Knowledge Management Officer

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.

UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children. UNICEF insists that the survival, protection and development of children are universal development imperatives that are integral to human progress.

UNICEF mobilizes political will and material resources to help countries, particularly developing countries, ensure a "first call for children" and to build their capacity to form appropriate policies and deliver services for children and their families.

UNICEF is committed to ensuring special protection for the most disadvantaged children – victims of war, disasters, extreme poverty, all forms of violence and exploitation, and those with disabilities.

UNICEF responds in emergencies to protect the rights of children. In coordination with United Nations partners and humanitarian agencies, UNICEF makes its unique facilities for rapid response available to its partners to relieve the suffering of children and those who provide their care.

UNICEF aims, through its country programmes, to promote the equal rights of women and girls and to support their full participation in the political, social and economic development of their communities. UNICEF works with all its partners towards the attainment of the sustainable human development goals adopted by the world community and the realization of the vision of peace and social progress enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.

This UNV assignment is part of UNICEF Eastern Caribbean vision on KM to solidify the organization’s role as a knowledge leader, convener and advocate for Children’s rights; a knowledge broker – leveraging significant convening power - to foster and support dynamic knowledge exchanges with development stakeholders with the aim to strengthen sub-regional entities, and Government policies and practices and achieve results for children.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Knowledge Management Officer will: support programmes in strengthening Knowledge Management, Learning and Information Sharing by documenting good practices and lessons learned of successful programmes and flagship initiatives within the UNICEF ECA team and with other UN Agencies and Partners.

The KM Officer will play a leading role in knowledge sharing and information exchange within and between program sections. In addition, the KM Officer will lead the roll out of the office Knowledge management strategy. He/she will provide professional expertise and assistance to design and develop knowledge products and support UNICEF’s partners involvement into the office knowledge management strategy.

The KM Officer will also provide capacity building exercise to staff and national partners on data collection, monitoring, evaluation and research with special attention to the interest, concern and participation of primary stakeholders.

Key tasks include:

1. Knowledge / Information Management: • Produce performance dashboards, knowledge management tools and ensure quality of data collection. • Jointly with programme colleagues develop solid data collection mechanisms and tools in line with planned interventions. • Support the development and implementation of needs assessments and ensure the results are shared with the programmes to take corrective actions and inform any changes in planning. • Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and to capture and institutionalize lessons learned. • Develop and maintain the UNICEF ECA site in close collaboration with UNICEF Knowledge Management community and partners and other relevant colleagues and sections. • Develop simple and effective tools for information sharing, using innovative technology solutions. • Review existing systems and tools in place for KM and share best practices in their use; • Develop guiding principles for engagement in communities of practice; • Support the roll out / maintenance of UNICEF document repositories, design of content on the intranet, etc. • Liaise with communications team to ensure content linkages with UNICEF’s external facing website.

2. Data Collection: • Provide support on data collection and analysis to support UNICEF programmes. Proactively gather information on key stakeholders for informing decisions. • Provide the necessary tools and approaches to run assessments. • Identify secondary data and information resources that would complement information needs of UNICEF as appropriate. • Organize and maintain contact directories of partners using standard formats agreed with relevant stakeholders. • Locate, monitor, compile, analyze relevant sources of data on affected children such as country level household surveys, administrative data, other agencies websites/research/reports/publications, potentially generating key data.

3. Capacity Building: • Build capacities of staff members on KM; • Support the on-boarding of new UNICEF ECA staff from an Information Management perspective. • Build capacities of UNICEF ECA staff about UNICEF Information Management systems and processes.
   • Provide technical support to ensure that the monitoring and evaluation capacities of UNICEF ECA staff and national partners – government and civil society – are strengthened. • Build knowledge management activities into programme and operations work plans to more clearly articulate how KM leads to enhanced programme effectiveness, and results. • Act as liaison amongst various teams on KM and ensure coordination mechanisms on KM are developed, well understood and properly applied by all programme and operations staff; • Update and review available guidelines and templates on internal programme effectiveness and programme excellence / innovation best practices; • Identify external partners who can support best practice documentation in line with agreed quality standards;

4. Networking and Partnership Building: • Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with relevant government counterparts, national stakeholders though active networking, advocacy and effective communication to build capacity, exchange knowledge/expertise and to reinforce cooperation to achieve sustainable and broad results. • Strengthen reporting in joint platforms with partners.

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

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Results/expected outputs:

• As an active UNICEF Office of the Eastern Caribbean team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNICEF Office of the Eastern Caribbean and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including: Results/Outputs o The ECA Knowledge Management Plan is implemented

• Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed

• Professionalism: demonstrated understanding of operations relevant to UNICEF Office of the Eastern Caribbean ; technical capabilities or knowledge relevant or transferrable to UNICEF Office of the Eastern Caribbean procedures and rules; discretion, political sensitivity, diplomacy and tact to deal with clients; ability to apply good judgement; ability to liaise and coordinate with a range of different actors, especially in senior positions; where appropriate, high degree of autonomy, personal initiative and ability to take ownership; resourcefulness and willingness to accept wide responsibilities and ability to work independently under established procedures; ability to manage information objectively, accurately and confidentially; responsive and client-oriented; • Integrity: demonstrate the values and ethical standards of the UN and UNICEF Office of the Eastern Caribbean in daily activities and behaviours while acting without consideration of personal gains; resist undue political pressure in decision-making; stand by decisions that are in the organization’s interest even if they are unpopular; take prompt action in cases of unprofessional or unethical behaviour; does not abuse power or authority; • Teamwork and respect for diversity: ability to operate effectively across organizational boundaries; excellent interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and harmonious working relations in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, mixed-gender environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity; sensitivity and adaptability to culture, gender, religion, nationality and age; • Commitment to continuous learning: initiative and willingness to learn new skills and stay abreast of new developments in area of expertise; ability to adapt to changes in work environment. • Planning and organizing: effective organizational and problem-solving skills and ability to manage a large volume of work in an efficient and timely manner; ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor (own) work; ability to work under pressure, with conflicting deadlines, and to handle multiple concurrent projects/activities; • Communication: proven interpersonal skills; good spoken and written communication skills, including ability to prepare clear and concise reports; ability to conduct presentations, articulate options and positions concisely; ability to make and defend recommendations; ability to communicate and empathize with staff (including national staff), military personnel, volunteers, counterparts and local interlocutors coming from very diverse backgrounds; capacity to transfer information and knowledge to a wide range of different target groups; • Flexibility: adaptability and ability to live and work in potentially hazardous and remote conditions, involving physical hardship and little comfort; to operate independently in austere environments for protracted periods; willingness to travel within the area of operations and to transfer to other duty stations within the area of operations as necessary; • Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement, which includes solidarity, compassion, reciprocity and self-reliance; and commitment towards UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean mission and vision, as well as to the UN Core Values.

Knowledge Management or Monitoring, Evaluation and Research. • Strong understanding of various qualitative methodologies (including interviews and focus groups) are considered as assets. • Extensive practical experience in knowledge management and knowledge sharing strategies. • Familiarity with technology platforms for knowledge sharing and specific to UNICEF (i.e. including Office 365, SAP, Drupal, Sharepoint, XShare). • Skills in website development Strong communication skills -both written and verbal. • Excellent teamwork and collegial spirit;

As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials. National UN Volunteers are part of the malicious insurance plan. https://www.unv.org