Innovation Officer, P2, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Temporary Appointment)

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Background:

UNICEF Tanzania country programme (2016-2021) has identified innovation as one of the implementing strategies to deliver quality programmes. This focuses on generation & use of data, improving quality scale and sustainability in delivery of basic services, improving access to basic information and enhancing internal efficiency & knowledge management. The office has made investments and efforts to scale and mainstream innovations across UNICEF programmes through solutions such mobile transmission of birth registration information, u-report and other citizen engagement tools based on Rapidpro, support to health system strengthening and innovation labs. A wide spectrum of partners have been engaged including academia, government and private sector.

These promising interventions require additional continued dedicated technical assistance to scale.

 

Purpose of the Position

The TA will support the collection, analysis and dissemination of real time data to inform programmes as well as support the implementation of citizen engagement and social accountability interventions using the RapidPro platform. The incumbent will be responsible for identifying and implementing new mechanisms to increase adoptions and use of the existing and new citizen engagement platforms especially among the most marginalized girls and women.

 

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
2. Networking and partnership building
3. Technical and operational support to programme

 

Key Expected Results

1. Reliable real-time data collection system and dashboards in place that continuously and concretely informs programme operations
2. Citizen engagement and social accountability interventions implemented with women and girls represented informing quality of service.
3. Wide spectrum of partners engaged and making use of the real-time data collection, analysis and dissemination system in key programme areas including government, CSOs, UN agencies, Media, Private sector etc.

 

Key Accountabilities and Duties & Tasks

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

1. Apply innovative approaches and promoting good practice to leverage real time data to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable program results.
2. Managing and monitoring the country real-time data collection systems including the country office RapidPro platform, u-report etc
3. Supporting the analysis of data generated from RapidPro including preparation and dissemination of learnings from analytics with stakeholders and partners using dashboards and other mechanisms.
4. Support the use of analytics from real-time data systems to mainstream citizen engagement in operations including engaging beneficiaries in programmes, monitoring feedback and focusing on results for adolescents.
5. Implement a real time data monitoring system for the Cash Plus programme with adolescents as a feedback loop including developing an online dash board to visualize the data and progress of implementation.
6. Establish and maintain updated public portals for generated real time data analytics and learnings improving accessibility and usability among stakeholders.
7. Proactively scout for new innovative ideas and opportunities especially in the area of real-time data, develop the space to nurture and test new and innovative ideas together with universities, youth networks and local entrepreneurs towards solving development challenges specific to UNICEF’s areas of work.
8. Document tested innovation projects ensuring effective sharing and generation of knowledge around innovation with stakeholders, country office and the UNICEF global innovation network.

 

Networking and partnerships

1. Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of staff and stakeholders in collection, generation and use of real time data.
2. Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with national stakeholders and government through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate program implementation.
3. Establish and manage partnerships with mobile network companies as well as other technology stakeholders to ensure uninterrupted infrastructure to support real-time data collection systems.

 

Technical and operational support to program implementation

1. Conduct regular program field visits and surveys and/or exchange information with partners/stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support, take appropriate action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results.
2. Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, and processes, best practices on admin and operations and related issues to support program implementation, operations and delivery of results.

 

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

• • A university (Bachelors) degree in a technology, statistics, mathematics, international development, or related field is required.
  • A minimum of 3 years working experience of which at least 1 year at international level.
  • Sound experience with the technology platform Rapidpro.
  • Fluency in English (written and verbal) is required.
  • Knowledge of Kiswahili is an asset.

 

Competencies of Successful Candidate

Core Values 

• Commitment
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Integrity

Core competencies

• Communication [2]
• Working with People [2]
• Drive for Results [2]

Functional Competencies

• Innovation and Creativity [Level 2]
• Analysis [Level 2]
• Drive for Results [Level 2]
• Applying Technical Knowledge [Level 2]

Technical Knowledge  

• Strong technical knowledge of RapidPro, U-report and other real-time data collection systems and platforms.

To view our competency framework, please click here. 

 

Duration

364 days

 

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization.