Consultancy: Adolescent Health Digital Product Development Consultant, Office of Innovation, Remote, 5 months (110 business days)

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 startup 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 programs 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.

Imagining Health Futures, a joint initiative of The Lancet & Financial Times Commission Governing health futures 2030: Growing up in a digital age and UNICEF, bridges the creative minds of speculative fiction authors and young people to reimagine the future of health well-being in 2035, and beyond, shaped by technology and young peoples’ experience today. The initial phase of Imagining Health Futures has been conducted. Authors are currently writing short stories inspired by discussions with 60 adolescents across 20 countries. Building upon this story content, partners on this initiative, including UNICEF, will create derivative products. As part of UNICEF’s concerted global effort to encourage and invest in the creation of digital public goods, this open content, including narratives and related products, will be registered as digital public goods and globally disseminated.

Furthermore, there is a growing need and opportunity to leverage Imagining Health Futures with other digital global goods being developed to promote health and well-being of adolescents to maximize impact and reach. Two such initiatives include the UNICEF-WHO Helping Adolescents Thrive (HAT, mental health promotion and prevention) and UNICEF Hi-5 for Health Partnership (NCD prevention). This role will support coordination and alignment between Imagining Health Futures, HAT, and Hi-5 for Health to help create a suite of much needed digital public goods for adolescent health.

How can you make a difference?

Initiated through UNICEF’s Office of Innovation, the Imagining Health Futures youth engagement and communications effort has evolved into a cross-divisional collaboration, particularly supporting the objectives of UNICEF’s Health Programme Division (maternal, neonatal, adolescence). This role will continue to strengthen cross-team collaboration by working closely with colleagues across Voices of Youth, Generation Unlimited, UNICEF Department of Communications, UNICEF Country Offices and various other UNICEF divisions.

The Product Development & Engagement Lead for the Imagining Health Futures initiative and other Adolescent Health initiatives will lead UNICEF in the next phase of the Imagining Health Futures initiative focused on the development and promotion of open content for health and well-being, emphasizing synergies between UNICEF Innovation and UNICEF Health and increasing UNICEF Health’s capacity for external engagement and communications.

The consultancy will serve to develop and package products from Imagining Health Futures, increase alignment with related Innovation initiatives, particularly the Digital Public Goods Alliance, and build internal and external engagement capacity for Imagining Health Futures and similar initiatives, that aim to engage educators, families, health professionals and- most importantly- young people.

Your main responsibilities will be:

Lead partner engagement and communications for the Imagining Health Futures initiative

• Strengthen UNICEF’s relationship with The Lancet & Financial Times Commission Governing health futures 2030: Growing up in a digital age as UNICEF’s focal point for Imagining Health Futures, working closely with Commission Secretariat to advance the Imagining Health Futures and other shared priorities
• In close collaboration with the Commission Secretariat, create internal and external communication materials for Imagining Health Futures, including but not limited to periodic updates on the initiative, tailored pitch decks, social media presence, blog posts and articles
• Identify, cultivate and solicit promotional partners to support dissemination of stories, and other Imagining Health Futures products, which may include: narrations, illustrations, discussion guides, media pieces, dialogues, or others.
• Foster UNICEF’s relationship with participating authors and content creators, internally promoting their involvement to leverage momentum and increase visibility of the initiatives
• Promote Imagining Health Futures to UNICEF National Committees and lead engagement efforts with National Committees interested in collaborating on the initiative

Lead logistical planning & execution of Imagining Health Futures products

• Lead the assessment of existent story content, working closely with experts on the UNICEF Health team, Country Offices and the Commission to extrapolate unique themes or elements of interest from each written piece (e.g. challenges, solutions, characters) that can be used to promote health and well-being of children and future generations
• Pursuing opportunities related to Imagining Health Futures and supporting other Adolescent Health initiatives, working closely with the UNICEF Adolescent Health team and UNICEF’s Digital Public Goods focal point to achieve organizational alignment and maximize results for children
• Drive the procurement process of vendors (e.g. drafting Terms of Reference, sourcing proposals, vendor negotiations) that may be needed for the technical development of open content, which may include: narrations, illustrations
• Own end-to-end execution of product development, ensuring that each product is completed smoothly and step up to resolve any problems that might occur
• Package the Imagining Health Futures products to reach target audiences including, but not limited to: educators, families, health professionals, and young people.

Support other youth engagement and communications efforts

• Align Imagining Health Futures content with interested teams across UNICEF including UNICEF Health, UNICEF Innovation, and the Department of Communications as well as Generation Unlimited and the Digital Public Goods Alliance.
• Manage lines of communication for Imagining Health Futures and maintain relationships between UNICEF Innovation and UNICEF Health; UNICEF Country Offices; collaborators at other UN agencies; partners from governments, academia, and private sector; and vendors

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in communication, international relations/political science, international development or 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 experience in non¬profit development, external engagement, partnerships, project management or event management
• Strong planning, communication, writing and editing skills with keen attention to details
• Experience with projects big and small, from delivering a creative concept and identifying project milestones and deadlines, to directing and overseeing coordination leading up to and at the event
• Creative and collaborative, with demonstrated experience coordinating multi-country and cross sectoral projects
• Highly adaptable and very personable, someone that people quickly warm up to
• Significant experience with the Imagining Health Futures initiative a huge plus.
• A track record of organizing communications or events at UNICEF and/or managing partnerships for UNICEF a huge plus.
• Experience working with UNICEF Country Offices a major plus
• Experience as a vendor/supplier liaison. HACT certification a plus.
• Familiarity with UNICEF’s Innovation work and the Digital Public Goods Alliance an asset
• Must be able to work outside of normal business hours, as needed
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) a plus.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

Communication (II), Working with People (II), Drive for Results (II), Entrepreneurial Thinking (II), Planning & Organizing (II).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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.

Payment details and further considerations

• Monthly payment, based on monthly tasks and progress reports, approved upon monthly review with supervisor.
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance
• Consultant is eligible for standard DSA for all work-related travel

Remarks:

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.