Consultancy 12 months: Market Development Specialist, Procurement (Giga), Geneva, Switzerland

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, Connectivity 

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 Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the start-up thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

About Giga

Launched in 2019 as a joint initiative between UNICEF and ITU, Giga has set the ambitious goal to connect every school in the world to the internet. Half of the world’s population has no regular access to the Internet. Millions of children leave school without any digital skills, making it much more difficult for them to thrive and contribute to local and global economies. This has created a digital divide between those who are connected and those who are not, a divide that has become even wider during the Covid-19 pandemic. UNICEF and ITU have therefore joined forces to create Giga, an initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet and address this new form of inequality.

Giga focuses on connecting schools so that children and young people have access to information, opportunity, and choice. It also uses schools as anchor points for their surrounding communities: if you connect the school, you can also connect local businesses and services. This creates opportunities for service providers to generate revenue from paying users, making connectivity more sustainable. A 2021 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%.

Based in Switzerland with an open-source technology centre in Barcelona, Giga not only aims to provide children and young people with access to information but also envisions schools as anchor points to uplift entire communities.

Giga is building a Connectivity Credits system. Connectivity Credits are envisioned as a fast and efficient mechanism to enable (small) internet service providers to connect schools in underserved areas. ISPs automatically earn Credits every time they connect a school and can redeem these Credits for a variety of incentives, including subsidies, tax reliefs, or infrastructure access – through respective Ministry of Finance or regulatory bodies, subject to individual country determinants.

The Connectivity Credits system includes many innovative elements which reinvent traditional financing and procurement in order to be ‘fit to size’ for small, local ISPs. These elements are being tested in a number of in-country pilot projects. The learnings from these pilots are integrated into the Connectivity Credits system.

You can read more about Giga’s work at https://giga.global/ and by following us on twitter @Gigaglobal

How can you make a difference? 

The Giga Procurement Section, based in Geneva, plays a critical role in achieving this goal by ensuring that schools receive high-quality connectivity solutions. This role will be co-managed by Giga and UNICEF Supply Division to support UNICEF Country Offices and their government partners with technical assistance to efficiently procure affordable, quality-assured, and sustainable connectivity.

Under the general guidance of the Giga’s Procurement Section Programme Manager and Market Development Manager, the Market Development Specialist will be responsible for:

• Supporting the implementation of a market acceleration strategy to create a more efficient school connectivity market.
• Promoting Giga’s procurement & market shaping technical support with governments looking to implement school connectivity projects.
• Conducting market research and analysis efforts to uncover market barriers and engage in strategic market shaping initiatives.
• Developing partnerships with governments interested in UNICEF’s procurement services to scale up the provision of school connectivity.
• Creating advocacy content and materials to help position UNICEF as a key enabler of the school connectivity market and as a vital partner for governments looking to scale the deployment of school connectivity solutions.
• Supporting UNICEF’s procurement work with multilateral organizations, including international financing institutions, to improve the viability and scale of school connectivity projects.
• Maintaining a dialogue with the telecommunications industry and connectivity service providers to incentivize their participation in the market, and stay abreast of innovative technologies, business models, new initiatives that have the potential to improve the business case and scalability of school connectivity deployments.

The role requires agility and adaptability, aligning with Giga’s startup culture while observing public procurement principles and UN rules and regulations. The Market Development Specialist will work closely with UNICEF’s Country Offices and ITU teams, as well as other UN agencies. This role demands strong collaboration across various Giga teams, including Mapping, Finance, Country Engagement, Applied Science, Partnerships, and with UNICEF’s 135 country offices.

Key responsibilities include:

1. Building demand for Giga’s procurement tools:

• Engage with governments to promote Giga’s procurement work and understand any obstacles they face to adopt Giga’s tools.
• Work with Giga’s Procurement Section team to adapt its approach and products considering governments evolving needs, new market trends, and changing ecosystem landscape.
• Collaborate with global and regional multilateral organizations to generate synergies drive a common agenda in promoting more investment in and scaling procurement of school connectivity solutions.

2. Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration:

• Work with internal and external stakeholders to advance UNICEF’s procurement and scale up strategies.
• Support the team’s efforts to establish partnerships that support the development and implementation of a market acceleration plan to scale the provision of connectivity solutions for schools.
• Participate in discussions with key partners and attend events to advance UNICEF’s procurement work and agenda.

