OKY Country Coordinator, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 10 months

UNICEF Papua New Guinea seeking to engage an OKY Country Coordinator on consultancy basis to provide project management and technical support to Oky PNG.

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, WASH

With over 850 indigenous languages and one of the most ethnically diverse populations, widespread poverty, and gender inequality make it hard for many children to realize their rights. In Papua New Guinea, UNICEF’s works effectively both ‘upstream’ (with governments) and ‘downstream’ (at the grassroots level) to carry out its mission through a programme of cooperation jointly developed with the government guides our work in the country.

How can you make a difference? 

BACKGROUND:  

Oky is the first-of-its-kind open-source mobile phone period tracker and menstruation education application co-created with and for girls in LMICs, as part of a multi-platform product series. Oky illustrates innovative tech design that tackles both: the taboo, stigma, misconceptions, and lack of quality information related to menstruation and reproductive health for girls, and the gender digital divide. Oky is built together with girls to meet their digital realities (connectivity, devices, literacy, gatekeepers) and to increase girls’ digital literacy while learning about their body, puberty, and reproductive health. Oky’s vision is to spark the digital ecosystem to accelerate gender transformative innovations and to bridge the gender digital divide via co-creation of digital technology with girls and young women and foster their digital skills development. As the Oky app scales across countries and regions, adapted to local contexts and supplemented by relevant multi-platform products by partners and girls themselves, the Oky scaling approach deploys a new and innovative business model via franchise licenses to local partners, a concept commonly used in the private sector, but little explored in humanitarian settings and development aid. The franchising model allows Oky to scale outside of UNICEF, while adhering to Oky principles and being affiliated with UNICEF as the founding partner.

The first iteration of Oky went live in 2020 on the global Play Store (in English) as well as in the two pilot markets of Mongolia and Indonesia on their respective country Play Stores. Under a license agreement signed in 2023, Save the Children has partnered with UNICEF to launch Oky in Papua New Guinea.

Find out more about Oky

● Visit the Oky website – Oky Home (okyapp.info)

● Download the English version of the Oky app – Oky Period Tracker App – Apps on Google Play

● Watch a short Oky intro video – Oky – Period Tracker App for Girls – YouTube

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

UNICEF Papua New Guinea will support Save the Children to launch and promote Oky Papua New Guinea (Oky PNG). The digital landscape in PNG is very different to other markets where Oky is deployed, and the gender digital divide is stark, with girls and young women facing key barriers to mobile phone ownership and usage such as affordability, accessibility (including limited access to identification documents, electricity, and limited mobility to access network coverage), safety concerns, usability and skills. A scoping exercise in 2022 identified that Oky in PNG will need to exist not only as an app, but also as interactive voice response (IVR) and radio products. The localisation process started in 2023 and Save the Children plans the launch of Oky PNG products by Q2 2024.

Save the Children with the support of UNICEF PNG has completed key activities such as consultations with girls (including those with disabilities) and their close social circles, consultations with government stakeholders, identifying local software requirements, hiring key technology partners, and localization of content. The next phase of the localisation and deployment process will involve supporting Save the Children as they start building the three Oky products, user testing (including with girls with disabilities) three products, launch, and ongoing marketing and promotion once Oky products are live. To ensure that the highest level of support is available to Save the Children from the UNICEF country office, the country office is seeking the services of a dedicated Consultant to serve as Oky PNG Coordinator to coordinate all Oky PNG activities and provide project management, technical services, reporting and liaison with the regional and global Oky ecosystem.

SCOPE OF WORK

Activities and Tasks:

Key tasks include, but are not limited to:

1. Project management

● Overall coordination of all Oky PNG initiatives and activities.

● Support Oky PNG implementation according to the approved DFAT workplan.

● Refine and monitor Oky Papua New Guinea workplan and track progress.

● Support activities to be delivered on time and within scope.

● Liaise with relevant UNICEF PNG Senior Management, relevant sections and colleagues, as well as the EAPRO Gender Section & Oky core team.

● Provide regular updates on progress and challenges to Oky core team and relevant UNICEF PNG country office colleagues.

● Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation.

● Monitor and report on progress against the monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) plan.

● Support in-country outputs assessment research.

● Support the core Oky team and UNICEF PNG colleagues on regular DFAT reporting, results and lessons learned.

● Regular documenting insights, learnings and outcomes of activities.

2. Stakeholder coordination and partnerships management

● Act as key point of contact for Oky PNG internal and external stakeholders in Papua New Guinea.

● Develop presentations to share about Oky Papua New Guinea work to potential partners and internal stakeholders.

● Refine and develop communications materials to document and showcase Oky Papua New Guinea activities.

● Facilitate regular check-ins and meetings among collaborators for coordination.

● Identify and set up a community of SRH, MHH and GenderTech organisations in Papua New Guinea who can be collaborators for Oky PNG.

● Hold regular Community of Practice calls with the SRH, MHH and GenderTech community in Papua New Guinea to share insights, get advice, promote and build a community.

● Attend regular calls and meetings, organized by the Oky core team, with other Oky markets and implementing partners to share lessons and insights.

3. Technical assistance

● Provide deployment support to Save the Children such as: o support user testing and feedback o support and technical advisory on content creation, adaptation and translation o support quality assurance process o support in user analytics and reporting on user engagement of Oky PNG

● Provide other technical assistance and support to the key implementing partner and Oky Papua New Guinea activities as needed.

4. User acquisition, promotion and marketing

● Support Save the Children in marketing and promotion activities such as: o setting up and managing in-person outreach activities and channels for Oky PNG such as MHH Clubs, Menstrual Health Task Force, DFAT Water for Women Aid, Pacific Women Lead, National, National Youth Development Authority etc. o launching targeted promotion of Oky to girls with disabilities through disability and inclusion NGOs networks and channels (PNG Assembly of Disabled Persons, Callan Services, Cheshire Homes etc.) in PNG.

5. Documentation and Final Reporting

● Support with documentation and final reporting of the Oky PNG localization and deployment

● Support the development of guidance assets to support other Oky markets in EAP who may replicate the IVR and radio low-tech products

● Perform any other tasks as required for effective and efficient Oky PNG localization and deployment

As a champion for every child, qualifications are…….

● University degree (Bachelors or higher) in Social Sciences, Gender Studies, International Development, ICT or in an area relevant to UNICEF’s Gender and Innovation / Oky / digital SRH and CSE work.

● At least three years of experience in working on digital projects, products and services, or innovation, in PNG and/or the Asia Pacific region; experience working with women and girls preferred.

● Demonstrated track record in the area of coordination, project or product management, communication and outreach; experience in operations in digital development / tech preferred

● Creative, innovative thinker who can also translate ideas into practical applications; “get things done” mindset.

● Self-starter who is happy to hit the ground running; independently motivated who doesn’t require extensive set-up processes.

● Proven skills in communication, networking, strategic thinking, advocacy, negotiation, and ability to relate this to innovation and young people.

● Proven ability to conceptualize, plan and execute ideas.

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.