Programme Manager

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.

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 favoritism. 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. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society's most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

The Office of Innovation (OoI) works to catalyze UNICEF's and all its partners' expertise and resources against key children-outcomes bottlenecks, with a view to continuously ideate and scale the most effective solutions with transformational potential at scale to achieve the child-related SDGs.

Giga ) is a partnership between UNICEF ) and the ITU ) working to connect every school in the world. The team ) has experience and background in building technology products, finance and investment, design, and infrastructure. It's a global team, with two "centers of gravity" (in Barcelona, Spain and Geneva, Switzerland) but with many team members located around the world.

Giga is broken into three main areas: Mapping, Finance, Procurement, and then some cross-cutting support services. The Country Engagement Team supports the initiation and implementation of all three areas of Giga's support in countries. The Mapping team maps schools and their connectivity, creating a real-time display of access and need on Project Connect ). The Finance team works to create the financing (grant, loan, and investment) for connectivity. The Procurement works closely with UNICEF Supply Division to support governments through public procurement processes for contracting sustainable, high quality and affordable school connectivity. There are also crosscutting teams that support on communications, partnerships, staff wellbeing, operations and finance.

The team functions similarly to a tech startup, but within the United Nations. We aim to have agility and flexibility in how we work, and to be driven by realtime data about what we're doing. We also work within the political and global framework of the UN, which means that we can collaborate with policy makers and regulators, governments, civil society, and of course, most closely with our 135 country offices, in everything we do.

Giga is a new project for UNICEF – we started in 2019 – so it's also a team that's always learning and growing. These roles are great for people who like adventure, who want to understand how to apply their skills on an international scale (or who are already experts at that), and who are able to "roll up their sleeves" and do what's needed to help connect every school in the world to the internet and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice.

Under the supervision and guidance of the Programme Manager, the Country Engagement Manager is responsible for the achievement of Giga's country engagement strategy, including deploying Giga and its tech products in defined priority countries, coordinating and overseeing the development and execution of country-specific plans and agreements, coordination between specific country needs, strategy and global level resources and partners (including ITU, UNICEF HQ, Regional Offices and pertinent divisions, potential funders and technical assistance partners).

Initiate outreach to prospective countries and identify additional countries:

• Manage the development and regular update of standard materials and resources for country-level engagement, with a focus on Giga's open-source technology products and offerings.
• Coordinate collection of data and analysis to inform outreach, high-level advocacy, and stakeholder engagement Act as the lead focal point for prospective Giga countries and assess opportunities and prioritization.

Design country engagement strategy and define Giga's added value for each country where Giga is implemented:

• Lead the process of formalizing agreements for national engagement.
• Develop, implement and adapt the global country engagement approach and steps to be used.
• Define country-specific needs and value add, and coordinate Giga's Finance and Procurement team's inputs needed to inform engagement with potential funders, partners and financial models.

Lead implementation of the engagement strategy, including development of agreements and country-level mechanisms and resources

• Provide hands-on technical support to Giga country and regional level teams.
• Facilitate access to cutting-edge technical assistance through emerging technology and innovative finance products as defined with country-level partners.
• Track implementation and outcomes of technical assistance, with a focus on deployed products.
• Lead engagement with national governments around open GIS data required for Giga implementation.

Coordinate engagement of partners in country plans, including ITU, potential funders, open source technology developers, connectivity experts, and data collection actors as relevant

• Lead the process of information exchange with country and regional teams, e.g., UNICEF Country Offices, Regional Offices, to ensure synergies between Giga's pursuit of universal school connectivity and other programme interventions at CO/RO level that might benefit from connectivity.

Provide strategic input as part of global Giga team

• Provide and manage field expert input in the development of emerging technology and open data Giga products and processes.
• Manage expert inputs from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for network connectivity data for various Giga products.
• Manage tracking of country engagement status and oversee the process of maintaining up-to-date data to inform programming directions and strategy.

• An advanced university degree (Master's or higher) in technology, social sciences, development sciences, public administration, business administration and management or related degree is required.
  
  *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in implementing technology for development projects is required.
• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in managing projects and partnerships focused on open-source frontier technology is required.
• Experience in facilitating engagements with national partners, including government, universities, NGOs and the private sector, ITU, and funders on connectivity and digital public goods is required.
• Experience in facilitating discussions with governments, legal experts, and GIS specialists around open-source GIS data on schools in challenging environments is required.
• Experience of matching government priorities and needs with open-source technology and data for school connectivity is essential.
• Experience facilitating testing of open-source technology prototypes for connectivity with national governments is desired.
• Proven understanding of challenges in GIS data sharing is essential.
• Previous experience collaborating with ITU and its regional teams is required.
• Experience in the ideation and co-creation of major global open-source gov-tech initiatives will be a requirement for this role. The candidate has worked to move projects from their earliest conceptual stage to uptake at the Ministerial level in a variety of global contexts.
• Proven capacity in managing teams across different locations and with different technical skills is required.
• Familiarity with agreements and frameworks to guide engagement with private sector and other partners on open-source technology and related programmes is an asset.
• Knowledge of national policy frameworks related to technology development, implementation, and infrastructure development is required
• Experience in/knowledge of UNICEF's programmes, policy, and principles.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world's most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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:

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

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

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