Giga Data and Country Coordination Consultant, Office of Innovation, 12 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, 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.

About UNICEF

UNICEF has a 75-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.

How can you make a difference?

Under the leadership of the Country Engagement Adviser, the Officer will coordinate engagement with UNICEF Country Offices and, where relevant, other national stakeholders, for implementation of Giga in priority countries. This includes acting as the liaison between the Country Offices and the Giga Mapping team, coordinating data and mapping activities at the country level, ensuring reception of quality and completeness of school location and connectivity data and engagement of relevant stakeholders, tracking, and coordinating Giga in-country implementation on an ongoing basis.

Your main responsibilities will be, but not limited to the following:

• Support to Country Offices in their initial requests for support and information on Giga mapping and technology while coordinating with appropriate UNICEF and ITU Regional Offices.
• Support in-country implementation of mapping and technology products in Giga countries.
• Track implementation status of mapping and tech activities in each region and maintain up-to-date data in project management tool.
• Liaise between Country Offices and Giga Mapping team to support Country Offices with all materials, guidance and feedback required to complete the activities under the Giga Mapping pillar (which include adding all accurate school location and connectivity status data to Project Connect and deploying the real-time monitoring system for connectivity data).

Please click here to access the full ToR and related information TOR - Giga Data and Country Coordination Specialist - 2023 format.pdf

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in statistics, economics, social sciences, development sciences, and management or related degree is required. *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.
• 3-5 years of experience in the field of development, ideally within UNICEF, and with experience or strong exposure to programming in Country Offices.
• Experience in facilitating engagements with an array of partners at the national/reginal level, i.e., international development organisations, government entities, regulators, or civil society, etc.
• Experience with data visualizations and modelling would be considered an asset.
• Understanding of AI algorithms such as deep learning, UNET would be considered an asset.
• Experience with geospatial data processing would be considered an asset.
• Experience in monitoring and reporting.
• Strong planning/organizing skills.
• Knowledge of national policy frameworks related to technology development, implementation, and infrastructure development is desired.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including presentation skills.
• Proven capacity to work with collaborative teams across different locations and with different technical skills.
• Proven experience in translating complex ideas from various fields into unified, clear guidance.
• Fluency in English is 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, 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.