Technology for Development (T4D) Officer (Temporary Appointment) , NO-A Level, Post # 00115477, Ha Noi, Viet Nam (for Vietnamese nationals).

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, learning and innovation.

This position sits in the UNICEF Viet Nam Country Office based in Ha Noi. The position is supervised by the Deputy Representative (Programme) under the country programme structure in Viet Nam. The proposed country programme 2017-2021 aims to achieve a sustainable and equitable impact to improve the well-being of all children in Viet Nam. In lower middle-income context in Viet Nam, this will only be achieved by engaging all key stakeholders for child rights, through effective public advocacy, expanded partnerships to leverage government and non-governmental support, capacity, resources and action, for the realization of child rights. Viet Nam’s rapid development over the past years has seen it become more digitally connected, with a high penetration of mobile phones, internet access, and social media usage. No more so than among young people, the majority of whom now get their information on-line, and communicate and engage with friends through social media platforms. In such a highly connected society, leveraging technology is becoming an ever more important strategy for achieving sustainable development targets and outcomes.

The context of Viet Nam demands for equipping the country office to be strategic and smart with improved knowledge management, partnerships and policies in its work with technology.  The UNICEF Viet Nam Country Programme has initiated several flagship technology-enabled initiatives including: mIECD (Mobile Integrated Early Childhood Development), and U-Report, to support the government and partners in scaling-up programmes with global public goods and innovative approaches to reach children, adolescents and women. The regional Technology for Development (T4D) team has provided support to UNICEF Viet Nam since late 2017 to adapt and deploy technologies and innovative approaches in support of improved results for children. Going forward there is consensus that dedicated capacity at country-level in the form of a T4D Officer is required in order to drive this work further and expand it to other areas. 

How can you make a difference?

Purpose for the job:

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Representative, the T4D Officer works closely with sectoral programme Section Chiefs and provides professional, technical, operational and administrative support in the identification, assessment, and integration of ICT into UNICEF programming. The T4D Officer is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the mainstreaming effort, and for strengthening internal capacity to lead and support Technology for Development (T4D) related projects, identifying and engaging with key partners, identifying reusable and replicable technical building blocks and maximizing potential for T4D scale-up and roll-out.

The T4D Officer is directly supervised by the Deputy Representative but works closely with Programme and ICT staff and in close liaison with the East Asia Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) T4D, the central ICT Division and UNICEF Innovation where applicable.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

Policy and Strategic Development:

• Digital Development and Technology Innovation Strategy. Support implementation of the technology and digital innovation strategy for the country office; bring visibility to T4D gaps, opportunities and scale-up strategy in support of CO priorities.
• Participation in programme and management processes. Work closely with PME to integrate digital development and technology innovation into the programme planning lifecycle. Align with programme priorities (Annual Work Plan etc.) and attend planning meetings (PCM).
• Leadership and Quality Assurance. Help monitor development and quality assurance during planning and deployment of T4D initiatives; participate in establishing and maintaining standards, documentation and support mechanisms for T4D.
• Convene and guide compliance with T4D best practices. Participate in Country Office T4D Governance Committee and support compliance of T4D initiatives with the Principles for Digital Development (http://digitalprinciples.org/) and UNICEF T4D best practices.

Technical Assistance:

• Business Relationship Management. Liaise with regional office to manage Business and Programme Relationship services to define high-level requirements; document and match requirements and guide the design, development and deployment of appropriate T4D solutions.
• Portfolio Coordination. Work closely with regional office in deploying a portfolio approach, adapting common solutions prioritised for UNICEF programming (eg. Digital Public Goods).
• Support and assist design of T4D interventions. Provide support and technical assistance to the Country Office in the identification, selection, concept design, deployment and sustainability of T4D interventions to address bottlenecks towards the achievement of programme results.
• Identify and assess new T4D innovations. Assist programme sections to identify and assess new T4D initiatives, or new phases of on-going initiatives, with immediate potential to improve UNICEF programming.
• Solution procurement and evaluation. Assist the review of technical solutions to ensure UNICEF standards are followed; contribute to project management processes, generation and review of terms of reference and vendor selection.
• Deployment advice and support. Assist with the implementation of digital technology initiatives. Including technical oversight, troubleshooting and the documentation of challenges and resolutions.
• Design thinking. Support human/user-centered design methods to enable user-acceptance testing, evaluation, documentation and analysis.

