UNHCR Innovation Service, is mandated by UNHCR to help nurture and support a culture of innovation within UNHCR. To achieve its strategy and goals, the Innovation Service implements five strategic Programmes, namely: 1) Digital Innovation 2) Refugee Led Innovation 3) Data Innovation 4) Environment and Climate Action Innovation and 5) Innovation Learning. These programmes provide UNHCR teams and Refugees with both funding and technical support to develop innovative solutions. In addition, the Service will be launching an accelerator program to support innovative pilot projects in their journey to scale. These programmes require extensive fundraising and partnership building support.

The Innovation Officer – Partnerships position will have a pivotal role within UNHCR's Innovation Service. The incumbent will serve as the primary liaison between the Innovation Service and PSP / DRRM teams within UNHCR. The role involves building and sustaining relationships with various partners, including private sector entities and governmental donors, facilitated through the relevant teams within UNHCR, such as DRRM and PSP. The incumbent, will be responsible for identifying funding opportunities, providing intelligence on potential donors, leading partnership management related activities such as preparing proposals, reports, and communication materials for donors as well as supporting the fundraising efforts. The scope of responsibilities extends to include managing collaborations and potential partnerships with organizations/companies beyond the financial components. In this scope the service already has a host of partners in the public and private worlds with whom it has developed strategic partnerships (exp: ITU (International Telecommunication Union), GSMA, LIST, Yale university etc). These partnerships require daily follow up and accompaniment which the incumbent will fulfil.

Key Responsibilities:

1 - Strategic Partnership Development for the Innovation Service

Collaborate with the Innovation Service Programme leads and RMU (Resource Management Unit) to design meaningful programme/project proposals.

Collaborate with the Innovation Service communication team, to create impactful partnership materials for partners, ensuring consistency in messaging and branding.

Work closely with DER to provide intelligence on potential donors/partners and contribute to strategic decision-making for partnership development for the Innovation Service.

Lead the development and updating of the Innovation Service's fundraising and partnership strategy, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and objectives. Conduct regular reviews and adjustments based on the evolving needs of the Innovation Service and the external funding landscape.

Provide guidance and supervision to Innovation Service team members involved in partnership and fundraising activities.

In collaboration with DER, take the lead on all fundraising activities for the Innovation Service, including actively researching and identifying funding opportunities and preparing relevant fundraising materials such as proposals, presentations, talking points, and reports as required.

2 - Coordination of partnership efforts for the Innovation Service.

Acting as the main point of contact between the Innovation Service and DER (both DRRM and PSP).

Collaborating with DER relevant teams to identify, develop and maintain relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders and funding partners, facilitating collaboration with relevant UNHCR teams.

Overseeing and maintaining the various MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) and LOUs (Letter of Understanding) that the service holds.

Coordinating with DER to ensure a cohesive approach to partnership development and fundraising, ensuring all relevant colleagues are involved in the process.

Establishing and managing a reporting calendar to ensure timely submission of reports to donors and partners supporting the Innovation Service.

Create and update a yearly calendar of key strategic partnership events for the Innovation Service, and coordinating participation, key messaging, briefs, and talking points to ensure alignment with the Innovation Service strategy and broader organizational objectives.

Overseeing and managing the Innovation Service's employee engagement volunteering programs in place with donors/partners.

Advancing use of relevant software and tools, in collaboration with DER, to streamline partnership and relationship management

In Liaison with PSU (Program Support Unit), lead on Partnership due diligence including ethics and other applicable risk assessments

Qualifications, Experience, Key competencies, and skills:

Master’s degree in relevant field

Minimum 5 years’ experience in fundraising and partnership development with the private sector.

Proven experience in proposal development, reporting, and communication with donors.

Strong understanding of private sector engagement and governmental donor relations.

Exceptional writing skills: Excellent knowledge of English (both written and spoken) and working knowledge of another UN language an advantage;

Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.

Proven ability to identify and pursue funding opportunities successfully.

