Coordinator: U-Report (P-4), #103172, Office of Global Innovation - Copenhagen, Denmark

The Global U-Report Coordinator reports to the Senior Adviser on Innovation for general guidance and direction. The Coordinator is responsible for leading and scaling up U-Report, supporting and building country office capacity to implement and run it to achieve programme goals, as well as running the global digital version. This position has significant partnership engagement, to identify, build and nurture a wide range of partnerships from technology companies and iCSOs to recruitment and engagement channels.This roles requires extensive internal (across sectors as well as headquarters, regional and country-level) and external collaboration, and confidence in conducting public advocacy (interviews, keynote speeches etc.) This role recruits and manages a team of expert consultants and vendors and related resources.

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential – to the benefit of a better world.

For every child, a commitment

U-Report is a social messaging tool allowing anyone from any community, anywhere in the world to respond to polls, report issues, support child rights and work positively for change on behalf of people in their country.

Since U-Report launched in Uganda in 2011, UNICEF has evolved U-Report into a highly scalable platform designed to reach the most marginalized people of society in some of the poorest parts of the world. This Open Source mobile technology platform, software, channel integrations and associated applications has enabled UNICEF and our partners to reach millions of young people that otherwise would not be heard on the development issues they care about.

Currently, U-Report enables direct dialogue and feedback with more than 3.5 million beneficiaries in 38 countries on topics across all sectors, making it one of UNICEF’s flagship youth and community real-time data and access-to-information platforms. The number of countries implementing U-Report will continue to grow -- it doubled year-on-year in both 2015 and 2016 -- with around 1 million new young people joining U-Report each year.

The UNICEF Global Innovation Centre Scale team is accountable for managing U-Report and has overseen, supported and guided all U-Report country level, regional and global implementations since its inception, ensuring the best possible success for efficient and effective scale up and impact, gathering insights and sharing knowledge, building capacity to achieve results for children. This Global U-Report Coordinator position is the lead role for this work.

How can you make a difference?

The Global U-Report Coordinator reports to the Senior Adviser on Innovation for general guidance and direction. The Coordinator is responsible for leading and scaling up U-Report, supporting and building country office capacity to implement and run it to achieve programme goals, as well as running the global digital version. This position has significant partnership engagement, to identify, build and nurture a wide range of partnerships from technology companies and iCSOs to recruitment and engagement channels.This roles requires extensive internal (across sectors as well as headquarters, regional and country-level) and external collaboration, and confidence in conducting public advocacy (interviews, keynote speeches etc.) This role recruits and manages a team of expert consultants and vendors and related resources.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Lead, develop and implement the global U-Report strategy for UNICEF.

• Conduct regular regional, country and sector consultations with UNICEF staff and partners to understand their vision, demands and needs. Identify opportunities where the application of U-Report could support UNICEF’s work, and ways in which U-Report might be developed further to meet new opportunities.
• Develop and lead the U-Report roadmap, product development and associated visual identity.
• Develop the content use and reuse components to integrate U-Report as part of other tools, platforms, campaigns and frameworks. e.g. IoGT, multi-country campaigns, global campaigns.
• Develop the quantitative data access, analytics, qualitative data and reporting capabilities of the information UNICEF receives from U-Reporters, the TOC and MEL framework.
• Outline and develop new and effective ways to scale the U-Report platform.
• Fundraise and manage the resources (human, financial, time etc) to achieve the strategy.

2. Leverage the cross-sectoral value of U-Report by working across the organisation to apply U-Report to achieve programme goals

• Work with sectors in programme (health, education, protection etc), emergencies, cross-cutting (gender, C4D etc.) and other areas of work (Data, M&E, evaluation, HR, communication etc) at all levels of the organisation to support utilisation of U-Report to achieve programme goals. Identify needs that may require further product development.
• Identify, develop and support the application of U-Report for key initiatives and campaigns, such as Cause Framework, Early Childhood Development, multi-country initiatives etc.
• With EMOPS, develop, plan and implement U-Report use to support programme objectives beginning with Accountability to Affected Populations. Collaborate to understand potential use cases and applications of the tool, existing AAP frameworks;  Together set up and conduct pilot projects in coordination with EMOPS and specific country offices; Scale up implementation of U-Report in emergencies once a robust approach is proven.

