UNICEF Consultancy: Technology for Development Consultant (Information Systems), ICTD, Digital Center of Excellence Jobs in Kenya

UNICEF Consultancy: Technology for Development Consultant (Information Systems), ICTD, Digital Center of Excellence Jobs in Kenya

Job no: 556608

Contract type: Consultant

Duty Station: Nairobi

Level: Consultancy

Location: Kenya

Categories: Information Communication Technology

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, a connected world

The overarching strategic goal of UNICEF’s Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD) is to transform and build partnerships with our stakeholders to successfully implement UNICEF programmes globally through innovative technology-enabled solutions.

Over the last few years, there has been increasing recognition of the critical role of digital innovation and technology for development to UNICEF programming and accelerating support to the Sustainable Development Goals.

With the global emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, digital development has become an integral component of UNICEF’s work on national programmes, especially towards the acceleration of achieving the SDG goals.

As part of ICTD’s Transition and Transformation, the Digital Center of Excellence (DCOE) in Nairobi, Kenya will work with beneficiaries, partners, and stakeholders at global, regional and country levels to tailor, implement, track and provide insights on the success of scale up innovation and programmatic initiatives.

The DCOE provides the interface between the field and the Digital Core and headquarters teams in Valencia and New York, which drives the broader digital transformation/innovation agenda and coordination with headquarters divisions.

INVENT is a digital platform that serves as an inventory of innovation and technology for development initiatives across UNICEF, with the following main goals:  

• Creating connections and collaboration among those tackling similar challenges 
• Reducing duplication of effort 
• Providing insights into innovation at UNICEF to inform decision-making.  

INVENT is a globally supported platform used by dozens of UNICEF country offices. The Digital Centre of Excellence seeks to provide a wealth of content for anyone to learn, explore, share, and contribute to expanded usage and evolution of INVENT within UNICEF programmatic areas and operational contexts.

In support of the Innovation strategy, governance and its implementation, the DCOE requires a consultant with innovation, ICT, programmatic and managerial experience, to provide guidance and hands-on support to Country Offices in the region, and globally, on how best to prepare, organize and manage digital content for this initiative.

With the quality assurance and technical support of Business Analysts, the consultant will help ensure alignment between INVENT content, programme goals and other ICT initiatives.

The consultant may be required to represent UNICEF and ICTD at meetings, conferences, and other events, as well as attend meetings with colleagues based in the field. 

How can you make a difference?

We are looking for a technically individual with a passion for working with innovative and open-source projects. The successful candidate will be able to coordinate capture of data into the INVENT platform, as well as capacitating technical focal points at the country office level. Experience in delivering guidance, technical support and mentorship to individuals, teams and groups is an asset.

Scope of Work:

The exact tasks for the consultant will be jointly determined in an agile way and are outlined in summary below. The consultant will directly interface with the ICT Specialist and ICT Manager (Programme Effectiveness).

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

The consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Support INVENT scale-up and organizational mainstreaming activities

• Work with regional Technology for Development (T4D) Business Analysts (BAs), the Office of Innovation (OOI) and other stakeholders to collect, review, reorganize, and update INVENT data to be used by T4D BAs, senior ICT management and country office (CO) colleagues
• Develop/adapt INVENT support materials for use by CO-based ICT staff and materials for Regional and Country office T4D staff trainings.

Build, manage and grow the INVENT community

• Build relationships and increase engagement with members of the INVENT community
• Liaise with internal counterparts at UNICEF as necessary, to building relationships with users to support the increase in adoption of INVENT and other T4D tools.
• Share outputs and outcomes from INVENT working group discussions
• Organise knowledge sharing events and showcases for the work of the INVENT community
• Create materials for advocacy and sharing outcomes with a wider audience 

Management of INVENT Working Group:

• Chair regular meetings of the INVENT Working Group.
• Actively identify and make contact with new and existing actors to add to the working group.
• Drive adoption and improvement of INVENT and other T4D tools by providing feedback to the Office of Innovation (OoI) and the Information and Communications Technology Division (ICTD) Digital Core unit.
• Update and maintain global content library to streamline INVENT knowledge management and capacity building with the UNICEF INVENT ecosystem.

Prepare advocacy and communication materials including:

• Content to introduce and promote exploration and analysis of data generated by INVENT and other T4D tools.
• Use of data dashboards and other data driven results to evangelise the use of INVENT and other T4D tools.
• Preparation of case studies, implementation overviews, and deployment experiences with products by UNICEF and others
• Content to drive better usage and learning, such as feature overviews, tutorials, and tips/tricks
• Product overview documents for INVENT and related technologies.
• Web content, key messages, op-eds, fact sheets, blogs, etc.
• Work with ICTD comms team, country and regional offices to develop human interest stories and/or supporting UNICEF programme staff in writing human interest stories, including through assisting with shaping story angles, providing writing tips, and supporting with the finalization of stories.
• Develops donor and fundraising content packages such as fact sheets, beneficiary testimonies, interviews, blogs, etc.
• Works with the team to develop and deliver UNICEF INVENT newsletter in timely manner.
• Developing messages for social media platforms as needed

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

An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Information Technology Business process management or relevant field.

At least five years of professional experience in coordination of data capture into a digital platform

Proven ability to coordinate work across different regions and across different functional areas.

Documenting user and technical documentation

Outstanding writing skills in the English language with demonstrated ability for logical and analytical writing as well as ‘de-jargoning’ technical language for a wider audience

Experience producing detailed technical product documentation

Attention to detail, research skills and the ability to work under strict deadlines is a must.

Effective interactive communication

Client service and people-oriented

Relationship/community building

Ability to work across time zones

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

In addition, the following will be considered a strong asset:

• Education/work experience in engineering/technical fields
• Humanitarian or development programme background
• Experience using and deploying INVENT and other T4D tools.
• Familiarity with UNICEF organizational structure.
• Comfortable coordinating between multiple remote teams and stakeholders.
• Superior technical writing skills.
• Superior command of the English language.


How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; UNICEF Consultancy: Technology for Development Consultant (Information Systems), ICTD, Digital Center of Excellence Jobs in Kenya

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