Ability to work collaboratively across teams and with external partners.Standard Job Description

Innovation Officer

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships UNHCR's Innovation Service aims to create an enabling environment for innovation to flourish in UNHCR by equipping staff with the knowledge, resources, and skills they need to use innovation as a tool to solve challenges. The Innovation Service facilitates creative problem-solving alongside colleagues, partners, and refugees, generating new and needed, multi-disciplinary approaches that benefit displaced communities and the Organization. All team members are expected to be able to work on a range of projects in a collaborative manner regardless of subject area and geographic location (HQ, Multi-Country or Country Office). At times this means working directly with the High Commissioner's team, at other times with the Division of Human Resources, with a remote field operation in an emergency, or in a CRRF operation. As such, the incumbent is experienced in using innovation processes and methodologies through which to innovate, on a wide-range of challenges faced by refugees, UNHCR staff, and partner staff, agnostic of subject area.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties - Lead and contribute to innovation projects and programmes (both within the service and at organizational level), including research, design, planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring functions as and when requested/appropriate. - Support UNHCR colleagues in identifying pressing challenges in their context and co-develop novel and creative solutions by drawing on a broad range of innovation approaches, frameworks and methods. - Cultivate and manage diverse strategic relationships with both UNHCR and external partners, including consultants, donors and subject matter experts, academia, civil society and private sector organisations. - Proactively solicit and exchange views and methods, ensuring that relevant and promising lessons learned are incorporated from broader ecosystems into UNHCR's work. - Support fundraising opportunities for project partners or UNHCR field operations, either through the application and management of a fund or supporting projects managed by innovation fund opportunities. - Work with strategic communications, designers and writers to develop and produce compelling written and visual material to advance the goals of the Innovation Service. - Promote and support a culture of innovation, learning, risk-taking, diversity and inclusion within operations, teams and across portfolios. - Remain up-to-date on new innovations, approaches and technologies, particularly those that could be potentially applied to the humanitarian sector and/or forced displacement settings. - Document and share insights on innovation in UNHCR as a way of strengthening the Innovation Service's work and building internal credibility for innovation as a respected source of good ideas and tested approaches. - Facilitate dialogues and workshops to make innovation accessible to UNHCR peers by guiding them through problem exploration, solution design and experimentation. - Ensure that Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) sensitive analyses, rights and community-based approaches inform human-centred design processes. - Apply relevant research, evidence and data-driven decision making to support UNHCR and Partners in the improvement of services and programmes, as well as innovative approaches through assisting in documenting, codifying and disseminating key programme processes and lessons learned.

- Support the identification and management of risks and seek to seize opportunities impacting objectives in the area of responsibility. Ensure decision making in risk based in the functional area of work. Raise risks, issues and concerns to a supervisor or to relevant functional colleague(s). - Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications Education & Professional Work Experience Years of Experience / Degree Level For P3/NOC - 6 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 5 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 4 years relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education Social Sciences, Science, Technology, Engineering, Humanities, Administration, Management, or other relevant field.

Certificates and/or Licenses Not specified.

Relevant Job Experience Essential Experience of forging and/or maintaining partnerships and collaborative working methods, simultaneously with a range of stakeholders, including private sector entities, donor governments, civil society, communities of concern, INGO, NNGO, and other UN entities. Experience applying innovation and/or innovative methodologies in forced displacement contexts. Significant experience of providing support to a range of operations through capacity building around scale, evidence building and provision of guidance and creation of tools. Experience managing budgets for innovation activities, including experimentation. Experience delivering training, and knowledge transfer to partners and UNHCR staff. Experience working in organisations with multi-year planning processes, such as development agencies, whether governmental, UN, or other.

Desirable A strong understanding of theory, principles, established approaches and evidence concerning effective innovation and programme design. Experience working for research and development organisations, producing data and evidence for key decisions to be made. Experience supervising people in international organisations.

Functional Skills HR-Inclusion, Diversity and Gender strategy design and implementation MG-Team building (development/facilitation) PR-Coordination in Forced Displacement situations (Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English. For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language. For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

Required Languages

Desired Languages

Additional Qualifications

Skills

HR-Inclusion, Diversity and Gender strategy design and implementation, MG-Team building (development/facilitation), PR-Coordination in Forced Displacement situationsEducation

Bachelor of Arts (BA): Administration, Bachelor of Arts (BA): Engineering, Bachelor of Arts (BA): Humanities, Bachelor of Arts (BA): Management, Bachelor of Arts (BA): Science, Bachelor of Arts (BA): Social Science, Bachelor of Arts (BA): TechnologyCertifications

Work Experience

Other information

The position is home-basedThis position doesn't require a functional clearance Home-Based

Yes

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Added 8 hours ago - Updated 8 hours ago - Source: unhcr.org