Individual Consultancy: Learning Passport Technology Deployment - COVID-19 Emergency, UNICEF Lebanon, 6 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, an advocate

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE:

The Learning Passport is a UNICEF Supported Digital Education Platform, delivered through a partnership between UNICEF, Microsoft, and Cambridge, that: 1. provides local, contextualized content (like national curriculum), with a supplementary library of global content, mapped together via research by Cambridge 2. provides a platform to serve this content to children and youth online or offline, via a platform being developed by Microsoft 3. with an individualized record of learning for a user, that is portable across physical and digital borders

Learning Passport and the COVID-19 Response The Learning passport, as an extraordinary emergency response offer from UNICEF and Microsoft, will create Country-level sites available on request, to offices that would like to continue access to curriculum for students with connectivity at home.

What will this provide to learners: Continued access to their formal curriculum, online. In addition, supplementary content can be populated and offered (i.e. content that relates to the curriculum, or alternative content like COVID-19 messaging, digital skills content, etc.), alongside the curriculum. In short, the key focus of this initiative is learning, quality, and portability for children whose education has been disrupted by emergencies.

PURPOSE:

Under the supervision of the Learning Passport Global Program Manager and the Chief of Youth and Adolescence Programme, Lebanon Country Office, the consultant is required to provide the following services:

1. Lead UNICEF Lebanon Country Office in the rapid deployment of Learning Passport Platform, providing technical assistance in the localizing the technology, curating content, coordinating various actors, and provide regular reports to Country Office and global teams; 2. Serve as lead for local troubleshooting and user support; 3. Serve as a key focal point to management, Government of Lebanon, content creators, regional and global UNICEF stakeholders; 4. Provide on-the-ground support to users (learners, teachers) and stakeholders at key moments of engagement. Support may include sourcing and uploading content in collaboration with Youth, Education and Child Protection Staff and government agencies, creating categories, courses, and lessons, and providing analytical reports from data aggregated by the platform; 5. Provide technical support to Country Office procuring digital content services (e.g. curation, digitization, localization, production), quality-assuring their deliverables from a digital perspective; 6. Create and manage a Learning Passport Platform community among UNICEF staff and national partners engaged in deployments, producing knowledge management resources and organizing activities to ensure collaboration among members of the community and documenting lessons learned challenges, and good practices; 7. Provide inputs and support the drafting of reports to internal and external stakeholders and funders of the Learning Passport (grants’ reports, annual results report, needed updates, etc.); 8. Scope complementary ICT for learning and Edtech tools that could be integrated to support Learning Passport related technology efforts; 9. Other activities needed to support the purpose of this contract.

As a long-term consultancy with on-going responsibilities throughout the consultancy timeframe, the consultant will be paid on a monthly basis on the submission of the monthly deliverables.

How can you make a difference?

Below is the full work assignment expected results:

Work Assignment Expected Results_LP_Consultant.pdf

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

• Advanced degree in education, information technology, statistics, communication, engineering, or another relevant field. In lieu of a specific academic field, relevant experience may be considered to meet this requirement.
• At least 5 years of professional work experience in Technology for Development (T4D) and/or information system development, including mobile and web-based applications, with the manifested capacity to manage programs involving many stakeholders. Specific experience on ICT for learning or digital learning is an advantage.

Specific Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Experience managing user-driven design processes for UX/UI. • Experience in digital learning design. • Proven training and capacity building skills for a range of stakeholders. • Good technical understanding and familiarity with information management systems. • Knowledge of at least Teams, SharePoint, GitHub, Trello, Jira, Aha. • Excellent communication abilities, in both written and oral forms. Consultant should be at ease in presentations and meetings with D-level (UN) or C-level (private sector) executives. • Demonstrated ability and experience in coordination, and able to work under pressure is required. • Fluency in English is a minimum requirement. Knowledge of French, Arabic, or Spanish would be an advantage.

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.

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:

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 application will be reviewed under the best value for money principle, thus only applications with financial proposal will be considered (total fees to be quoted in USD)