Finance Specialist Consultant, Office of Innovation, Giga, Geneva, Switzerland, 12 months (Remote)

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, innovation...

About Giga

Launched in 2019 as a joint initiative between UNICEF and ITU, Giga has set the ambitious goal to connect every school in the world to the internet.

Half of the world’s population has no regular access to the Internet. Millions of children leave school without any digital skills, making it much more difficult for them to thrive and contribute to local and global economies. This has created a digital divide between those who are connected and those who are not, a divide that has become even wider during the Covid-19 pandemic. UNICEF and ITU have therefore joined forces to create Giga, an initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet and address this new form of inequality.

Giga focuses on connecting schools so that children and young people have access to information, opportunity, and choice. It also uses schools as anchor points for their surrounding communities: if you connect the school, you can also connect local businesses and services. This creates opportunities for service providers to generate revenue from paying users, making connectivity more sustainable. A 2021 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%.

You cannot fix a problem unless you can see it, so the first step is to map schools and their connectivity levels. Giga uses machine learning to scan satellite images and identify schools. These are then marked by colored dots on an open-source map: green where there is good connectivity (over 5mb/s); amber where it is limited; and red where there is no connectivity at all.

Just as building railroads allowed previously isolated towns to flourish, providing good quality Internet access will allow communities to participate in the digital economy for the first time. But Giga’s work in laying the tracks for connectivity is only one part of a wider effort to bridge the digital divide. UNICEF’s Reimagine Education initiative brings all of this work together and has set the goal of connecting every child and young person – some 3.5 billion - to world-class digital learning solutions by 2030. In addition to Giga, it includes components focusing on the affordability of data and content, access to devices, teacher certification and the engagement of young people. Along with ITU’s digital skills programme and other initiatives, Reimagine Education aims to ensure that, once connected, young people are empowered with the tools they need to shape their own futures.

You can read more about Giga’s work at https://giga.global/ and by following us on twitter @Gigaglobal

How can you make a difference?

1. Capital formation. Giga seeks to mobilize $5B in catalytic capital to jumpstart connectivity projects, securing donor pledges, development loans, private capital, and other non-traditional sources of project funding.

Leading outreach to existing and prospective financial supporters, including:

• Advancing a dedicated Giga financing vehicle for school connectivity.
• Articulating Giga’s unique vision to public and private sector partners.
• Building bespoke financial models and clearly explain their outputs and implications.

2. Finance Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement. Giga seeks to deepen and operationalize relationships that have been cultivated at the multilateral, regional and national levels.

Leading partnership and stakeholder engagement efforts by:

• Expanding and leveraging relationships with key stakeholders, including development banks and institutional investors to advance connectivity projects, in coordination with UNICEF’s Public Partnerships Division and Private Fundraising and Partnership Division.
• Designing and deploying joint financing mechanisms.
• Coordinate multi-stakeholder efforts to gather data, conduct economic and financial analysis, and assess the potential impact of connectivity investments.
• Supporting UNICEF country offices and corresponding directly with local authorities, as appropriate.
• Serving as a thought leader and finance expert within UNICEF and ITU.

3. Project Level Financing Solutions.

Leading project pipeline development by:

• Building and articulating economic and business cases for investment in connectivity projects.
• Supporting project preparation and scoping efforts, including an assessment of project costs and cost-benefit analysis of technology solutions.
• Structuring project-specific solutions, speaking to projects and related finance strategies in detail.

Please access the full ToR with related information here 2023 - TOR Giga Finance Specialist (Revised).pdf

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

• Experience designing and developing business plans is an asset.
• Experience in telecommunication infrastructure sector is an asset.
• Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.
• Experience in a UN system agency or organization some of which served in a developing country is considered as an asset.
• University degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance or related field; Having master’s degree in related field would be an asset.
• Minimum 5 years of professional work experience of financing/finance advisory role in, or to, emerging and developing countries.
• Ability to perform project-level financial analysis, macroeconomic analysis and build financial models.
• Demonstrated strong skills in Power Point and Excel
• Demonstrated strong writing and presentation skills in English.
• Ability to effectively work and coordinate in a multiple stakeholder environment, IFI experience preferred but not required.
• Ability to work with a diverse team in a rapidly changing work environment and adapt to unforeseen changes.
• Experience working in the intersection of development/donor organizations, public finance, and commercial sector is an asset.

Travel

• The consultant is expected to travel one time to Geneva, Switzerland, which will require a stay of up to 5 working days.
• The consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.

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.
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance.
• Consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.

How to apply:

• Interest applicant is required to submit a financial proposal with all-inclusive fee.
• 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.

Please find attached the financial proposal template Consultancy Financial Offer template.docx

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.