UNOPS Geneva Office is providing support to a wide range of portfolios, including UNEP, UNICEF, UNHCR, and other partners.
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.
About UNICEF Digital Impact Division (DID)
Digital Impact Division (DID) is at the heart of reshaping how UNICEF delivers lasting results for children. We are committed to harnessing the full potential of emerging digital technologies to advance UNICEF’s mission.
DID works in close collaboration with regional Digital Impact teams and colleagues across headquarters divisions, regions, and country offices to leverage technologies and capabilities that accelerate progress on UNICEF’s goals, strengthen community resilience, and expand access to essential digital services and information.
Our mission is to enhance UNICEF’s global digital impact by promoting equitable access to information and services, empowering communities to create lasting, positive change for children, and foster a more inclusive, interconnected, and sustainable world for every child, everywhere.
About UNICEF Digital Inclusion (DI)
UNICEF’s Digital Inclusion (DI) programme supports governments and partners to improve equitable, affordable digital access for children, schools, and communities. The programme engages with regulators, operators, and public institutions to explore innovative approaches to connectivity, infrastructure governance, and digital public goods.
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 managed by UNICEF Digital Inclusion’s lead for Delivery Solutions to support UNICEF Country Offices and their government partners with technical assistance to efficiently source affordable, quality-assured, and sustainable connectivity.
The incumbent will be supporting a market acceleration strategy to scale connectivity for schools and other child-focused facilities by promoting UNICEF and Giga’s procurement and digital inclusion support to governments.
The role includes conducting market research, building government partnerships, supporting collaboration with multilateral financing institutions, developing advocacy materials, and engaging with telecom providers to strengthen market participation and improve the scalability and sustainability of school connectivity solutions.
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 124 Country Offices.
Under the general guidance of the Delivery Solutions team lead and Market Development Manager, the Market Development Specialist will be responsible for:
Building demand for Giga’s procurement and UNICEF Digital Inclusion tools:
Engage with governments to promote Giga’s procurement work and understand any obstacles they face to adopt these tools.
Work with UNICEF Digital Inclusion’s Delivery Solutions 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.
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.
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 finance.
Work with UNICEF’s Digital Inclusion Applied 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.
Advocacy Content and Research:
Generate content that help position Giga and UNICEF as key stakeholders in the connectivity ecosystem for education, health, child protection, among others.
Conduct research that helps position Giga and UNICEF as subject matter experts in the procurement of 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 UNICEF’s connectivity procurement tools beyond schools, for instance in health facilities or community centers.
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 upgrade and implementation of Giga and UNICEF’s procurement tools.
Explore and evaluate innovative approaches for Giga and UNICEF’s procurement offer that have a strong potential for impact and scale.
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.
Monitoring Progress and Controls
Item
Outputs/Deliverables
Month/Year
1
Create a short report summarizing the country engagement pipeline. The report should identify at least 20 priority countries, describe the approach and research used to develop the pipeline, and propose an engagement strategy for the 10 highest priority countries.
Ongoing
2
Create a pitch deck to present UNICEF’s procurement value proposition to governments. Customize the pitch for 10 countries.
Ongoing
3
Engage with at least 10 countries and sign at least 3 MoUs to secure government commitments.
Create bi-monthly reports on the progress of these engagements.
Ongoing
4
Establish at least 2 partnerships (collaboration agreement signed) with regional organizations that can support UNICEF’s market development efforts.
Create at least 3 short pieces (blog, slide deck) to be published or presented in public forums, promoting UNICEF’s procurement work and advocating for strengthened government collaboration.
Ongoing
5
Create a short landscaping report with the key industry developments and trends relevant to UNICEF’s strategy for market development and procurement.
Organize at least 1 roundtable with the industry to discuss the findings.
Ongoing
