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UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built, we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

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For every child, rights

In Nigeria, UNICEF works in a complex humanitarian and development setting to fulfill and protect children's rights in partnership with the government, civil society, children, and families.  UNICEF Nigeria is one of the largest UNICEF Country Offices globally - click the link to learn more about UNICEF in Nigeria: https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/

Background:

Innovation is a change strategy for accelerating and improving the quality of programmatic results in the UNICEF Nigeria country programme and for outcome-level change for children in Nigeria through government and partner adoption of new and improved innovative solutions and ways of working.

Under the direct supervision of the Chief of Planning, Monitoring and Reporting, the Innovation Manager will be accountable for providing technical leadership and support to innovation planning/design, implementation, monitoring and documentation across programme sectoral areas and with partners, supporting the achievement of UNICEF's priorities. They will work closely with the Deputy Representative, programme sections, eight field offices, the PMR network, and the ICT Manager on strategic priorities related to innovation and digital transformation, as well as government, UN, NGO and private sector partners.

How can you make a difference:

This role aims to manage, lead, and support demand for innovative processes and collaborate with the ICT Manager to co-drive the Technology for Development (T4D) programmatic support. UNICEF programmes increasingly leverage digital means for effective programme delivery, systems strengthening and monitoring. S/He will work closely with the ICT Manager to provide

(1) Strategic guidance to programme teams in the identification, assessment and integration of innovative solutions, including ICT and digital innovation, into UNICEF programming,

(2) Strengthen internal capacity to lead and support innovation and T4D related initiatives,

(3) Identify and engage with key partners, building close business relationships,

(4) Apply reusable and replicable technical buildings blocks, maximizing the potential for the scale-up and sustainability of technology and digital innovation for UNICEF programming.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

1.  Effective promotion of innovation across the UNICEF Nigeria Country office through the Innovation Governance Framework and Portfolio management:

• Review and implement office-wide innovation strategy, based on UNICEF’s global and regional innovation strategies and the workplans
• Coordinate country-specific development and testing of innovation products and processes that strengthen and improve UNICEF's programming and results for children and young people.
• Support the innovation needs of eight zonal offices in Nigeria by regularly undertake field visits to monitor and assess programme implementation and decide on required corrective action, including in emergencies.
• Lead deployment of a portfolio approach to solutions prioritized for UNICEF programming
• Provide capacity building and training to UNICEF and partner staff and end-users in using innovative products and processes.

2.  Policy and strategic development of technology-enabled Programming:

• Provide leadership to the implementation, monitoring and reporting of the digital development and technology innovation strategy for the country office, including assessment of gaps, opportunities and scale-up innovative strategies in support of CO priorities.
• Operationalize the development and technology innovation into the programme planning lifecycle through the Nigeria CO innovation strategy.
• Coordinate with the ICT Manager/ Digital Transformation Lead on the development and quality assurance during planning and deployment of T4D initiatives; participate in establishing and maintaining standards, documentation and support mechanisms for T4D.
• Finalize comprehensive mapping of planned, ongoing and completed innovation/T4D initiatives in Nigeria and upload in UNICEF’s innovation portfolio database INVENT.

3.Innovation Cross-Sectoral Technical and Programmatic support :

     NCO has a robust portfolio of Innovation initiatives currently being implemented in various operational stages and the Innovation Manager will support these initiatives. Current examples include:

• Accelerating open defecation-free (ODF) status across Nigeria
• Develop and test urban sanitation models for insecure areas,
• Test innovation for performance based ODF achievement and reward system for LGAs, communities, and states, and
• Revise strategies and tools for market-based sanitation and sanitation finance, and
• Integrate expansion of female toilet business owners in market-based sanitation
• Reducing stunting in children focusing on the first 1000 days of life
• Reducing out-of-school children (OOSC) including developing a model for the southern states and improving tracking progress of out of school children
• Reducing the number of zero-dose children who have never received any immunization and scale and use of operational innovations e.g. HOPE
• Supporting birth registration/ legal identity for every child
• Develop a framework to accelerate and integrate birth registration coverage with Primary Health Care services, particularly in rural and fragile settings, to improve accessibility and effectiveness,
• Strengthen the National Population Commission (NPC) Innovation Hub,
• Capacity building and training programmes for health workers and registrars,
• Interoperability of eCRVS with legal identity and digital health data systems, and
• Enhance digital infrastructure and equip NPC offices for digital operation.

Complementary to these innovation priorities are the use of innovative financing approaches within the country office like the public finance management for children (PF4C), exploring a multi-sector child grant mechanism (universal children benefits), and digital cash transfers to advance digital and financial inclusion with a gender lens.

4.  Partnerships and technical support on Children and Adolescents, Youth Engagement and Advocacy :

• Co-chair GenU 9JA Pillar 1 Task Force for Connectivity and Digital Learning,
• Convene regular meetings with partners, agreeing work plans, and aligning efforts for impact,
• Strengthen existing relationships and support the creation of new partnerships with public, private, and youth partners, and
• Support sections, private sector partnerships, and resource mobilization teams in partner engagements to advance innovation initiatives and results for children.

5. Collaborate with other pillars of the PMR network in Nigeria CO:

• Provide exemplary management and leadership, motivating and developing staff under the pillars of the PMR network, programme sections and field offices to perform at their best and live the core values
• Manage performance of the PMR network by regularly discussing performance, giving timely, constructive feedback, identify learning goals, among others 
• Ensure a supportive work environment for the development of the team including work life balance
• Develop and maintain a workplace environment in line with the core values of UNICEF.

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

Minimum requirements:

• An advanced university degree in International Development, Business Administration, Information Technology, Innovation Management, or another related field is required
• A minimum of 8 (eight) years of relevant professional experience in managing programmes or projects related to innovation, information technology for development, communication, education with strong technology components across a large organization. Experience in start-up companies/organizations is an asset.
• Experience identifying, designing, and implementing solutions for large-scale projects with technical components – including supervising external vendors and software developers; responsibility for business analysis, budgets, contracts, project management, and procurement, etc.
• Experience in Open Source, mobile and emerging technology applied to UNICEF programme areas is extremely desirable.
• Experience with RapidPro, OpenSRP, DHIS2, ODK, and other global public good technologies, and deploying, maintaining and scaling these technologies is highly desirable.
• Good knowledge of current trends in youth participation and new media
• Experience in managing internal and external partnerships, including international organizations.
• Demonstrated experiences on design principles, human-centered design approaches, business modelling from ideas to market and customer services orientations are highly desirable.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language is an asset
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (3)

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3)

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact (3)

(4) Innovates and embraces change (3)

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (3)

(6) Thinks and acts strategically (3)

(7) Works collaboratively with others (3)

(8) Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (3)

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

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.

We offer a wide range of measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.