Vacancies at UNICEF

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Product development, planning and management   
• Manage business and programme relationships to define high-level requirements; document and match requirements and guide the design, and development of a DPG MVP CRVS system 
• Support the management of funds allocated to the development of DPG MVP digital CRVS system by prioritizing activities to be funded, and ensuring efficient and timely use of funds vis-a-vis grant expiration dates.   
• Support in the development of strategies; setting up of targets and performance measurement indicators; and monitoring progress and results is achieved according to performance standards. 
• Provide technical guidance and oversight to Implementation Leads in Country Office/Regional Offices. 
• Coordinate and implement interoperability between the identified CRVS system and partner systems. 
• Engagement in Communication, Partnerships and Advocacy 
• Represent the CRVS initiative in Health, and Child Protection programme meetings, including programme development and contingency planning discussions to provide technical and operational information, advice and support in the area of digital CRVS systems. 
• Develop and maintain inter-agency relationships supporting the development of enhanced policy frameworks for the work around CRVS systems. Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with relevant government counterparts, national stakeholders, global partners, allies, donors, and academia -through active networking, advocacy and effective communication - to build capacity, exchange knowledge and expertise, and to reinforce cooperation to achieve sustainable and broad results in digital CRVS systems  
• Proactively build and strengthen strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with governments, UN system agency partners (UNFPA, WHO, UN Women), donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, funding organizations, research institutes and the private sector in order to leverage these partnerships to achieve wider acceptance of the CRVS DPG and to gather additional inputs to ensure that it meets the needs of a wider range of relevant stakeholders. 
• Advance research, and identify research gaps, with key partners (e.g., UNFPA, WHO, UN Women) specifically in the formulation of policy and good practice around digitization of birth registration systems. Participate in relevant external, inter-agency or global forums for organizational positions in the development of global CRVS priorities.   
• Prepare communication and information materials for advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances and to support fund raising for further development and deployment of the CRVS DPG solution. 
• Identify opportunities for resource mobilization and new partnerships and lead proposal and partnership development efforts in close collaboration with regional offices, where applicable, for further development and deployment of the CRVS DPG solution. 
• Provide technical and operational support to a wide range of stakeholders and partners on UNICEF policies, practices, standards and norms on technology and innovation for digital CRVS systems and the developed CRVS DPG solution. 
• Work with relevant stakeholders to develop standards, procedures and partnerships for digital CRVS systems and their transition to relevant Government and Civil Society Institutions.  
• Participate, where appropriate, on and provide input to relevant coordinating and policy bodies and ensure close collaboration within Programme Group, ICTD division and with regional and country offices and partners on the CRVS DPG product 
• Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials relevant to digital CRVS solutions and CRVS DPG product for management use and information. 
• Provide inputs relating to the work on digital CRVS systems and CRVS DPG for reports and other documentation and briefings needed to fulfil statutory requirements and requests received by the relevant offices and sections (e.g., annual reports, briefing notes). 
• Create and maintain effective communication materials and strategies to support advocacy and social mobilization efforts for prospective and current partners. 
• Knowledge and Community Management 
• Lead the creation and management of a community of practice around the use of the identified CRVS DPG and relevant technologies, including orienting new users and community members and point them to the people, organizations, and resources that meet their needs, making introductions where necessary. 
• Develop, curate, document and maintain a shared library of programme documents, lessons learned and best practices while working in collaboration with the country teams. 
• Oversee in-country evaluations on the uptake of the CRVS DPG tool. 
• Facilitate the organization of trainings, webinars, and knowledge-sharing initiatives to enhance user competencies to promote long-term sustainability of the system.  
• Organize, share, and participate in events focused on community contribution. 
• Ensure country offices and partners have appropriate expertise and capacity in place for the uptake and maintenance of the identified DPG CRVS system. 

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Information technology, Digital Transformation, Social Sciences, International Humanitarian Law, Development Studies, Community Development, Public Health and/or related field is required. 
• A first-level university degree in a relevant field combined with ten years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in progressively responsible professional experience at the national or international levels in Technology for Development (T4D) and/or information systems development and management, including mobile and web-based applications, with demonstrated capacity to manage programmes involving many stakeholders is required. 
• A minimum of two (2) years of experience implementing and/or supporting national CRVS frameworks, digital registries and CRVS digital solutions (e.g., as a user or administrator) is highly desired. 
• Experience with large scale projects including ICT, mobile and web-based technologies, particularly designing or deploying tools. 
• Experience in Digital Public Goods, Open Source, mobile and emerging technology 
• Prior experience in both development and humanitarian contexts is an added advantage. 

Language literacy: 

•   Fluency in English (written and verbal) is required. Working knowledge of French is highly desirable. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

Duration of the contract :11.5 months.

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Scope Of Work

UNICEF’s Reimagine Education initiative has five core pillars: World Class Digital Learning Solutions, Connectivity, Devices, Affordable Data and Content, and Young People’s Engagement. While a comprehensive approach cutting across all five pillars will be required to achieve meaningful results, through the Airtel partnership thirteen UNICEF Country Offices (COs) across the Eastern and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) and Western and Central Africa Region (WCAR) will be provided with additional support to develop and test scalable and sustainable models for addressing Connectivity and Affordable Data & Content to support provision of learning opportunities for children. This will require sustained engagement with Government and national parners, policy and regulatory reform, consortium building including with the private sector, development of new operating models, and testing of innovative approaches to lower significant cost drivers preventing scale. Most UNICEF CO’s have limited experience and / or capacity across many of the Reimagine Education Pillars and have in the past relied on RO’s for technical support. However, with the significant increase and acceleration of these programmes across ESAR and WCAR, there is not sufficient capacity to meet expected country needs. The purpose of this consultancy is to augment regional capacity to provide technology related technical support to CO’s around Reimagine Education, GIGA and the Airtel partnership. Activities are expected to include the following:

Coordinate development and monitoring of all digital / technology related inputs to the overall cross-regional workplans and budgets for Reimagine Education / GIGA, as well support and advise UNICEF CO’s on their respective workplans and budgets in related areas. This includes data consumption modeling across 13 countries over five years under this partnership.

• Support UNICEF CO’s to conduct digital readiness assessments and develop costed roadmaps.
• Identify barriers (eg. social norms) preventing children and adolescents from leveraging from connectivity solutions and ensure that relevant CO stakeholders are engaged to develop mitigation strategies.
• Provide thought leadership and technical guidance to Airtel Africa and UNICEF CO’s on connectivity and data solutions, prioritizing low bandwidth and offline data catching approaches to maximize efficiency and lower overall costs of zero-rated data provided by Airtel Africa. The incumbent will lead and be the focal point for T4D related continental initiatives work under the zero-rating and school connectivity pillars of the Airtel Africa partnership – this will be done with the support of the partnership manager, manager and relevant technical counterparts across the continent.
• Support UNICEF CO’s to pilot and generate evidence for new solutions and innovative approaches, including documentation and sharing with key stakeholders, prioritizing scalable and sustainable models.
• Regularly monitor and report to UNICEF leadership on usage and consumption of Airtel’s in-kind contribution across 13 countries.
• Support analysis of EdTech learning solutions proposed by UNICEF CO’s, including information security and data / bandwidth consumption, as well as opportunities to optimize.
• Support the Giga and CO teams to engage relevant government divisions and partners to collect, clean, classify the required data for Giga school mapping.
• Support the Giga and CO teams on the deployment of software tools for real-time monitoring of internet connectivity in schools.
• Support the Giga and CO teams to develop long term, financially sustainable models for continued provision of connectivity and data services.
• Support identification and engagement of additional technical partners and contribute to proposals / resource mobilization efforts as needed.

This position will sit under the newly established ICTD Digital Centre of Excellence (DCOE), based in Nairobi. The supervisor of the position will be the DCOE T4D Manager (Programme Effectiveness), supported by the Chief of DCOE. There will be a dotted, matrix management line to the ESARO and WCARO T4D Business Analysts and the Giga Accelerate Lead. In terms of the specific support to the Airtel Africa partnership, the incumbent will work in coordination with the Partnership Manager to ensure reporting expectations and deadlines agreed with the partner are met.

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

• An advanced university degree in computer science, telecommunications, network engineering, software engineering, information technology management, or other relevant disciplines.
• A first university degree with 2 additional years of relevant professional experience may be considered. 
• A minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in in the area of technology for development, including.
• At least 3 years’ experience providing field connectivity solutions, including mobile and fixed broadband, in low bandwidth settings.
• At least 3 years’ experience working with or managing relationships with MNOs and ISPs.
• Experience with EdTech, including infrastructure, hardware and software solutions, and capacity building is desired.
• Experience with national telecommunications policies and regulations is desired.
• Familiarity working with big data is desired: (telcos, satellite, etc).
• Development or government experience; familiarity with the UN system and UNICEF is desired.

Technical Knowledge

• Knowledge of horizontal innovations relevant to school connectivity is desired

Competencies Skills

• Strong organizational skills, including multitasking, and time-management
• Demonstrated ability to work with people of various professional, academic and cultural backgrounds Ability to communicate data insights and to translate into programmatic impact.
• Good interpersonal skills

Language Skills

• Fluency in English and French required

For every Child, you demonstrate…

• UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).
• To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Duration Of Contract: 11.5 months.