Consultant (WASH knowledge products), P-4, Home-based

Support UNICEF country offices in South Asia and the Regional Office in their WASH knowledge management activities, particularly to strengthen the capacity for the elaboration of high quality knowledge products to be used for advocacy and other purposes.

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Background:

In the frame of UNICEF's work in WASH, knowledge management (KM) activities represent one of the strategic tools to support the achievements of sectoral output results for children. KM underpins the effectiveness and efficacy of the WASH programme to maximize its impact with the available resources. KM should be used to generate, capture, use and share UNICEF's organizational WASH knowledge to improve the quality, equity and sustainability of WASH services.UNICEF aims to ensure that programme designs are based on the best available information and knowledge and that advocacy is based on rigorously analysed evidence. As WASH sector leader, UNICEF aims at sharing and applying knowledge and innovative practice with global partners, international institutions and across the wider development community, to support global decision making and advocacy and help building best practice.

UNICEF WASH programme's KM actions are based at the global level on a specific framework (the WASH KM strategic framework, 2014-2015) that focuses on the 4 pillar of KM:

1. Generating Knowledge: all activities aimed at generating knowledge, i.e.: reports, studies, research, evaluations, etc. This includes in-house research and analysis, the know-how based on programmatic experience, and externally generated research and experience.
2. Elaborating Knowledge products: the knowledge generated within the WASH programme should be re-packaged (summarized, main concepts distilled and highlighted, etc.) in function of the audience, to make it more effective and easier to use;
3. Disseminating Knowledge and communication: the Knowledge products should be disseminated internally and externally through different channels, with UNICEF's sectoral partners - including Governments - to make sure they are effectively used for different purposes (programming, monitoring, advocacy, policy definitions, capacity building, monitoring, etc.);
4. Building, maintaining and updating staff capacity: based on the existing knowledge, the training is intended to improve the skills and personal capacity of staff and partners, for ensuring that knowledge is routinely managed and used to scale up evidence-based and locally adapted solutions.

The UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) WASH section is supporting the country offices in the region to strengthen their KM activities, based on the above mentioned concepts and framework. The aim is particularly to strengthen the capacity of the country offices for the elaboration of high quality knowledge products and short publications, in form of outreach and advocacy materials, based on existing knowledge initiatives (studies, research, evaluation, reports, etc.) and make sure that these knowledge products can be easily disseminated and used, internally and by different sectoral stakeholders, to demonstrate results and for different purposes (advocacy, programming, capacity building, monitoring, etc.). 

Purpose:

The purpose of this consultancy is to support UNICEF country offices in South Asia and ROSA in their WASH knowledge management activities, particularly to strengthen the capacity for the elaboration of high quality knowledge products to be used for advocacy and other purposes.

Objectives:

The objective of this consultancy is to apply editorial expertise for the elaboration of several high quality WASH knowledge products (field notes, factsheets, human interest stories or similar) using UNICEF WASH templates and extracting from existing draft knowledge products or from knowledge initiatives developed by the country offices (i.e. studies, research, evaluations, reports). The knowledge products elaborated by the consultancy will be ready for their subsequent dissemination and use by UNICEF and partners in the region and beyond. Additionally, the selected editor consultant will prepare and carry out a short training (webinar of approx. 2 hours) addressed to the RO and COs WASH KM focal points, focused on the basics of the editorial work to elaborate high quality summaries and knowledge products.

The different types of knowledge products to be elaborated are detailed as follows:

Assignment Tasks & Deliverables:

The elaboration of each WASH knowledge product will include the following detailed activities, estimated no. of working days, and final deliverables:

Note: each 'batch' consists of 2 to 4 knowledge products, comprising of field notes, factsheets, human interest stories or similar, will be defined and agreed at the beginning of the consultancy based on country offices need, availability of documentation, as well as on ROSA and country offices priorities.

Duration of the contract:

The contract duration is from 01/04/2017 to 31/08/2017. The consultant will work for approximately 68 days over this period. 

Working Arrangements:

This consultancy will be home based. The consultant will provide his/her own work space, computers, software, office equipment and internet connection. Contact with the UNICEF supervisor and UNICEF Country Offices informants will be through phone calls / skype and email.

There is no travel involved in this consultancy.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

Education

• Master University degree in social science, journalism, communication or any discipline related to the editorial and communication work
• A University degree with equal years of relevant work experience in lieu of a master degree is acceptable.

Years of relevant experience

• A minimum of 8 years' experience in editing and writing on different topics related to social science, children or development issues;
• Excellent writing skills and demonstrated record of high quality publications on social science, children or development issues;
• Knowledge and demonstrate experience of review, editing, report writing and proofreading.
• Previous experience editing and writing for UNICEF and familiarity with UNICEF's style guidelines would be an asset.
• Experience in the WASH / public health and/or child related issues would be an asset.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.