Digital Innovation Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

UNDP is the United Nations largest agency with a mandate to eradicate poverty, through sustainable and inclusive human development. UNDP has been in Nigeria since the country became independent in 1960 providing capacity building and policy development support to the Federal Government of Nigeria in areas of Governance & Peace Building, Inclusive growth, and Sustainable Development. UNDP continues to support the government in the implementation of development interventions aimed at meeting medium to long term goals enshrined in National and Subnational development plans as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. The goal of UNDP is to improve the lives of the people of Nigeria, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, and to ensure a future that offers equality, dignity, and opportunity for all. UNDP works in partnership with the federal Government of Nigeria, development partners, UN agencies, civil society and local communities to help identify local solutions to meet global and national development challenges through a range of interventions that combine UNDP’s expertise and comparative advantage in the areas of Governance & Peace Building, Inclusive growth and Sustainable Development.

Context

The ‘post’ COVID-19 era has presented to countries around the world with the biggest challenge ever experienced. This era has also opened space for envisioning and reimagining new pathways for socio-economic transformation, especially in the way in which public services are delivered to citizens. Nigeria continues to grapple with unprecedented knock-on effects of the pandemic as the country aspires to leapfrog old and emerging frontier challenges to ensure the health, safety, wellbeing, and security of its citizens. As witnessed at the height of the pandemic, what began as a health issue, very quickly transformed into a social and economic crisis with far reaching implications on people's livelihoods, the governance architecture, and economy. The secondary effects of the pandemic and containment measures had a bearing on people – changing the way populations live, work, interact, transact, and learn. It has also impacted on the way in which public goods and services are procured, delivered, and consumed. The crisis also brought with it new needs and opportunities for digital transformation in the delivery of public services and an increased demand on the existing ones. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as core part of the UN development system in Nigeria is supporting the country in its recovery efforts playing a critical integrator and convening role. A key aspect of this support is exploring the scope for amplifying the digital transformation agenda / trajectory both in the short (in response to immediate needs emerging from the crisis) medium and long term (accelerating the path towards recovery and transformative development). This is anchored on the #FutureSmart UNDP as espoused in its 2022-2025 Strategic Plan and Digital Strategy 2022-2025. UNDP Digital Strategy 2022-2025 presents the organization’s value proposition on the role that digital could play in accelerating the attainment of SDGs. It underlines digitalization as one of its key enablers towards achieving development priorities, end poverty, protect the planet and bring peace and prosperity to all. One of the key strategic approaches for prioritizing digitalization to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs is leveraging Digital Public Goods (DPGs) in the development of Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in line with UNDP’s five guiding principles for digital transformation. UNDP defines Inclusive DPIs as a holistic approach that combines local digital ecosystem with digital public infrastructure to enable a community of actors to unlock transformative solutions that are inclusive and protect human rights, based on a robust governance framework and local digital capacities. This framework brings together technology and non-technology layers that together address the three systemic challenges in digital transformation in countries and across sectors and unlock the value trapped within the ecosystem.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Head of UNDP Lagos Office and Chief Innovation Officer or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteers will: 1. Sustain engagement and build partnerships with the digital ecosystem in Nigeria – identifying avenues for collaboration in advancing the SDGs agenda. 2. Undertake continuous mapping and build a catalogue of digital-enabled solutions that have are solving development challenges in Nigeria. 3. Deploy creative open-source methodologies for mapping existing digital public infrastructure, digital public goods, open-source communities, and related ecosystems in Nigeria. 4. Support in the deployment of digital readiness assessments and jointly with selected States co-design frameworks for strengthened capacities for public sector innovation and digital transformation. 5. Support the roll-out of Public Sector Digital Innovation Fellowships in selected states as part of a broader capacity building effort. 6. Establish or participate in communities of sustained learning around public sector innovation and digital transformation with the overall goal of advancing UNDP’s development agenda and supporting the digital ecosystem. 7. Define roadmaps and conceptual framework for driving public sector innovation and digital transformation including policy labs for public sector reform agenda.