Consultancy - Youth Innovation, Office of Innovation, Remote, 40 days within 3 months

Consultant Programme & Policy Innovation

Overview

Manage and innovate youth programming for social impact

You have:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Social Sciences, Humanities, International Relations, Economics, Business or other relevant field.
• 5 years of professional work experience in a relevant field, such as innovation, social innovation or entrepreneurship.
• Experience in social innovation and entrepreneurship projects/programmes, including bootcamps and mentoring processes.
• Experience in engaging and empowering adolescents and youth, especially the most marginalized.
• Experience in developing and delivering engaging virtual training activities and events.
• Fluency in English is required, strong written and verbal competency is necessary.
• Working knowledge of Arabic would be 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...

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 startup 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.

The Office of Innovation specifically looks to form partnerships around frontier technologies (like drones and UAVs, blockchain, 21st century skills, urban technologies, new banking tools, wearables and sensors, or 3D-Printing) that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets and 1 billion person needs – and to identify how they can grow and scale profitably and inclusively.

UPSHIFT

UPSHIFT is one of the priority projects in the Office of Innovation. UPSHIFT is a youth social innovation and social entrepreneurship programme, designed to build skills and opportunities for young people who are disadvantaged, due to (for example) poverty, gender, disability or ethnicity. The programme combines social innovation workshops, mentorship, incubation and seed funding, to equip young people with the skills and resources they need to identify problems in their own communities and design solutions for them. While young people build skills for life, employment and social entrepreneurship through UPSHIFT; their wider communities benefit from the solutions they create.

Projects Partnership

The PROSPECTS Partnership aims to transform the way governments and other stakeholders, including the private sector, respond to forced displacement crises – and in particular:

(1) to enhance the enabling environment for the socio-economic inclusion of forcibly displaced persons (to mitigate their plight during years of exile and to best prepare them for their return);

(2) to enhance access to education and child protection for vulnerable children on the move; and

(3) to strengthen the resilience of host communities through inclusive socio-economic development that also benefits forcibly displaced persons.

The Partnership has a four-year initial time horizon (2019-2023). Financially supported by the Netherlands, partners will join their efforts to develop a new paradigm in responding to forced displacement crises. The Partnership is focused on three broad area that are critical for refugees to overcome their specific vulnerabilities and for host communities to pursue their own development agenda in a transformed environment: (i) jobs/social protection; and (ii) education and learning; and (iii) protection and legal status – with a view to pursuing sustainable and integrated approaches. Each institution will contribute in areas where it has a comparative advantage.

Operational activities are focused on two regions: The Middle East and North Africa (Jordan, Lebanon) and the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda). Activities are expected to cover both forcibly displaced persons (including refugees and internally displaced persons) and host communities in an integrated manner, as well as other vulnerable groups living in the same areas, as may be relevant in each context.

Under the PROSPECTS partnership, UNICEF’s ADAP and Innovation teams will be organizing a learning series for UNICEF country offices and PROSPECTS partners to build knowledge and expertise in the utilization of UNICEF’s young people programming resources, specifically the Adolescent Kit for Expression and Innovation and UPSHIFT. This will be achieved through a series of virtual trainings, tailored mentorship and coaching. The objective of this joint ADAP-Innovation activity is to:

1. Share information on available tested and widely used resources for adolescent empowerment, social innovation and entrepreneurship;
2. Support the country offices in identifying the best fitted mix of resources for their specific needs and parameters, as relevant;
3. Build the capacities of the country offices and the implementing partners to apply these resources within their programmatic interventions supporting the delivery of the PROSPECTS results;
4. Provide technical assistance, as needed, to the country offices in integrating these activities into wider programming (future MACPEs and beyond)

How can you make a difference?

This role will support (1) the design, delivery and overall management of the “PROSPECTS Learning Series for Young People Programming” and (2) more specifically this role will support the development and delivery of the UPSHIFT capacity building sessions. This role requires a flexible, can-do mindset, with deliverables subject to change, as we learn in real-time.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Design and end-to-end management of the Learning Series process, including liaising with country offices, regional offices, ADAP PD and PROSPECTS partners (World Bank, IFC, UNHCR, ILO), managing all logistics(invites, email follow-ups, session management and support…)
• Design and run an engaging online learning series through leveraging technology and latest innovation platforms and tools
• Develop and co-deliver content for the UPSHIFT sessions (presentations, pre/post-surveys, working material)
• Provide remote technical support and advice to UNICEF PROSPECTS Country Offices
• Develop internal and external communication material with the support of in-house designer
• Document the lessons learnt and best practices of the learning series into a 5-page document for future reference

Please note that the support and lead responsibilities may be varied, by mutual agreement.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Social Sciences, Humanities, International Relations, Economics, 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.
• 5 years of professional work experience in a relevant field, such as innovation, social innovation or entrepreneurship.
• Experience in working on social innovation and social entrepreneurship projects/programmes, including the design of bootcamps, incubation and mentoring processes, including communication, multi-stakeholder engagement including private sector, and managing relations with those stakeholders who support; ecosystem engagement.
• Experience in working with organizations focused on engaging and empowering adolescents and youth, especially the most marginalized
• Experience in developing and delivering engaging virtual training activities and events
• Experience in working with multiple countries and with multiple stakeholders
• Fluency in English is required, strong written and verbal competency is necessary
• Working knowledge of Arabic would be 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...

• Communication (verbal and written) (L 2)
• Working with People (L 2)
• Drive for Results (L 1)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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

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.

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Potential interview questions

Added 5 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org