hubs (Innovative Finance Hub in Helsinki, Learning Innovation Hub in Helsinki, and Sustainable WASH Innovation Hub in Copenhagen.)

This new geographically dispersed model of issue-focused innovation Hubs, combined with our presence in over 190 countries and territories, is enabling UNICEF to be closely interconnected with some of the most impactful global ecosystems, attracting and leveraging resources required to scale successful solutions, strengthen ground-truthing, and ensure innovations are designed and tested for, with, and by the end-users.

You’re invited to join the team to support our engagement and coordination to secure 3 new, innovation Hubs focused on Climate Change, Health and Mental Health.

Your main responsibilities will be:

The Innovation Specialist (Hub Resource Mobilization & Coordinator) will complete deliverables towards securing 3 additional new Global Innovation Hubs focused on Climate Change, Health and Mental Health.

S/he will work directly with and under the matrixed supervision of the Director, OOI; Senior Adviser on Innovation (HQ & Nodes) and Senior Adviser on Innovation (Partnerships & Communication) and in close collaboration with the Chief of Operations.

Description of assignment

S/he will:

• Create and maintain a plan of work covering these 3 hubs’ prospecting for hosts and resources, and fulfil the role of project manager, being on top of the status, routine meetings, and effective internal and external communication
• Under supervision of OOI, provide support to the Government of Rwanda (GoR) in their work to secure the sustainable funding and resources to secure the hosting of the Global Health Innovation Hub in Kigali, Rwanda. Including travel to Rwanda to provide in-person engagement, expertise and support.
• Apply professional partner management and diverse resource mobilization expertise to prospect and secure a host and sustainable resourcing for establishing the Global Mental Health Innovation Hub.
• Apply professional partner management and diverse resource mobilization expertise to prospect and secure a host and sustainable resourcing for establishing the Global Climate Change Innovation Hub.
• Produce a Global Innovation Hub Playbook, a guide to the process and advice on prospecting and establishing a Hub informed by gathering of lessons learned.
• Design, implement and maintain effective knowledge management of the Hub Prospecting work and effective internal communication on this work

Please find attached ToR and related information The Innovation Specialist (Hub Resource Mobilization & Coordinator) _ToR.docx

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

• An advanced university degree* (Master’s) in humanities, social sciences, international development, innovation, business 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 8 years of relevant professional experience i.e. work experience, in fundraising and resource mobilization in an international context, among multilaterals and the private sector, government relations/government affairs.
• Must be highly skilled in navigating complex organizational and stakeholder ecosystems and have demonstrated experience.
• Demonstrated strength in interpersonal skills, dealing with conflict, and experience in working in diverse, multi-cultural environments.
• Ability to prioritize competing priorities, be self-managing and highly organized.

• Familiarity of innovation applied in a development or humanitarian contexts is an asset.

• Demonstrated communication skills. Fluency in English required, a strong writer and oral communicator. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish), or Kinyarwanda is an asset.

Travel:

• The successful candidate will be expected to make a number of trips and spend dedicated time in Kigali, Rwanda in order to complete deliverable 3. Your financial proposal must include the cost of:
  • 3 x trips to Kigali, Rwanda spending an estimated 9 weeks in Kigali divided across those 3 trips.
• The consultant is responsible for arranging his/her own travel, including visa and travel insurance.

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.

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.