Product Management Consultant, Office of Innovation (Remote) (12 months)

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…innovate

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 UNICEF Global Innovative Finance Hub (IF Hub) aims to reimagine how UNICEF accelerates innovative financing to address the growing US $4.2 trillion-dollar annual Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) funding gap in support of children.

Traditional funding modalities alone cannot fully meet the fiscal needs to address the multifaceted challenges of our time. Exploring and leveraging innovative financing can help unlock untapped sources of income to fund traditional and novel initiatives that have the potential to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

Our Emerging Fundraising team explores solutions, technologies, and business models that are new or yet to emerge for the global fundraising community. The hub develops solutions that open new domains and unlock fundraising potential for children. Currently, the focus is on Web3 technologies, human behaviour, and exploring new domains. The hub is not just raising more money but also transforming the role of donor and receiving communities in this interaction. Some solutions have the potential to transform how development cooperation is done.

Our team

The Consultant reports to the Finance Manager at Innovative Finance Hub in Helsinki. IF Hub is part of the New United Innovative Finance Team that works in the crossroad of the UNICEF Private Fundraising and Partnerships (PFP) in Geneva and the Global Office of Innovation. The Emerging Fundraising team develops transformative fundraising concepts for the UNICEF organization focusing on emerging technologies and new business models.

How can you make a difference? 

In support of the 2022-25 Strategic Plan, UNICEF has launched its Global Innovative Finance for Children (IF4C) Strategy document and is ramping up coordinated endeavors to foster and promote the wider use of IF. 

The pandemic and the post-pandemic economic shocks are serving to highlight, and at times reinforce, the differing structural issues, strengths and weaknesses within regional economies and the also ability and capacity of individual governments and each country’s enabling environment to absorb these shocks and continue to deliver public services and to their sustainable development visions.  These differences in turn can serve to simultaneously compound the need for UNICEF engagement while reducing the availability and potential effectiveness of traditional responses.  Innovative or alternative financing approaches are part of the response to these challenges.

The Product Management Consultant will support the Finance Manager by managing and supporting selected fundraising innovation projects. The Consultant will also provide expertise in partnership development and technical skills for the projects.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Art for Good Project Management
• Project Management for another project

Description of assignment

Art for Good Project Management

Project description:

The project vision is to enable substantial and growing long-term funding for UNICEF’s work for children. Art for Good opens new, substantial, and growing funding channels for UNICEF, providing new income source for artists, and enabling the art market and its wider ecosystem to join the community that supports children. Simultaneously, Art for Good will be a platform that helps the market to track a  works collection history and provenance.

Art for Good is a (tech) platform that:

1) Enables contemporary artists to increase their lifetime earnings by financially benefiting from the future resale of their works

2) Provides a new way for UNICEF to generate funds

How it works:

• Artists agree to donate a set percentage the sale price of their work to UNICEF.
• This relationship is established prior to the artist’s work first being sold on the primary market.
• Each time their work is subsequently sold on the secondary market, the artist receives twice that percentage as an additional payment and agrees to donate half the proceeds to UNICEF.
• UNICEF will engage senior Ambassadors with ties to prominent contemporary artists and gallerists to onboard relevant artists with strong market presence. Establish a series of exclusive local events to celebrate participating artists and engage existing donors. Build global brand visibility through awards / gala events, resulting in PR to raise awareness, drive artist sign-up / retention, and potential individual donations.
• Showcase works by artists participating in the programme at key art world moments to support resale success and drive brand visibility for the programme and its artists.

Project steps

In Step 1 we will finalize the concept, create a business case, validate user and stakeholder needs, identify best possible business model and partners, and achieve internal buy-in of the organization.

In Step 2 (outside of scope of this TOR) we/our partners will develop the Art for Good technology, we prepare marketing and launch plans

In Step 3 we launch the Art for Good and we test run it, evaluate, and make recommendations of the next steps.

In step 4 we will capacitate the organisation and partners and scale.

Step 1 in detail

UNICEF will develop a successful business concept. This work is delegated to external Design and Business Development Vendor. UNICEF pilot countries will identify potential art galleries and artists for the project. Vendor will arrange stakeholder interviews with the artists, galleries and other key stakeholders to identify their needs and preferences related to the UNICEF solution. Vendor will also lead identifying the best roles for UNICEF, galleries and other actors as well as identifying the best potential partners. External Vendor will develop product concept, business case, help to identify best possible partners and define what kind of technology solution would be suitable for the pilot project.

Product Management Consultant will oversee and support Vendor’s work.

You will also coordinate developing of MoUs between partners and UNICEF. Actual negotiations are done by UNICEF pilot countries and UNICEF partnerships expert teams according to UNICEF processes.

Consultant’s Objective: To manage and deliver the project Step 1: Define the Project.

