HOPE - Humanitarian Cash Operation and Programme Ecosystem Developer Consultant, New York, 11.5 Months 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

As part of its HCT scale-up plan, UNICEF has developed an integrated software called HOPE - Humanitarian cash Operations and Programme Ecosystem. HOPE is UNICEF’s humanitarian cash transfer management information system. HOPE can (i) collect beneficiary data, (ii) associate data with cash programmes, (iii) create target population (iv) manage payment lists (v) send them to Financial Service Providers (FSP), (vi) reconcile payments, (vii) triangulate payment verification information directly from beneficiaries, (viii) handle grievances and feedback, as well as (iv) reporting. HOPE development was led by the Office of Emergency Programmes (EMOPS) with technical support from Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD) and the Division of Administration, Finance and Management (DFAM). UNICEF’s objective is to deploy HOPE in five countries in 2021 and up to thirty countries in the five years to come. HOPE enhances the quality of programmes implementing Humanitarian Cash Transfers (HCT) by increasing compliance with UNICEF guidance and tools and ensuring accountability and traceability of the information managed.

Following the Principles for Digital Development, in particular the “reuse and improve” and “collaborative” concepts, HOPE integrates existing solutions used by the humanitarian community and contributes to their improvement, aiming at further developing these solutions as a public good. For example, Kobo Toolbox was chosen for its widespread use in the humanitarian community as the main mobile digital data collection tool to be integrated with HOPE. UNICEF enhancements to use Kobo Toolbox as part of the HOPE ecosystem are going to be accessible by all users of this platforms. RapidPro was integrated within HOPE as a real-time monitoring solution to engage with beneficiaries and match their responses with their assistance records to verify that payments were received.

Lastly, UNICEF partnered with UNHCR to enhance CashAssist as the payment management solution to handle financial information and safely transfer them to Financial Service Providers.

How can you make a difference?

The exact tasks for the consultant will be jointly determined in an agile way and are outlined in summary below. The consultant will be supervised in respect to its strategic interaction with the HOPE team by EMOPS Humanitarian Cash Transfer Beneficiary Data System Specialist. The consultant will also interface on a technical level with the HOPE Solution Architect and will work on tasks/areas as prioritized by the Solution Architect at the start of each week. Upon completion of tasks, the EMOPS Humanitarian Cash Transfer Beneficiary Data System Specialist will certify completeness and quality of work for monthly payment.

• Support the MIS development team to undertake software development and testing activities, assist with writing test scripts / bug fixes, and add or improve code organization and documentation.
• Document or update the relevant tickets in Azure DevOps based on code review to tackle possible misalignment between business needs and code.
• Support in all levels of testing and leverage user acceptance testing to ensure functional and non-functional requirements are met and aligned with specifications.
• Systematically review the HOPE python code and flag anomalies and potential bottlenecks.
• Contribute in writing code under the guidance of the HOPE Solution Architect and in concert with UNICEF Vendor.
• Familiarize themself with HOPE code structure and integration point and support the HOPE Solution Architect in any level 3 support needs
• Participate in technical internal and interagency discussions on MIS collaboration modalities to inform any changes in the UNICEF MIS requirements and documents.
• Develop and maintain the automated test cases using relevant software
• Perform functional and manual regression tests during development Sprints.
• Execute the automated test scripts during the Sprints when applicable.
• Participate regularly in development Sprint meetings.
• Enter defects in Azure DevOps when applicable.
• Validate any defects that were identified during the various Sprints.
• Review and prepare the manual test cases and the functional requirements for the components that will integrate with other areas of the UNICEF/UN landscape.
• Maintain the test data for manual and automated testing.
• Work with the HOPE Project Team, Third-party vendors (where applicable) and the business users to ensure complete test coverage

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

• Education: Advanced university degree in Information Technology, Finance, Business process management or relevant field.

Experience: A minimum of 3 year of work experience in software development.

At least 3 year of demonstrated knowledge and experience in:

• Web architecture
• Python 3.x programming language
• Django 2.x/3.x framework
• Agile methodologies
• Testing frameworks and methodologies

Languages: Fluency in English

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.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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

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:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.