Finance Specialist

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development projects around the world. Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement, and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors, and United Nations organizations. With over 8,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, where they need it. By implementing around 1,000 projects for our partners at any given time, UNOPS makes significant contributions to results on the ground, often in the most challenging environments.

UNOPS Geneva Office is providing support to a wide range of portfolios, including UNEP, UNICEF, UNHCR, and other partners. As of July 2025, the UN Partners Portfolio has signed a UN-to-UN Agreement with UNICEF for the implementation of the GIGA Project, a joint initiative between UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that aims to connect every school to the internet by 2030, bridging the global digital divide and promoting equitable access to education. Under this agreement, UNOPS provides comprehensive operational and administrative support to UNICEF and the GIGA project team, including project management, human resources and recruitment, travel and procurement/financial management services. These services strengthen operational delivery and ensure the efficient and compliant implementation of GIGA's strategic objectives.

Launched in 2019 as a joint initiative between UNICEF and ITU, Giga has set the ambitious goal to connect every school in the world to the internet. Half of the world's population has no regular access to the Internet. Millions of children leave school without any digital skills, making it much more difficult for them to thrive and contribute to local and global economies. This has created a digital divide between those who are connected and those who are not, a divide that has become even wider during the Covid-19 pandemic. UNICEF and ITU have therefore joined forces to create Giga, an initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet and address this new form of inequality.

Giga focuses on connecting schools so that children and young people have access to information, opportunity, and choice. It also uses schools as anchor points for their surrounding communities: if you connect the school, you can also connect local businesses and services. This creates opportunities for service providers to generate revenue from paying users, making connectivity more sustainable. A 2021 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%.

The Giga Finance team, based in Geneva, plays a key role in mobilizing the capital required to connect schools and health centers around the world to the internet. The Finance Specialist will work at the intersection of development finance and digital infrastructure to unlock sustainable investment pathways for connectivity.

This role will be co-managed by Giga and the UNICEF Office of Innovation to support UNICEF Country Offices and their government partners with designing bankable projects and identifying financing solutions, including through collaboration with development finance institutions, private investors, and public donors.

The Finance Specialist demands collaboration across various Giga teams, Country Engagement, Partnerships and with UNICEF's 135 country offices, to scale connectivity solutions that deliver long-term impact for children and communities.