3. Market Intelligence, Analysis and Influencing Strategies:

• Collect, collate, and analyse market intelligence on global and local markets for connectivity solutions and assess the suitability for deploying UNICEF’s procurement tools.
• Generate insights on the drivers and barriers for scaling the connectivity of schools and health centres, including the political landscape, regulations, industry ecosystem, or access to finanance.
• Work with Giga’s Data Science team to ensure that all market research and analysis efforts are data-driven and methodologies to provide accurate and actionable insights.
• Contribute to the development of and provide advice on tailored and targeted market acceleration interventions on both the supply and demand sides of the connectivity solutions market.

4. Advocacy Content and Research:

• Generate content that help position Giga and UNICEF as key stakeholders in the school connectivity ecosystem.
• Conduct research that helps position Giga and UNICEF as subject matter experts in the procurement of school connectivity solutions.
• Help disseminate this content in key forums, events, workshops and country missions.
• Promote the commoditization of the Gigabyte for school connectivity to achieve cost efficiencies.
• Exploring and analyzing opportunities to deploy Giga’s connectivity procurement tools beyond schools, for instance in health facilities or community centers.

5. Technology and industry engagement:

• Staying abreast with technology developments in the school connectivity space.
• Keep an open dialogue with the industry to unearth supply-side challenges and opportunities for the implementation of Giga’s procurement tools, and work with the Procurement Section team to make the necessary adaptations in their approach.
• Explore and evaluate innovative approaches for Giga’s procurement offer that have a strong potential for impact and scale.

6. Reporting:

• Help prepare detailed reports and presentations for senior management, highlighting achievements in creating a more enabling environment for the implementation of Giga’s procurement value proposition.
• Prepare reports, briefing notes, or other supporting documents to track progress of activities and results.

Please access the full Term of Reference (ToRs) and read a more detailed description of the assignment in this file in order to prepare your financial proposal and know more about the role:  TOR – Market Development Specialist.pdf

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

• An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in Economics, Engineering, International Development, Public Policy or other relevant 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 5 years of progressive work experience in ICTD or International Development and relevant/similar fields of work.
• Previous experience working in Digital inclusion and Internet Connectivity in developing (or LMIC/MIC) countries, preferably in Africa, will be considered a strong asset.
• Demonstrated experience in the public or private sector, with a strong understanding of market dynamics and stakeholder mapping of the connectivity sector.
• Proven experience fostering effective relationships with government stakeholders. The ideal candidate will have a history of building partnerships and securing commitments with government bodies such as Ministries of Education or ICTs.
• Demonstrable experience generating advocacy content and designing advocacy campaigns to help promote a charitable agenda in the development sector.
• Prior experience working with governments, technology providers, and non-profit organizations in the connectivity sector is a plus.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to present complex technical concepts to a non-technical audience.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Travel:

• The consultant is expected to undertake up to five (5) duty mission travels to countries supported by Giga across Eastern, Western, and Southern Africa during the contract period, with each trip lasting approximately 5–6 nights and covering around nine (9) countries.
• Duty mission travel expenses will be reimbursed upon completion of travel and submission of an invoice, accompanied by supporting documentation, including proof of payment, tickets, boarding passes, and any other reimbursable expenses as outlined in the contract. In accordance with UNICEF’s Travel Policy, a reasonable travel budget will be established and included as a separate line item in the contract. No travel cost estimate is required for duty mission travel.
• The consultant must only include all travel-related expenses, including airfare and accommodation costs, for travel to and from the duty station in Geneva, Switzerland.
• 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.
  • Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance.
  • Consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.
  • This consultancy is based in Geneva.
  • UNICEF will facilitate the process for obtaining local permits exclusively for the consultant, excluding any dependents.
  • For more information on Non-staff members IO based in Geneva, you can visit this link.

How to apply:

• Interested applicants are required to submit a financial proposal with an all-inclusive fee. Please see the financial proposal template here: Consultancy Financial Offer template.docx
• Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance.
• Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered.

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. For more information on non-staff members IO based in Geneva, you can visit this link.

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.