Consultancy 12 months: Technical Specialist, Connectivity Solutions (Giga), Geneva, Switzerland

The Technical Specialist for Connectivity Solutions will significantly enhance the capacity of UNICEF and Giga to deliver high-quality, reliable, and sustainable connectivity solutions to schools. By ensuring the implementation of robust technical standards and quality assurance measures, the specialist will contribute to the overall effectiveness and efficiency of school connectivity projects. This role will help bridge the digital divide, providing children in unconnected schools with access to educational resources and opportunities, thus supporting UNICEF’s mission to promote equity and the right to education for every child. The specialist’s work in monitoring and adapting service requirements, evaluating suppliers, and managing product portfolios will ensure that connectivity solutions are fit for purpose, cost-effective, and aligned with the latest industry advancements. This will ultimately lead to improved educational outcomes and a stronger foundation for the future development of connected learning environments globally.

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, Connectivity 

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 start-up thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

About Giga

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%.

You can read more about Giga’s work at https://giga.global/ and by following us on twitter @Gigaglobal

How can you make a difference? 

The Giga Procurement Section, based in Geneva, plays a critical role in achieving this goal by ensuring that schools receive high-quality connectivity solutions. This position will be co-managed by Giga and UNICEF Supply Division to support UNICEF Country Offices and their government partners with technical assistance to efficiently procure affordable, quality-assured, and sustainable connectivity.

Under the guidance of the Procurement Section Programme Manager, the Contract Manager and UNICEF Supply Division’s Service Contracting Center, the Technical Specialist for Connectivity Solutions will provide technical expertise and oversight to ensure the delivery of high-quality, fit-for-purpose connectivity solutions to schools. The specialist will work closely with internal and external stakeholders to develop and maintain technical specifications for connectivity solutions, monitor industry trends, support the development of the procurement strategy and the implementation of large-scale RFP processes.

The role requires agility and adaptability, aligning with Giga’s startup culture. The Technical Specialist will work closely with UNICEF Supply Division, UNICEF country offices and ITU teams, as well as other UN agencies.

Key responsibilities include:

The Technical Specialist (Connectivity Solutions) will play a crucial role for Giga’s procurement support. This position involves staying updated on the latest industry developments and providing technical guidance to UNICEF regional and country offices, and government partners, to procure and manage innovative, cost-effective connectivity solutions.

In collaboration with the Market Researcher, the Technical Specialist will conduct market analysis and intelligence reports to inform the procurement and management of innovative and cost-effective connectivity solutions. The specialist will help develop and validate global and regional service requirements (based on a Target Service Profile), and support Giga and UNICEF staff to ensure that service requirements are comprehensive and meet the needs of various educational contexts.

The Technical Specialist will provide support to the Contract Manager during the RFP process, including developing technical specifications and evaluation criteria, to ensure that ToRs and contracts for school connectivity include robust quality assurance measures, KPIs, service level agreements and that ISPs can provide Giga with the required data to monitor the performance of connectivity in real-time. The Technical Specialist will also coordinate with the Giga Tech team to ensure that we can implement the tools developed to monitor school connectivity in real-time, ensuring compliance with contract requirements.

The role involves developing and maintaining technical documentation, preparing technical reports, and managing a portfolio of connectivity solutions to meet UNICEF’s standards. By ensuring the implementation of robust technical standards and quality assurance measures, the specialist will enhance UNICEF and Giga’s capacity to support governments in the delivery of high-quality, reliable, and sustainable connectivity solutions for schools, thus enhancing educational opportunities globally. 

Please access the full Term of Reference (ToRs) and read a more detailed description of the assignment in this file in order to prepare your financial proposal and know more about the role:   Technical Specialist FINALv.pdf

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

• An advanced university degree in Telecommunications, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• Minimum 5 years of professional work experience in the field of connectivity solutions, telecommunications, or IT.
• Experience in developing technical specifications and managing procurement processes for connectivity solutions in developing (or LMIC/MIC) countries, preferably in Africa are an asset.
• Experience working with international organizations, governments, or NGOs is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Travel:

• The consultant is expected to travel to the countries Giga is supporting on five (5) trips, for a stay of 5-6 nights each, to Africa, during the period of this contract, covering approximately 9 countries in Eastern, Western and Southern Africa.
• The consultant is responsible for arranging his/her own travel, including visa and travel insurance.

Payment details and further considerations:

• Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.
• The consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance.
• The consultant is responsible for arranging his/her own travel, including visa.
• This consultancy is based in Geneva.
• UNICEF will facilitate the process for obtaining local permits exclusively for the consultant, excluding any dependents.
• For more information on Non-staff members IO based in Geneva, you can visit this link

How to apply:

• Interested applicants are required to submit a financial proposal with an all-inclusive fee.  Please see the financial proposal template here: Consultancy Financial Offer template.docx
• Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance.
• Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

 To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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 be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. For more information on Non-staff members IO based in Geneva, you can visit this link.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.