Programme Manager (Youth Agency Market-place - YOMA), P-4, for 364 days, Nairobi, Kenya (ESARO)

Contract

This is a P-4 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 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 135,454 USD and 174,640 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, future.

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favouritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. To achieve equity in the low resource environments prevailing in many African countries, it is increasingly vital for UNICEF to innovate, including use of emerging technologies, to achieving sustainable and scalable results for children amidst continuing and growing challenges.

The African Youth Agency Market Place (YOMA) is a market generating innovation, which is the development of an ecosystem that brings together the global demand for advancing the SDGs and the ability of young people to do so within their community.

The ecosystem places the youth at the center and surrounds them with tasks/activities (volunteering at the community level or by furthering him/herself through online/offline skills development) that they can undertake to acquire digital tokens (youth currency) The tokens can be redeemed in a market place for services such as mentorship or basic commodities. The underlying digital micro contracts allow the young person to build an alternative trust profile and demonstrate reliability and acquisition of skills, all of which enhance employability and allow for more informed matching with the labor market. The fulfillment of the smart contracts and acquisition of the youth currency are triangulated through self-assessment, peer/community assessment and in the future automated external data triangulation thus providing a seamless data trail necessary for impact investments. The yoma platform is currently operational and a mobile first application being developped. The countries engaged in Yoma are predominantly in ESAR and WCAR but other regions beyond Africa have also expressed interest.

Yoma won the BMZ/EU smart development hack in 2020 which resulted in a strong consortium involving UNICEF, GenU, BMZ and private sector partners. This provided Yoma with the initial funding base for its proof of concept. In 2021 Yoma has been awarded by UNICEF with significant set-aside funding through innovation scaling challenge allowing Yoma to expand to West Africa. Other requests for Yoma expansion are coming from Europe and the Caribbean. The main focus of those expansions will be to strengthen the linkages with UNICEF programmes. This position will support the management of the expansion and ensure its linkages with UNICEF country offices and programmes.

Under the general supervision of the Senior Programme Manager, the post is expected to lead the coordination for the expansion of Yoma, to manage the corresponding process, to support country offices, to enhance collaboration with the Office of Innovation and to ensure the programmatic relevance of YOMA for UNICEF.

Key strategies for achieving this purpose are as follows:

1. Proactively engaging with Country Offices to promote YOMA and assist them in assessing the possibility to adapt its to their country context. Strategies may include: 1) South-South exchange on the model of YOMA 2) reviewing programmatic priorities at country levels to identify entry points for youth agency through YOMA 3) develop templates, general costings and playbooks for easing adaptation and adoption of YOMA. While the actual implementation of YOMA remains the responsibility of the Country Office the Manager will promote YOMA, support the decision making and roll-out processes.
2. Facilitate administrative processes needed for the scaling of yoma by: Developing LTAs for yoma related services, managing regional and intra regional contractual arrangements and facilitating the recruitment of young talent where demanded.
3. Strengthening of strategic learning, evidence generation and evidence-based advocacy by: documenting lessons learned during the expansion of yoma and faciliating peer learning processes; compiling experiences gained at various levels; staying abreast of strategic developments in related areas (such as GIGA, learning to earning, etc.); keeping contact with the innovation fund and its awardees; also supporting the generation and dissemination of evidence on cost-effective approaches and models to youth engagement.
4. Monitoring the overall expansion of YOMA and the achievement of its objectives in terms of scaling and impact by: Keeping track of individual country requests and their action; Maintaining an overall dashboard containing disaggregated data compiling different initiatives.
5. Working closely with the Office of Innovation and other UNICEF actors engaged in the youth innovation portfolio to ensure that YOMA is linked to relevant organisation wide.

It is critical that the global YOMA keeps up with the demands and opportunities for enhancing youth engagement and ensuring its relevance for UNICEF programmes and priorities.

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision of the Senior Innovation Manager, the Programme Manager Yoma will provide advanced technical assistance, coordination/administrative support, quality assurance and knowledge generation/management and partnership building services to the scaling of yoma in Africa and beyond.