Partnerships:

• Engage and maintain partnerships and networks. Support the development of partnerships and networks with local solution providers, innovators, NGOs, the private sector, local media and academia to build and provide a space to nurture and test new and innovative technologies and build local capacity.
• Advocacy and communications. Participate and support country office representation in external, inter-agency or partner forums on Digital Development and Technology Innovation.
• Proposal and partnership development. Help identify opportunities for resource mobilisation and new partnerships and assist proposal and partnership development efforts.
• Provide advice and support to programme partners. Provide inputs to technical and operational support to a wide range of stakeholders and partners on UNICEF policies, practices, standards and norms on technology for development.
• Standards and procedures for ownership. Work with stakeholders to help develop standards, procedures and partnerships for T4D interventions and their transition to relevant Government and Civil Society Institutions.
• Transfer and skill-sharing for programme partners. Help maintain partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing and transfer of knowledge, skills and tools to foster and facilitate technology-enabled programming.
• Document localized partners and profiles. Contribute updates to a catalogue of country specific T4D partners and their profiles/areas of engagement to promote and enhance UNICEF goals for outcomes for children through the use of Technology for Development.

Knowledge Management:

• Share lessons learned. Help identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned from T4D for integration into broader knowledge development planning, advocacy and communication efforts.
• Landscape mapping. Maintain an inventory of Technology and Innovation interventions, assets, resources and networks.
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning. Work with PME to ensure documentation and clear monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for innovation and T4D projects including baseline data collection, on-going monitoring, as well as first phase data collection and analysis.
• Contribute to Peer Support Networks. Contribute and share to regional and global digital development and technology innovation networks and activities.

Capacity Building:

• Data analysis for evidence generation. Build capacity of programme staff and partners in analyzing the large amounts of data generated through T4D initiatives including the use of data visualization techniques and analytics tools.
• Co-create appropriate solutions. Work directly with programme teams and partners to adapt technology and innovative solutions appropriate to the country programme.
• Provide training to stakeholders and end-users. Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies, capacity and knowledge within the programmes on digital development; train UNICEF staff, partners, government counterparts and other end users in digital development and technology innovation.
• Build awareness around Innovation & Frontier Technology. Assist developing staff capabilities in appropriate use of frontier technology and innovations such as UAVs, wearables, IoTs, mobile money, blockchain etc.

Contract duration: 364 days with possible extension for the second year.

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

Education:

A University degree in information technology management, business administration, international relations, community development or other related social science field.

Experience:

A minimum of one year of professional experience in information technology management and business operations in a large international organization and/or corporation is required.

Experience in designing or deploying tools appropriate to low-bandwidth environments and/or with RapidPro, OpenSRP, DHIS2, ODK and other digital public good technologies, and deploying, maintaining and rolling out these technologies is highly desirable.

Experience in a UN organization is an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

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 competencies required for this post are:

Core competencies

• Communication (I)
• Working with people (I)
• Drive for results (I)

Functional Competencies:

• Formulating strategies and concepts (I)
• Analysing (II)
• Relating and networking (I)
• Planning and Organizing (I)
• Applying technical expertise (II)

View our competency framework at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

What we can offer you?  Our staff are offered attractive salary and excellent package of benefits:

Competitive salary: Ranging from USD31,435 (net annually), depending on qualifications and experience.

Pension benefits: You will become a participant in the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (https://www.unjspf.org)

Health insurance scheme: You and your eligible dependents will be covered by the UN Medical Insurance Plan (https://www.un.org/insurance/plans/medical-insurance-plan-mip)

Professional Development: The encouragement of professional development for all staff is one of UNICEF’s core values and we put this into practice through various services and initiatives. You will have different learning opportunities to strengthen your skills and competencies.

Be part of the United Nations: As an International organization that is part of the United Nations system, you will be considered an International Civil Servant and you will have career opportunities inside and outside the country.

Quality working conditions:

• The workplace and working conditions are a huge asset for all UNICEF employees. Our staff are working in the Green One UN House- the first building in Viet Nam to be awarded gold LOTUS certification from the Viet Nam Green Building Council for efficient and environmentally sustainable use of resources and operations.
• We offer flexible working arrangements: flexible working hours, compressed work schedule, teleworking, job sharing.
• We provides different types of leave to allow for rest and relaxation as well as unforeseen events like illness: annual leave, parental leave up to 24 weeks, sick leave and special leave.
• We  provide support for pregnancy and breastfeeding (time off from work during the day for the purpose of breastfeeding infants or expressing milk. A private room and a refrigerator for storing milk are available in the office)
• We also provide mental well-being/ psychological support.

Qualified candidates are kindly requested to apply and upload the following documents to the assigned requisition in UNICEF Vacancies: https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/

1. Letter of Interest
2. CV/UN Personal History Form   P 11 form.doc

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

This position is not considered an elevated risk role. However, UNICEF reserves the right to conduct further vetting/assessment within the scope of child safeguarding as appropriate. 

https://vietnam.un.org/en/86207-announcement-time-hire-un-agencies-viet-nam-national-positions