Consultant - Senior Researcher - State of Play report of digital inclusion investments, initiatives, and impact for refugee and displaced populations - Home Based - ECW - Hosted Funds - REQ

Consultant Teaching & Training Programme & Policy Monitoring & Evaluation

Overview

Lead research and analysis for the digital inclusion of refugees and displaced populations.

You have:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in finance, economics, statistics, social sciences, law, or related field.
• A minimum of FIVE years of relevant professional experience in the area of research and analysis, and developing written products with a focus on education, digital learning and displaced populations.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
• Excellent understanding of the global landscape, debates, policies, processes, and actors linked to education of refugees and displaced populations and digital learning and inclusion.
• Outstanding oral and written communication skills.
• Strong ICT skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office software.

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, EDUCATION

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies (Hub) are co-developing and publishing a State of Play report on digital inclusion investments, initiatives, and impact for refugees and displaced populations. The report will provide an overview of the Refugee Connected Education Challenge (RCEC) partner-led investments and initiatives promoting digital inclusion for refugees and displaced populations and review current status and gaps against education commitments to the RCEC and GRF. It will look at the holistic digital inclusion through key components ranging from infrastructure to digital educational development and to pedagogy and training, examine the gaps that need to be bridged and provide recommendations and call for actions for further investment prior to Global Refugee Forum.

Background:

COVID-19 has exacerbated pre-existing inequities and risks offsetting prior educational gains, particularly for the most marginalized learners, including refugee and displaced students. As the world turned to digitally supported education to provide continuous learning opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of forcibly displaced learners, and their host communities, were left out — digitally divided from their peers and from the globe. Refugee- and displaced people hosting schools are simply not equipped with the digital resources, skills, and knowledge needed to foster learners who can succeed in an increasingly digital world.

The pandemic has seen digital learning solutions be rapidly scaled-up and deployed worldwide to support continuity of learning during school closures and to mitigate the learning losses, but refugees were largely left out. Even when governments have made digital learning modalities available, uptake and learning are not guaranteed. In practice, the level of infrastructure, availability of technology and connectivity, and digital skills and literacy in the majority of settings have prevented most refugee learners from meaningfully accessing these resources. As the world becomes increasingly digitally dependent, these investments in digital learning need to be dramatically scaled to ensure all refugees, and their host communities, are digitally included and can develop their digital skills alongside strengthening other foundational literacy, numeracy, and broader life skills.

The extent of the digital divide highlights the urgency and importance of mobilizing actors and action to ensure refugees and displaced populations are digitally included. The goal of the Refugee Connected Education Challenge is to ensure refugee-hosting schools and communities are meaningfully included within all global and national connectivity and digital learning programmes planned between now and 2030. The Challenge stems from the Global Compact on Refugees as a framework for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing and is aligned to the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) as a means of translating the principle of international responsibility into action. The Challenge calls on all of society’s stakeholders, governments, private sector and partners to make strong financial, technical and in-kind commitments to help narrow the digital divide faced by displaced learners.

How can you make a difference?

Scope:

The report will provide an up-to-date global overview and analysis of the state of investment and action on refugee and displaced populations’ inclusion in digital learning. The report will provide background, current state of play, what has been learned and call for action.

The background will provide a brief overview of digital inclusion of refugees and displaced populations, outlining the large digital divide between displaced learners and their peers (global picture, challenges, needs). This section will build on the outcomes of the Transforming Education Summit Digital Learning action track and will provide a deeper understanding of the global picture related to refugees and connected education – addressing the challenges and gaps as a rationale to drive investment.

The state of play will capture a snapshot of the global landscape and efforts from across RCEC partners with an overview of partner initiatives/investments to date across key dimensions ranging from infrastructure to digital educational content, pedagogy, and training, presenting a broad overview of what partners are doing in this space, as well as assessing partner progress on digital inclusion of refugee.

The report will capture lessons learned derived from the mapping and analysis of partners’ work, and end with a final section presenting the investment case leading into the HLFC and the 2023 GRF. This will include priority areas for investment and collaboration as outlined by countries and among partners, as well as areas to strengthen based on partner experiences and lessons learned. It will provide an idea of what existing and new partners can do to support the digital inclusion of refugees, calling for more engagement and wider partnership to achieve the common vision.

The target audience of the report will be donors, partners, policy and decision-makers across the humanitarian-development system. It will be launched at the ECW High-Level Financing Conference in February 2023.

Methodology and management arrangements:

The methodology will include a desk and literature review, analysis, and key partner interviews and surveys. Consultations will be held virtually, primarily in English with the possibility of additional UN languages, and include ECW, UNHCR, the Geneva Global Hub for EiE and various RCEC partners.

The consultant will work with the guidance and support of ECW and UNHCR to produce the report, as well as feedback from the EiE Hub members. Key RCEC partners will provide strategic and substantive input on the production of the report including feedback on drafts of all the key outputs. The consultant will coordinate with UNHCR’s report focal point in the drafting of the report, provide regular updates to ECW and UNHCR on progress and incorporate feedback from partners.

The report will build upon other global publications with a focus on digital inclusion for refugees, including the INEE global report, Connected Education for Refugees: Addressing the Digital Divide, and the upcoming GEM 2023 report with a focus on Education and Technology et.

Key outputs:

The assignment will include the following deliverables:

• Inception report (5 pages)
• Final report (15-25 pages with visuals)
• Briefing note/Report summary (3-5 pages)

The key output will be the final report (max. 25-pages) which will include an executive summary, analysis, key findings, visuals, partner examples and recommendations aimed at the target audience.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in finance, economics, statistics, social sciences, law, or related field.
• A minimum of FIVE years of relevant professional experience in the area of research and analysis, and developing written products with a focus on education, digital learning and displaced populations.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
• Excellent understanding of the global landscape, debates, policies, processes, and actors linked to education of refugees and displaced populations and digital learning and inclusion.
• Outstanding oral and written communication skills.
• Strong ICT skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office software.

Core Competencies required:

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drives to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

Functional Competencies required:

• Analysing (2)
• Persuading and influencing (1)
• Applying technical expertise (2)
• Learning and researching (2)
• Planning and organizing (1)

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.

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Potential interview questions

Added 3 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org