International Consultancy-Project and Knowledge Management Officer, East and Southern Africa Regional Office, Nairobi

Consultant Programme & Policy

Overview

Support the project management of the Yoma ecosystem focusing on knowledge management and monitoring.

You have:

• Minimum requirement: Master's degree in economics, business administration or similar field.
• Experience in working with young people in a digital environment.
• Experience working in start-ups with high level of ownership and independence is an asset.
• At least six months of relevant work experience.
• Strong analytical and knowledge management skills.
• Good drafting and MS Office skills.
• Fluency in English, ideally basic in another UN language will be an asset.
• Must exhibit the UNICEF Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, Sustainability.
• Key competencies required: Building and Maintaining Partnerships, Drive to achieve Results for Impact, Innovates and Embraces Change, Manages Ambiguity and Complexity, Works collaboratively with others.

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.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Background and Justification

UNICEF aims to ensure that every child and adolescent, learns and acquires skills for their future. It focuses on addressing the global learning crisis, shifting to increase skills acquisition and alternative learning pathways to better reach the most marginalized. In line with the global prioritization of youth, UNICEF’s Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa (ESARO) priorities are focused on secondary-age education and transitions into work to advocate for and ensure equity in that more youth in the region, including the most vulnerable, are equipped with skills to succeed in life, school, work and livelihoods.

Whether young people are educated, trained or employed has significant implications for their overall wellbeing and ability to promote future economic growth, development and socio-political stability. Since 1999, there has been a concurrent global decrease in young individuals’ labour force participation whilst the proportion of youth increased. In 2020, young individuals were three times more likely than adults to be unemployed (ILO 2020). Many are not only facing a challenging present, but also, a most uncertain future. To meet the changing demands of the labour market, young people will need to be equipped with a set of skills and competencies to compete both locally and globally. The concept of Yoma (Youth Agency Marketplace) was developed by young Africans as a holistic approach to address these challenges and increase youth agency across the globe.

Yoma is a digital marketplace for youth across the world to build and transform their futures by actively engaging in social impact tasks as well as making use of learning and earning opportunities. It is an ecosystem solution that links young people with learning, community engagement and employment opportunities, provided by a range of partners, such as private enterprises and educational institutions. Through these opportunities Yoma can accelerate local impact in a wide range of sectors, such as education and entrepreneurship (e.g. youth acquiring market-relevant skills, leadership abilities and knowledge), as well as climate change mitigation (e.g. youth planting trees, safeguarding healthy wetlands). As a market creating innovation, it satisfies a global demand for SDG impact as youth can actively contribute to their realization by engaging with the new opportunities provided by Yoma. As young people engage in Yoma offerings, their involvement and accomplishments (e.g., community engagement, learning activities or work-experience) are recorded on their profile. This allows them to build a verifiable digital CV using blockchain, which complements their formal education and demonstrates reliability and acquisition of skills, all of which enhance employability and allow for more informed matching with the labour market. The record and recognition of completed learning, employment and social engagement activities can boost young people’s self-esteem, thereby creating positive behavioural incentives to continue their growth journey. Lastly, young people are rewarded through Zlto, a digital token that can be redeemed for digital services (e.g., airtime or premium courses) or physical goods (e.g., bus tickets, basic commodities.). The token also allows to offset opportunity costs of youth to engage on Yoma and participate in digital opportunities.

After two years of implementation, more than 4 million young people have been reached and more than 400,000 young people have participated in Yoma related opportunities, mainly from Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. A growing number of UNICEF country offices, donors and other partners are involved in the implementation, strengthening the impact and sustainability of the project. Thus, while the implementation of Yoma started in South Africa, the Yoma ecosystem is now expanding globally and adapting to other country contexts, enabled by Yoma’s ready-to-scale infrastructure.

Scope of Work

1. Goal and Objective*****: *Under the supervision of the Yoma Program Manager the consultant will support the project management of the Yoma ecosystem with a particular focus on knowledge management and monitoring. The consultant will focus on ensuring that several simultaneous projects within the Yoma ecosystem are sufficiently supported and knowledge and learning is efficiently documented and shared across the growing ecosystem.
2. Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered: Oversee overall coordination and provide Technical Assistance to UNICEF Country Office's on innovative platforms for youth engagement, skills building, and employability in the green sector (ie greem yoma, Atingi), as well as the African Data and Drone Academy (ADDA)
3. Activities and Tasks:

a. Support the Country Roll-Out of Yoma: with the rapid scaling of Yoma in several countries, additional roll-out support shall be provided to UNICEF Country Offices who are already or are considering to roll-out Yoma. This includes the finalization and continuous development and updating of the “Yoma Playbook” as well as technical support and regular check-ins with Country Offices to ensure Yoma implementation is supported, and lessons learnt captured accordingly. A particular focus shall be placed to the activities supported by the Yoma Ecosystem partner GIZ which is providing support to strengthen the linkage of Yoma to the learning platform acting in several countries as well as the implementation of the SAP Digital Learning program in Kenya.

