Global Office of Research and Foresight

UNICEF Innocenti is recruiting a consultant to extend this work by focusing on neurotechnology, children and their rights. The consultant will analyze policies and regulations that protect children in the era of neurotechnology, and where there are regulatory gaps. The consultant will help bring together a community of experts, and with their guidance: illustrate to government policymakers, child rights groups, the private sector and the UN how neurotechnology can impact children today and in the future through use cases, and develop guiding recommendations into neurotechnology policymaking and regulation so that children are protected and empowered.

Major areas of work and responsibility:

• Building on initial background report conducted for UNICEF, identify key stakeholders to involve in the project, events to target for maximum advocacy impact and visibility for children’s right, and policy/regulatory processes to influence in the future.
• Assemble and convene an expert advisory group with knowledge of neurotechnology, policy and children’s rights in the digital environment, to help guide the project’s focus areas, implementation and analysis. Experts could come from the organizations like the NeuroRights Foundation, universities conducting research into neurotechnology, private sector companies, and UN bodies such as Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Office of the Tech Envoy responding to the Secretary-General’s call in the Our Common Agenda report to prevent potential harms in the digital space from neurotechnology. Convene four expert group meetings.
• Develop a project plan, report outline, criteria for potential use cases to demonstrate impacts on rights, and approach to regulatory landscape scanning, with reviews/inputs from the expert advisory group.
• Lightly map and summarize the policy/regulatory environment with regards to neurotechnology, and for children, in particular, to reveal gaps in existing normative frameworks or regulations, and opportunities for intervention. Global and national documents should be covered.
• Write a guidance report (up to 5,000 words document) with:
• Summarize key points from the background paper (for readers who may only view this guidance report).
• Illustrative use cases and foresight methods such as future scenarios or personas of how children do and might interact with neurotechnology should be included, with explanations of how neurotechnology impacts – positively and negatively – on children’s rights. These should aim to make impacts relatable and tangible and help guide precautionary policies and regulations (through an action/inaction lens for policymakers). This section builds on some of the uses described in the background report.
• Updates on current efforts around neurotechnology and rights, such as the legal analysis being undertaken by the UN Human Rights Council. Light analysis and summary of relevant normative frameworks or regulations, with gaps and opportunities for intervention.
• A set of guiding recommendations, aimed at policymakers and regulators as well as neurotechnology developers, for how children can be empowered and protected with neurotechnology.
• As part of developing the main report, conduct key informant interviews and convene and co-lead a (virtual or face-to-face) workshop with the expert advisory group to develop/validate the recommendations to protect and empower children.
• Author one articles/blog post to give visibility to the report and issue to be published by UNICEF.
• Liaise with colleagues working on data governance to identify and cross-reference potential synergies.

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

• A minimum of eight years of professional work experience at national or international levels conducting research, legal or policy analysis, and report writing in the field of emerging technologies related to child or human rights.
• Demonstrated experience or knowledge in the field of ICT and neurotechnology policy or practice required. Experience with neurotechnology or children in developing country contexts is desirable.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and excellent attention to detail. Proven experience of writing policy recommendations is an asset. Experience presenting outputs at conferences and to policymakers is an asset.
• Motivated self-starter, with demonstrated ability to work effectively and sensitively in geographically dispersed teams and across cultures.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment; experience working in the UN or other international development organization an asset.
• Ability to organize own work and to carry out a project with limited supervision according to deadlines.
• Commitment to UNICEF’s core values of care, respect, integrity, transparency, and accountability.

Source:  https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/570703