1. Enhance the programmatic linkage between Yoma and UNICEF programming to facilitate relevance and scaling within UNICEF

• Engage with Country Offices to foster adoption and adaptation of the concept of Yoma to their country context.
• Review programmatic priorities at country levels to identify entry points for youth agency through yoma and provide strategic orientation
• Develop templates, general costings and playbooks for easing adaptation and adoption of Yoma. While the actual implementation of yoma remains the responsibility of the Country Office the Manager will support the decision making and roll-out processes.

• Lead on the UNICEF internal management of processes aiming at facilitating country offices participation. This could include framework contracts, PCAs, Long Term Agreements, etc.

  2. Provide support to monitoring, strategic learning and evidence generation

• Lead the process of documenting lessons learned during the expansion of yoma and facilitating peer learning processes and compiling experiences gained at various levels;

• Facilitate the dialogue around the strategic relevance of yoma for UNICEF programming and keep in contact with different relevant innovation initiatives.
• Lead the promotion of evidence generated with respect to green Yoma (i.e. catalyzing youth agency around the environment) ensuring mutual learning with relevant global initiatives such as the OoI’s work around youth and climate change

3. Manage programmes related to Yoma

• Manage programmatic dimensions linked to the scaling of Yoma, including the facilitation of all administrative processes. Take a pro-active role to ensure that targets and timelines are met and that the interventions optimize benefits for youth.

• Monitor the overall expansion of yoma and the achievement of its objectives in terms of scaling and impact by: Keeping track of individual country requests and their action; Maintaining an overall dashboard containing disaggregated data compiling different initiatives.

• Lead on the preparation of funding proposals that allow for yoma scaling.

• Ensure the linkage between operational research and implementation both in the conceptual and implementation stages. Make sure that lessons learned and documented and disseminated.

• Strengthen dimensions related to the learning to earning agenda and coordinate closely with relevant colleagues and initiatives in UNICEF. Ensure that job readiness and entrepreneurial dimensions are catered for.
• Contribute to the technical dimensions of green yoma, such as the establishment of appropriate and effective data oracles that allow an automated assessment of impact of youth climate action.
• Establish data collection and monitoring frameworks that allow progressively to measure the contribution of Yoma to UNICEF programmatic activities.

4. Strengthen strategic learning and knowledge generation

• Lead on efforts to generate knowledge and lessons learned.
• Documenting lessons learned during the expansion of yoma and faciliating peer learning processes through compilation of experiences gained at various levels
• Staying abreast of strategic developments in related areas (such as GIGA, learning to earning, etc.)
• Keeping contact with the innovation fund and its awardees; also supporting the generation and dissemination of evidence on cost-effective approaches and models to youth engagement.

5. Provide event coordination and management support

• Organize, facilitate or participate in meetings and workshops/seminars related to scaling of yoma
• Support to regional office management processes and for other section duties, as agreed with the supervisor.

Key expected Results

1. Develop a strategy around programmatic alignment between Yoma and UNICEF (Q2) and contextualize it through national implementation plans in at least 3 countries (Q4). Playbook for expansion to a country is developed (Q3) and tested (Q4).
2. Management of Yoma contractual arrangements is streamlined and contractual needs of country offices are met by Q3 through at least 2 LTAs and 3 PCAs.
3. Metrics for programmatic alignment have been agreed with UNICEF stakeholders (Q2) and corresponding dashboard is functional (Q4).
4. Lessons learned are documented and disseminated by Q4.

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

• An advanced university degree in social studies, business management, engineering, or a related field (Master or above)
• A minimum of eight years of progressively responsible professional work experience in programme/project management at an international level, some of which in a developing country,
• Proven track record in managing and administering resources and the contractual arrangements necessary to support implementation.
• Track record in innovation and/or youth engagement an asset.
• Strong fundraising ability and experience in partner management.
• Experience of working with a UN organisation is an asset as is previous work experience with UNICEF
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English (verbal and written) required.
• Good knowledge of French (verbal and written) an asset.

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 UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Builds and maintains partnerships (1)
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (1)
• Drive to achieve results for impact (1)
• Innovates and embraces change (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)
• Things and acts strategically (1)
• Works collaboratively with others (1)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.