3. Working closely with the relevant colleagues in OI, PFP, partnerships, National Committees and others to establish partnerships.

• Identify and build new and maintain existing technology partnerships that enhance the reach, speed, scale, sustainability and operation of the U-Report platform, such as web-based messengers like Viber, Telegram, & social network services, Facebook, twitter etc.
• Keep on top of current and emerging technologies and engage in how to apply these to enhance the U-Report platform, including but not limited to integrating their channels, access to their audiences/members/users; expertise or other resources to develop the technology platform, software, APIs etc;
• Develop digital media partnerships to aggressively scale up the U-Report platform, including paid and donated value/credits, media owners providing in-kind sponsorship and scale up support within their platform.
• Identify, build and nurture select global partnerships that engage young people in alignment with UNICEF’s programme and values and that can be leveraged for countries, such as with iCSOs such as WAGGS, WSA and similar.
• Collaborate with big data organisations and companies on improved data analytics and reporting capabilities, and opportunities for the development community to use U-Report.

4. Develop and lead the U-Report roadmap and product development

• Maintain and evolve the product roadmap based on feedback, feature and functionality demand and identifying needs that may require further product development. This product development includes aspects such as visual identity and user experience across  the product’s multiple channels from mobile app to website and more.
• In liaison with relevant ICT colleagues, engage technical vendors and consultants to specify and develop the next generation of the U-Report platform, and developments that occur on RapidPro. Keep on top of current and emerging technologies and other trends and how to apply these to enhance the U-Report platform. e.g. AI, bots, ML.
• Test, improve and direct iterations of the platform to become suitable for country deployment at scale in collaboration with country offices.
• Oversee and coordinate technical vendors and consultants to support setup of U-Report platforms at local and country office level, integration with RapidPro, etc.
• Ensure U-Report and the Internet of Good Things (IoGT) platforms are linked and integrated to provide maximum value to mobile users. IoGT is an initiative with FaceBook and mobile network operators to provide new mobile users with free access to information.

5. Knowledge management, capacity building and advocacy

• Document use cases, success and lessons learned and share these, covering a range of areas including U-Report Principles, gender and engaging girls, recruitment using various channels and effectiveness, implementation and monitoring and evaluation framework etc.
• Regular engagement, knowledge gathering and sharing and capacity building with various offices through regular calls, conducting webinars and trainings, build a repository of toolkits, case studies and other guidance/resources.
• Build capacity within country offices, advise on how best to integrate U-Report in service of programme results, guide the concepting of U-Report projects, undertake missions.
• Build awareness of the use and value of U-Report, and position this work and the larger organization among new and different audiences. Achieve this through public speaking opportunities, documentation through practitioner papers, case studies, human interest stories, social media posts, brown bags etc.

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

• Advanced degree, e.g Masters (MA) or above, in Social Sciences, Humanities, International Development or related area.
• 8-10 years relevant work experience, ideally spanning both public/international civil service and private sector; international experience including in developing country contexts.
• Strong background in digital platforms, open-source projects, design process and knowledge of technical infrastructure in developing countries, required.
• Experience with managing mobile-based systems and working with external software vendors.
• Experience in establishing and nurturing a variety of global partnerships, especially technology-based partnerships.
• Experience with managing digital-led youth engagement initiatives, experience managing a U-Report program a plus.
• Excellent written and oral English essential and required; other UN languages an asset but not required.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

Remarks:
A majority of our positions are classified as “rotational,” which means the incumbent is expected to rotate to another duty station upon completion of their tour of duty.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply.