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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 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.

UNICEF's Office of Innovation creates opportunities for the world's children by focusing on where new markets can meet their vital needs. We do this by:

• Connecting youth communities (or more broadly -- anyone disconnected or under-served) to decision-makers, and to each other, to deliver informed, relevant and sustained programmes that build better, stronger futures for children.
• Provoking change for children through an entrepreneurial approach -- in a traditionally risk averse field -- to harness rapidly moving innovations and apply them to serve the needs of all children.
• Creating new models of partnership that leverage core business values across the public, private and academic sectors in order to deliver fast, and lasting results for children.
  
  
  

Our team

We're an interdisciplinary team around the world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling new technologies and practices. With our partners, we focus on convening and collaborating on new and different solutions, low- and high-tech, by:

• Looking at the 2–5-year horizon to evaluate emerging and trending technologies and to see how UNICEF can work with the private sector on doing better business while improving essential services for children;
• Investing in early-stage solutions that show great potential to positively impact children in the 2-year future including the Venture Fund that invests in open-source technology solutions from start-ups based in UNICEF’s programme countries;
• Identifying proven solutions that can be implemented at national scale in multiple countries – taking the ideas that help thousands in one country, bringing them to dozens of countries across multiple sectors, and impacting the lives of millions of children.”

How can you make a difference? 

The Capacity Building Lead is expected to work across several capacity building initiatives, including the Spark Accelerator, which provides seed funding and coaching support to accelerate innovations in country offices.

Your main responsibilities will be:

Detailed responsibilities / deliverables.

Main responsibilities:

1. Capacity Development: Lead capacity development plans, ensuring clear communication and updates across stakeholders, including UNICEF country and regional offices, Programme Division, and OOI colleagues.
2. Spark Accelerator: Design, implement, and monitor SPARK Accelerator activities, including content development, workshop logistics, facilitation, and related innovation events;
3. Strategic Partnerships: Cultivate and manage partnerships to strengthen innovation capacity-development efforts, engaging UNICEF staff, government agencies, academic institutions, development partners and the private sector;
4. Innovation Coaching & Advisory: Provide technical guidance to country offices, supporting the adoption of innovative methodologies and accelerating the development of innovations.
5. Event Planning & Delivery: Support the organization and/or delivery of key innovation events hosted by the Office of Innovation or relevant partners, ensuring seamless execution and engagement.
6. Documentation: Maintain accurate and up-to-date programme documentation, reports and strategic plans and ensure accessibility via SharePoint.

For detailed information, please review the Terms of Reference attached:  TOR Consultant Capacity Dev (06032025).docx

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

• A university degree in Business, Engineering, Social Sciences, Design or other relevant field.  
• Experience in innovation project life cycle - from ideation, minimum viable product, testing, prototyping and implementation;
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in areas such as innovation, service design, human-centered design, UX design.
• Experience in running innovation challenges and/or working for startup incubators/accelerators, including the design of bootcamps, incubation and mentoring processes, including communication, multi-stakeholder engagement including private sector, and managing relations with those stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Previous work experience with UN agencies is a plus.
• Experience working in developing countries is required.
• Experience in working with multiple countries and with multiple stakeholders.
• Fluency in English is required; strong written and verbal competency is necessary.  

Travel:

• Trips may be required based on the 2025-2026 work plans. For these trips, the Consultant does not need to include an estimated duty-related travel budget as part of the all-inclusive fee. UNICEF will provide the estimated budget for duty-related when the contract is signed and will reimburse the actual costs incurred upon submission of 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. 

How to apply:

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

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 committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF.

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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

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.