Consultancy: Digital Capacity and Change Specialist consultant – ICTD Digital Centre of Excellence (DCOE) – remote

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, a connected world 

Digital Transformation (DX) is a change strategy in UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, underpinning the achievement of all Goal Areas. UNICEF’s DX strategy consists of four workstreams, one of which is Digital Programmes (workstream 3). Institutionalizing digital transformation in key programming processes, guidance, and policies, is key to achieve lasting impact in this workstream. ICTD’s Digital Centre of Excellence (DCOE) develops and maintains global guidance as it relates to digital programming and Technology for Development (T4D), closely collaborating with the Regional T4D Teams, as well as other parts of ICTD.

ICTD DCOE, together with the Regional T4D teams, is leading the global scale-up of the ICT and Digital Innovation Operating Model (IDIOM), that guides the design/right-sizing of digital transformation capabilities at the country level. The IDIOM model can be used to identify capabilities gaps and inform decisions about the setup of digital transformation/T4D teams at the CO level. It has been rolled out across various regions and is continuously evolving and adapted.

How can you make a difference? 

ICTD DCOE is looking to hire a capacity and change specialist that can support the continuous evolution of IDIOM and drive its global scale-up across UNICEF regions, including by anchoring it in the country planning process

Scope of Work:
The Digital Capacity and Change Specialist is expected to support the rollout and institutionalization of IDIOM, specifically through the following areas of work:

1. Knowledge management and advocacy for IDIOM: Continuously evolve the IDIOM approach and related documentation (on SharePoint and PowerPoint). This includes:
– Perform periodic updates of the hard data used in the ‘IDIOM lite’ model
– Document lessons learned from IDIOM missions/reviews and share with the IDIOM Working Group
– Develop IDIOM case studies, documenting the purpose and impact of an IDIOM review and the broader T4D function/teams
– Integrate IDIOM into broader T4D strategy approach incl. with other tools such as Technology Playbook
– Support development and evolution of DXInt dashboard to support IDIOM reviews
– Develop IDIOM advocacy materials, including SharePoint page/s, articles
– Design (and potentially deliver) IDIOM training session at TeamOne T4D training (January 2025)
– Provide briefings on IDIOM to COs and other users on demand

2. Institutionalization of IDIOM: Develop global guidance for anchoring IDIOM in the country planning process (CPP) and related documents. This includes:
– Collaborate across ICTD and Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring (DAPM) to develop global guidance for where and how to incorporate IDIOM into the country planning process (incl. Situation Analysis, Country Programme Document, etc.)
– Collect and analyze existing approaches and good practices across regions, incl. how IDIOM has been used in the context of the CPP

-Develop and update relevant templates, including for PPPX SharePoint site
– Test and iterate with regional and country offices
– Consider updating ICTD guidance on ICT capacity in countries based on IDIOM recommendations

3. Monitoring and Evaluation of IDIOM / digitally-enabled programming: Collaborating across various parts of ICTD and DAPM, support the development of metrics to measure the impact of T4D/ digitally-enabled programming to a) support advocacy for IDIOM, b) measure the impact of T4D capacity / IDIOM. This includes:
– Review existing (CO and global) metrics to analyze T4D capacity and impact, for example from different regions
– Develop suggestions for how to improve impact measurement of digital programming/T4D, to advocate for the use of IDIOM and measure impact of T4D capacity.
– Develop KPIs for IDIOM, incl. to measure CO adoption and impact

4. Evolution of IDIOM capability model and process including through divisional and cross-divisional alignment
Evolve the IDIOM capability model and suggested rollout process based on
– Feedback from IDIOM reviews
– Alignment with ICTD HR digital skills mapping
– Alignment with ICTD InfoSec cybersecurity skills mapping
– Alignment with DAPM Data Function Blueprint (focus on data capabilities in IDIOM)
– Alignment with Office of Innovation (OOI) (focus on innovation capabilities in IDIOM)
– Identify opportunities for shared rollout/reviews (e.g. through joint missions between ICTD, OOI and DAPM)
– Update capability model documentation accordingly (e.g. adding/changing or removing capabilities from the model)
– Identify ways to strengthen IDIOM recommendations beyond changes to staffing structures and reporting lines, focusing on digital upskilling, peer-to-peer learning, etc.

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

• Minimum of 10 years of experience working on the intersection of digital capacity, organizational change management, digital transformation and international development
•  Experience designing, leading, and deploying organizational frameworks and operating models.
• Experience working in the UN system, ideally on country level, is required
• Project management skills including task prioritization, workflow coordination, and results-driven strategies is desirable
• Relevant work experience related to knowledge management, development of training programmes/materials focusing on digital action, impact and integrity is desirable
• Capacity to handle, analyse and draw insights from large amounts of data e.g. using PowerBi
• In-depth understanding of UN Country Planning process
• Experience in developing tools and guidance (such as work aids and templates) for UN users
• Ability to manage and execute multiple tasks with little supervision while meeting sometimes inflexible deadlines is desirable.

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. 

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.