b. Programme management, planning and monitoring: support the Yoma team in the conceptualization, drafting and finalization of programme and project proposals. Participate in strategic programme discussion across various areas to ensure the continued relevance of programme interventions. Establish specific goals, objectives, strategies and implementation plans for the sector using results-based planning terminology and methodology (RBM). Provide technical support to finalize and maintain the Yoma monitoring systems in close collaboration with the Yoma team and specifically the Yoma data focal point. A specific focus on the programme management component shall be placed on the implementation of the partnership with GIZ as well as with the Fondation Botnar.

c. Knowledge management for the Yoma ecosystem: provide technical support to establish a functioning knowledge management system for the growing Yoma ecosystem, which is building on the existing knowledge management efforts and takes into consideration the lessons learnt so far to share information and knowledge efficiently and effectively in a growing ecosystem of partners working on Yoma. Participate in strategic discussions to strengthen knowledge management and information sharing with the key stakeholders of the Yoma ecosystem. Maintain an evidence base to guide the learning and iterating of the Yoma journey.

d. Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor

4. Work relationships: The consultant will work in close collaboration with the Programme Manager (Yoma) and the Senior Program Manager.
5. Outputs/Deliverables:

As an active UNICEF team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to Yoma and its ecosystem partners in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including:

• Timely and quality support provided to Country Offices implementing Yoma in close relationship with the Programme Manager (Yoma)
• Quality project proposals and reports produced and submitted, particularly for GIZ and Fondation Botnar
• Yoma monitoring system is fully developed and maintained
• Knowledge management and information system is established and functional

Deliverables

Level of Effort (estimated # month)

Deadline

Schedule of payment

Inception report and clear workplan for the assignment is developed and approved

1

31 July 2023

30%

Yoma playbook is finalized to support Yoma country rollout

2

30 September 2023

30%

Yoma repository available and accessible to UNICEF country offices and Yoma ecosystem members.

2

30 November 2023

25%

Final report on the assignment containing review of all the areas covered with corresponding recommendations

1

31 December 2023

15%

For all contracts, please ensure that the due date of the last deliverable leaves a buffer for the supervisor of the assignment to review the final output before paying. This ensures that internal quality assurance is performed so that the work is up to standard before the final payment. In addition, for deliverable based payments, the last payment cannot be less than 10% of the total payment as per policy.

Payment Schedule

As per table above upon satisfactory completion of deliverables

Desired competencies, technical background, and experience

1. Education: Minimum requirement: Master degree in economics, business administration or similar field, preferably completing a Master’s degree in a similar field
2. Experience in working with young people in a digital environment
3. Experience working in start-ups with high level of ownership and independence is an asset
4. At least six months of relevant work experience
5. Strong analytical and knowledge management skills
6. Good drafting and MS Office skills

7. Must exhibit the UNICEF Core Values of:

8. Care

9. Respect
10. Integrity
11. Trust
12. Accountability

13. Sustainability

14. Key competencies required:

1. Building and Maintaining Partnerships

2. Drive to achieve Results for Impact

3. Innovates and Embraces Change

4. Manages Ambiguity and Complexity

5. Works collaboratively with others

1. Fluency in English, ideally basic in another UN language will be an asset.

Administrative issues

• The consultant will work under the supervision of the Program Manager.
• This is a remote position. As most of the Yoma team is working remotely most meetings will be online with occasional in person meetings. The consultant will need to be available for calls between 10 am to 4 pm Nairobi time
• All travel (in case of any) will be by most economical fare and reimbursement will be as per UNICEF policy.
• The consultant will be based in UNICEF Regional Office with additional travel depending on COVID-19 travel restrictions for which the UNICEF office would cover subsistence allowances and travel costs. If the consultant is required to quarantine while traveling, UNICEF will pay for the quarantine if not organized by the host country.
• 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.
• The selected candidate is solely responsible for ensuring that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract.

Conditions

• The consultant will work from his/her own premises as per the UNICEF Flexible Working Policy and use his/her own computer and related infrastructure.
• As this would be a junior consultant role, we are preferably looking for talented young candidates
• As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment will be made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary.
• Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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 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.

Risks

This is a remote role that does not foresee any direct contact with children. There are not reasonable risks associated with this consultancy, all deliverables will be cleared by the supervisor before they are being shared with external partners.

How to Apply

Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, and CV or P11 form to the online recruitment portal (Talent Management System) or email provided.

Interested candidates to indicate their ability, availability, and rate (monthly) expressed in US$ for international consultancy to undertake the terms of reference.

Applications submitted without a fee/ rate will not be considered.

Apply now

Potential interview questions

Added 3 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org