This project Step 1 is timed to happen during Sept 2024 – Sept 2025. Our assumption is that this is not a full-time assignment during the period. Workload may from time to time.

Roles in the Project:

• Manage the project
  • You act as UNICEF internal Product Manager for the project. You report to Finance Manager who owns this and other Innovative Fundraising Products in development.
  • You are accountable of achieving all business objectives for the Step 1
  • Select the Vendor to support in the Step 1 and manage and support the vendor to do a great job. You will participate in selection of external vendor who is responsible of developing project key deliverables. You will manage the relationship between UNICEF and the Vendor.
• Coordinate work with key stakeholders
  • External vendor designing the business case and business solution, UNICEF pilot countries, UNICEF teams liaising with the galleries, artists and launch partners, potential marketing partners.
  • You will coordinate the relationship between the Vendor and our UNICEF pilot countries who will coordinate relationship to galleries and artists.
• Act as technology oversight
  • You will have oversight that technology selections meet UNICEF criteria e.g., from technology, security, scalability point of view. You coordinate dialogue between vendor, partners, and UNICEF ICT development team.
• Coordinate partners identification and development
  • You will coordinate that Vendor, UNICEF PFP and UNICEF pilot countries will identify most suitable partners. You will support the partnership negotiations by arranging the meetings, coordinating the right people in them and follow up the negotiation process between the parties.

 Success criteria

• External Vendor selected and started work.
• Concept and business case developed by the Vendor and approved by UNICEF.
• UNICEF Internal buy-in
• UNICEF pilot countries (1-5) have signed an MoU or similar with our team.
• Pilot partners (galleries, artists and launch partners) have been selected and they have signed MoU or similar with UNICEF
• Step 1 analysed and recommendation for next step documented
• Project Plan for Step 2 ready

For more details, please consult the Terms of Reference:  TOR_IF Hub_Product_Management_Consultant_v01.docx

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

• An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in human centric design, ICT or business management, project management, software engineering, information technology management, business administration, arts management, or another relevant technical 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. 
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in human centric design, business and ICT project management, information technology management and business operations with large international organizations and/or corporation is required.
• Experience in a UN organization is an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered 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. 

Required Competencies:

Project management, human centric design processes such as service design, design thinking, business and concept design, skills to manage project involving new technologies such as blockchain technology, NFTs, global digital platform development, overseeing and supporting work of design, business, and technology vendor(s).

Broad understanding how different technologies add value to the business organization.

A person is familiar with the development of new concepts, international business partnerships, digital platforms and preferably digital sales platforms for digital and physical art or other items.

Leadership and co-operation skills that work with very different types of stakeholders. Consultant is familiar working with legal teams and finding ways to match business goals, technology, and legal requirements with other realities of the project.

Successful implementation of the role requires the capability to take responsibility and work transparently. We are seeking a leader that also takes ownership of their mistakes, supports all teams to work in safe and supported atmosphere, and supports innovation to happen with a “fail fast” principle. Additional to having skills to keep project in time, budget and quality, incumbent will ensure meaningful co-operation between all parties. A constructive working environment is a place where everyone is respected, but also tests and trials are analyzed so that we will learn from them and improve our performance as a bigger team. Incumbent communicates plans effectively to different parties to achieve shared vision and alignment and to implement the project plans. They also liaise with the relevant internal and external parties to ensure strategic fit as relevant.

Certification and/or proven experience in one of these several ICT technical competencies: ICT Project Management, Human centric design, Lean processes, Business Analytics, Information Security, ICT Audit and Risk Management, Telecommunications, Networks Information Security and Software Engineering and Programming

Working location and timings: Selected provider needs to work from the time zone locating within +/- 3 hrs. of Helsinki time zone. While most of the work will be executed according to Helsinki time zone, provider needs to be available to take part in morning and evening meetings to also accommodate time zones of different participants in the project from other parts of the world.

Consultant selection criteria:

Technical offer

• Relevant experience and references
• Demonstrated performance of the required competences including hard skills and soft skills
• Education, certifications, language skills
• Availability, flexibility, working location
• Credible plan for execution of the project
• Asking the right questions, providing insightful suggestions

Financial offer

Travel:

• This TOR requires travel to selected European cities. The Consultant will be reimbursed for actual expenses, economy class tickets, daily subsistence allowance, visa fees, and travel/health insurance if any, upon submission of invoices and receipts.
• 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. 
• UNICEF may decide that some deliverables should be delivered in smaller scope. Reduced scope will be agreed with the consultant and can then be invoiced according to reduced scope.

How to apply:

• Interest applicants are required to submit a financial proposal with an all-inclusive fee.  Please see the financial proposal template.
• Make proposals for both projects and all deliverables. You cannot offer services only for a portion of the work.
• Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered.  Consultancy Financial Offer template.docx

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.