Programme Manager

**Job no**: 569245

**Contract type**: Temporary Appointment

**Duty Station**: Geneva

**Level**: P-4

**Location**: Switzerland

**Categories**: Innovation, Programme Management

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, hope**:
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.

**How can you make a difference?**:
Under the guidance of the Senior Adviser (Giga Financing and Market Shaping) the Programme Manager for Market Influence and Procurement Centre plays a pivotal role in achieving Giga's mission to connect all schools to the internet by 2030. This role provides expert advice to UNICEF Country Offices and their government partners, focusing on efficient, large-scale procurement of school connectivity.

The Programme Manager will also be responsible for the creation and initial setup of the Giga Global Procurement Hub. This hub aims to centralize technical assistance and achieve significant cost savings through strategic market interventions and bulk purchasing.

In collaboration with UNICEF's Supply Division and ITU, the Programme Manager leads the development and implementation of market influencing strategies to enhance governments’ access to affordable and high-quality school connectivity. These strategies aim to help Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other potential market actors that can supply connectivity, to scale up their services, particularly in underserved and remote areas.

Another important aspect of the role is to support UNICEF Country Offices, and their government counterparts, to make demand for school connectivity more stable and predictable. Thus, the Programme Manager is responsible for developing tools and providing guidance for countries to aggregate their demand for school connectivity within the country or establishing agreements to do it at a regional or global scale. By engaging both the supply and the demand sides of the school connectivity solutions market, the Programme Manager’s work is intended to support Giga in improving the affordability of school connectivity, expand choice and manage a competitive supplier base, recognizing connectivity as an essential service for the fulfillment of children’s rights.

The role requires agility and adaptability, aligning with Giga's startup culture. The Programme Manager will work closely with UNICEF's country offices and ITU teams, as well as other UN agencies. This role demands strong collaboration across various Giga teams, including Mapping, Finance, and Country Engagement, and with UNICEF’s 135 country offices.

**Lead Giga’s procurement team: Provide leadership to Giga’s procurement team in delivering technical advice and support to UNICEF Country Offices, and their respective government counterparts for efficient school connectivity contracting**:

- Tool development and maintenance: Guide the procurement team to develop and continuously update the necessary tools for providing technical support to UNICEF Regional and Country Offices. This includes procurement documents, technical requirements and standards, model contracts, templates for service-level agreements, among others.
- Needs assessment and strategy development: Evaluate the procurement needs of UNICEF Regional and Country Offices and their respective governments regarding school connectivity. Where necessary conduct market assessment exercises and quantify demand over time. Based on this evaluation, develop a tailored procurement strategy for each region or country, considering their unique characteristics.
- Coordination with UNICEF Supply Division: Collaborate with UNICEF Supply Division teams to ensure Giga’s school connectivity procurement tools and guidance reflect and utilize the knowledge, expertise, and insights from procurement practices across UNICEF.
- Data collection and analysis: Coordinate the collection of data relevant to understand procurement and school connectivity contracting processes in a country, and perform subsequent analysis to inform decision-making processes. Building on UNICEF’s commitment to transparency, utilize market information and intelligence tools to influence local and regional markets and support informed government, supplier and partner decision making.
- Lead school connectivity procurement focal point: Act as the primary contact point for Giga countries in the stage of procuring affordabl