Innovations Specialist, P-3, FT, Dhaka, Bangladesh #537203 (not for Bangladeshi nationals)

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 112,571 USD and 147,402 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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, resilience.

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision of the Deputy Representative, the Innovation Specialist is responsible for managing and coordinating the Innovations portfolio in the Bangladesh Country Office. Innovations strategy will be mainstreamed as a core strategy across each of the UNICEF programme sections.

The Innovation Specialist will coordinate and provide ongoing technical support to each programme team in the design and implementation of their respective Innovation initiative(s), in coordination with the NYHQ Innovation Unit and the Regional Office where applicable. The UNICEF Innovations Specialist will strengthen partnerships around gender- climate- and disability-responsive programming with the government, UN, private sector, academia, research organizations and focus on social innovations that will address some of the key underlying inequities of gender, disabilities, and hard to reach and climate affected areas.

One of the key components of the job will be to expand and sustain children’s and adolescent participation and engagement, especially children and adolescents living with disabilities to facilitate their participation in the country’s overall development and to come up with solutions that affect their lives.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Under the overall supervision of the Deputy Representative, in close coordination with programme sections, supported by cross cutting sections (the Social Policy, Evaluations and Research section, Communication for Development Section and Communication, Advocacy and Partnerships section, the Gen U Programme Manager), linked with the UN Bangladesh team on adolescents and youth and the global Office of Innovation, the incumbent will be accountable for the following major duties and end results:

• Innovation Strategy

• Coordinate BCO’s innovation portfolio which will include design, implementation and monitoring of the of the CO’s cross sectoral innovation strategy/action plan in support of the 2020-21 iSERF/country programme & for the 2022-2026 country programme.

• Define key programme and development challenges that shall be addressed through mainly technological or non-technological means.
• Identify potential partners and a timeline for the implementation of innovation initiatives.

• Proactively scout for new innovative ideas and opportunities, develop the space to nurture and test new and innovative ideas together with universities, youth networks and local entrepreneurs towards enhancing the adolescent programme component of the CPD.

• Evidence Generation: Explore partnerships with research institutes, academia, and other development partners using human centred design approaches to generate evidence and address some of the key bottlenecks and barriers affecting UNICEF’s programme results.

• Children and Adolescents Engagement and Advocacy:
  • Support the UN team and the UNICEF country office on adolescents and youth programming by expanding and sustaining children’s and adolescent participation and engagement, across sectors and cross cutting teams, ensuring engagement of children and adolescents living with disability.
  • Strengthen and sustain adolescent engagement through different platforms such as U-Report (among other potential options) and through active engagement and partnerships with UNICEF CAP and other sections, local innovators, youth organizations, NGOs, cultural and religious organisations, the private sector, local media and academia towards increasing the user-base, addressing digital challenges in engagement and ensuring sustainable mechanisms at a national and sub-national level.
  • Support young people to sustainably engage with traditional media for advocacy purposes to ensure information, knowledge and opinions on children and youth perspectives obtained through U-Report and other innovation activities are used to influence programmes and responded to by government counterparts and others
• Identify opportunities for resource mobilisation and new partnerships and support proposal and partnership development efforts in close collaboration with the CO Resource Mobilization team, Programme Sections, NYHQ Innovation Unit and Regional Office.
• Knowledge Management and Advocacy
  • Document tested innovation projects and processes and ensure effective sharing and generation of knowledge around innovations in the Country Office as well as with UNICEF global innovation network.
  • Facilitate production of web stories and multi-media products for UNICEF Indonesia and global platforms to illustrate innovation results across sectors.

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

• University degree in Social Sciences, International Relations, Social Policy, Social Development, Community Development, Computer Sciences, Gender and Development, or other relevant disciplines.
• At least five years of progressively responsible professional work experience at the national and international levels in programme management, monitoring and evaluation.
• Proven experience in adolescent and/or on gender programming.
• A strong understanding of UNICEF’s mission and vision as well as its programmes through direct or indirect work experience with UNICEF.
• Experience in project management and rolling out of large scale projects especially in hard to reach areas in developing countries is highly desirable.
• Proven capacity to work with and lead collaborative teams across different locations and with different technical skills.
• Proven ability to manage relationships with partners, including government ministries, youth coalitions, universities, intellectual leaders, UN organizations, NGOs and the private sector.
• Strong writing and communication skills and the aptitude to handle competing messages and priorities with multiple audiences.

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.

The functional competencies required for this post are...

• Analysing (II)
• Persuading and Influencing (II)
• Formulating strategies and concepts (II)
• Relating and networking (II)
• Creating and innovating (II)

View our competency framework at

https://www.unicef.org/careers/media/1041/file/UNICEF%27s_Competency_Framework.pdf

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:

*Internal candidates may be given preference over external candidates. The term "Internal" refers to all personnel with an ongoing employment relationship with UNICEF, including staff members on a continuing, fixed term and temporary appointment, individual contractors and full-time time-based consultants, and UNV.

*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.