Consultancy: M&E Specialist, Office of Innovation, Remote, 40 days

How does the youth challenge, already deployed in 16 countries, grow up to sustainable scale across many more countries? Lessons derived from its first iteration need to be captured and validated and the monitoring tools strengthened to collect and analyze data to adapt promptly moving forward. The successful candidate has the expertise and experience to capture key lessons and to redesign a monitoring tools package to accelerate results for children at scale. Duty Station: Remote Duration: 40 days

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, innovate...

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children's rights are critical to improving their lives.

The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

UNICEF's Office of Innovation creates opportunities for the world's children by focusing on where new markets can meet their vital needs. We do this by:

• Connecting youth communities (or more broadly -- anyone disconnected or under-served) to decision-makers, and to each other, to deliver informed, relevant and sustained programmes that build better, stronger futures for children.
• Provoking change for children through an entrepreneurial approach -- in a traditionally risk-averse field -- to harness rapidly moving innovations and apply them to serve the needs of all children.
• Creating new models of partnership that leverage core business values across the public, private and academic sectors in order to deliver fast, and lasting results for children.

The Office of Innovation specifically looks to form partnerships around frontier technologies (like drones and UAVs, blockchain, 21st century skills, urban technologies, new banking tools, wearables and sensors, or 3D-Printing) that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets and 1 billion person needs -- and to identify how they can grow and scale profitably and inclusively.

ACCELERATING RESULTS FOR CHILDREN AT SCALE

During the period 2015-2019, the Office of Innovation (OoI) has been supporting the scale up of innovations through UNICEF's Global Innovation Centre (GIC). The GIC vision has been to inspire and support the scale-up of new technologies and approaches to UNICEF’s work and that of its partners to achieve powerful impact for all children. Applying a demand-driven, centre-of-excellence model, the GIC Scale team has supported more than 90 countries to identify and adopt innovative solutions touching the lives of 150 million people across these countries. GIC also focused on contributing to building organizational capacity to scale innovation. As a result, UNICEF today is much better positioned to adopt and adapt innovative solutions.

Within the framework of the new UNICEF Innovation for Impact Strategy, a critical organizational shift to support innovation will be the focus on scaling proven innovations. Specifically the OoI will focus on enabling proven innovations to transition through phases 4 and 5 towards reaching sustainable scale, phase 6 of the UNICEF adopted IDIA innovation framework, where the OoI has unique and proven expertise, demonstrated success, and is well placed within the organization to provide this expertise across sectors and regions, provide value in the chain that links to and supports scaling by others.

Generation Unlimited
Generation Unlimited is a global, multi-sector partnership that enables young people to become productive and engaged members of society by connecting secondary-age education and training to employment and entrepreneurship. If the largest generation of young people in history is prepared for the transition to work, the potential for global progress is unlimited.

https://www.generationunlimited.org/

Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge
The global Youth Challenge is a part of young people's engagement in Gen U. . The challenge engages marginalized and vulnerable young people of ages 14 to 24 around the world in the design of solutions that have the potential to scale and create improvements in relation to Gen U strategic priorities. The focus areas of the Youth Challenge are centered around the strategic priorities of Generation Unlimited.

The Generation Unlimited Global Team, hosted by UNICEF, launched the first GenU Youth Challenge in September 2018 in 16 countries with a call for applications from young people from marginalized and disadvantaged backgrounds. The incubation of the winners of the first Youth Challenge is still in progress.

In 2019/20, as part of the Generation Unlimited partnership, UNICEF, UNDP, the World Organization of the Scout Movement, Plan International and other partners (globally and locally) are convening the networks, assets and resources to co-create and co-host the second Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge in at least 30 countries

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF is seeking a consultant,  with expertise in monitoring and programme reviews and ideally also experience in deploying innovative, participatory, youth-led and other non-traditional monitoring and also evaluation methods in development contexts.

The consultant shall provide technical support in research and monitoring tools design for the delivery of the second round of the global Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge.

As the first GenU Youth Challenge concludes, the consultant will be reviewing existing data and information from the 16 participating countries and validating lessons learned captured internally. The results of the consultants work will feed into the deployment of the second iteration of the Youth Challenge and ensure that best practices are embedded into the programme for scalable and sustainable implementation.

To contribute to strengthened knowledge management and data-driven scale, both at the local level as well as at the global level, the consultant will support the review and revision of existing monitoring tools used in the first GenU Youth Challenge. The current monitoring tools consist of attendance sheets, an outreach monitoring template, participant evaluation sheets, a Reach M&E form, and an Outcomes and Results M&E Form. The revision could include the use of digital tools to allow for real time capture of monitoring information.

Your main responsibilities will be:

To work closely with the Office of Innovation Senior Advisors, the Deployment at Scale Specialist and through field engagement, to:

• Review the first iteration of the Youth Challenge and the internal knowledge management efforts to:
  • Capture lessons learned and good practices that contribute to a strengthened Youth Challenge structure
• Suggest improved monitoring tools to be used through the second iteration of the Youth Challenge
  • Craft a comprehensive set of improved monitoring tools and resources designed to support Youth Challenge country hosts in standardizing and streamlining data gathering, monitoring, and assessment of the Youth Challenge
  • Introduce innovative, participatory, youth-led and other non-traditional monitoring models and methods

The work of this consultant will be collaborative, working closely:

• With colleagues in the OoI
• With other colleagues at UNICEF Headquarters, cross-sectorally, across all sectors relevant for the solutions
• With members of the Generation Unlimited Global Team
• Field engagement with Regional and Country level personnel engaged with the first Youth Challenge; and
• With external partners, resource people and expertise. 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have

• Advanced degree (Master’s or higher) in Social Sciences, Social Policy, Social Development, Development Planning, Statistics or other relevant field.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in monitoring, design and implementation in development contexts, with direct experience in deploying innovative, participatory, youth-led and other non-traditional M&E methods required.
• Experience in working at the intersection of youth (particularly education and skill-building), private sector (mainly start up ecosystem, accelerators, incubators) and wider partnerships an asset.
• Experience in working with multiple countries and with multiple stakeholders an asset.
• Experience in working with organizations focused on engaging and empowering adolescents and youth, especially the most marginalized, preferred an asset.
• Excellent written English and verbal communication skills required.
• Experience with processing large amounts of information and synthesizing it
• Strong interpersonal and networking skills. Ability to work collaboratively in a team and in a diverse work environment.
• Knowledge of United Nations - particularly UNICEF - programming, processes and work streams an asset.
• Fluency in English is required, strong written and verbal competency is necessary. Working knowledge of another UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability, and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The functional competencies required for this post are: Relating and Networking, Applying Technical Expertise Level, Analysing, Learning and Researching, Creating and Innovating, Entrepreneurial Thinking, Adapting and Responding to Change, Coping with Pressure and Setbacks.

View our competency framework at:

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
• Payment details and further considerations
• Monthly payment, based on monthly tasks and progress reports, approved upon monthly review with supervisor.
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance
• Consultant is eligible for standard DSA for all work-related travel
• Duty Station: Remote
• Duration: 40 days