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, hope

UNICEF’s Division of Private Fundraising and Partnerships (PFP) in Geneva plays a pivotal role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined in UNICEF’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan. The division focuses on enhancing private sector fundraising, partnerships, and engagement. The Innovative Financing for Children (IF4C) function is central to these efforts, creating and implementing innovative financing mechanisms to support children’s welfare globally. By addressing key issues like climate change, disaster risk reduction, and sustainability, IF4C strategically engages with private sector entities to mobilize resources effectively. The Capacity Building Specialist is crucial in supporting these initiatives by developing and leading trainings, capacity building and knowledge-sharing efforts.

PURPOSE OF ASSIGNMENT:

The consultant will support the objectives of the Senior Convener’s Office and help enable the use of financial instruments and financial frameworks to help accelerate results for children.

OBJECTIVE(S):

• Develop innovative finance training program to enhance capacity across UNICEF’s country and regional offices, HQ UNICEF Divisions, and National Committees.
• Produce IF4C knowledge management content, monitoring & evaluation and reporting frameworks ensuring effective documentation, information sharing, and transparency.
• Develop IF4C communication content.
• Develop IF4C lessons learned and best practices content in various formats, including documents and presentations.
• Prepare content for IF4C impact reporting.

How can you make a difference?

The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

Development of IF4C Training Programme Course:

• Develop IF4C Training Programme Course to enhance capacity across UNICEF’s country and regional offices, HQ, and National Committees.
• Coordinate with the Innovation Officer to design content that aligns with strategic goals and meets the needs of various teams involved in innovative financing, including testing.
• Tailor the training modules to different audiences as per above.
• Conduct calls, meetings and consultations as needed, to help tailor the needs of each separate audience of the programme and overall capacity building needs.
• The development of the course includes management of the process from start to finish including internal consultations, delivery, packaging, testing and adoption.

Knowledge Management, Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E), and Reporting:

• Support the development of a framework for monitoring and evaluating IF4C projects to assess their effectiveness.
• Support the development of impact reporting methodologies for IF4C projects.
• Produce content for the IF4C Annual impact report.

IF4C Communication:

• Develop comprehensive communication materials on innovative finance and IF4C initiatives.
• Create internal and external; content to highlight impact and success stories.

Lessons Learned and Best Practices:

• Support lessons-learned exercises for IF4C projects, capturing insights and practical experiences.
• Develop IF4C lessons learned and best practices content in various formats, including documents and presentations.
• Facilitate the sharing of best practices among IF4C stakeholders, including country and regional offices to optimize future projects.

Responsibilities of the Consultant:

• The consultant will use their own equipment; laptops, microphones, software and other accessories that may be required for this task.
• The consultant will not give the content/material or any part thereof, to any third party without the written permission of UNICEF. All components will be a property of UNICEF, and the consultant will not share the same with anyone else.
• The consultant will not put their own name or logo/emblem on the content / final product. The only organization branding will be UNICEF, if required.
• regular liaison with manager and content owners and any related units.

Responsibilities of UNICEF:

• UNICEF will provide all details pertaining to the activity and the requirements.
• UNICEF will orient the consultant on UNICEF’s branding guidelines.
• UNICEF will share the documents and specifications with the consultant as he/she becomes available and will coordinate the timely delivery of work.

DELIVERABLES:

No.

Category

(if applicable)

Deliverables

1

Capacity building

• Development of the IF4C training programme course for National Committees, Country Offices, UNICEF Divisions and Member States.
• Development of IF4C video scripts for capacity building purposes.

2

Knowledge Management

• Development of content for the IF4C biannual Newsletter.
• Creation of summaries for Tier 1 initiatives to be featured in the respective internal websites.

3

Reporting, Monitoring & Evaluation

• Development of a monitoring and evaluation progress reporting system for IF4C initiatives from inception to implementation and beyond.
• IF4C results report/messaging developed to be used for annual reports, briefing notes and OMP reporting.
• Production of periodic progress reports and transparent documentation detailing project effectiveness.

4

Governance

• With the support of the digital designer, creation of an IF4C toolkit to guide.

5

Lessons Learned and Best Practices

• Creation of lessons learned document/presentation and best practices for IF4C initiatives.

6

Impact Reporting

• Writing content for the annual IF4C impact report.
• Detailed impact reports providing data-driven insights and recommendations.

7

IF4C Communication

• Development of IF4C video scripts for internal and external purposes
• Creation of ad-hoc communication assets (e.g., ICON update, IFC Directors update, video/brochure, social media, etc.).

Travel:

There is a possibility of travel, e.g. to meetings in Geneva during the assignment or on a per-need basis. If there is a need for business travel, the travel costs will be covered by UNICEF separately.

Duration of LTA:

Three years

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

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education:

• Advanced university degree in international development or relations, political science, finance, economics, public or business administration or related fields required. Alternatively, a first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.

Experience:

• Minimum of 8 years of relevant work experience at national and international levels in international development, innovative finance, ESG/impact investing, project management, consulting, development, or other related fields.
• Experience working with innovative finance or related field is required, including solid understanding of the innovative finance landscape.
• Highest strategic thinking skills. Experience working on strategy development desired.
• Has highest-level communication skills. Proven track record of development of communication materials. Strong writing skills.
• Solid understanding of UNICEF programmes and operations.
• Excellent planning/organizing skills.
• Has highest people skills and is able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment.
• Experience in/knowledge of the UN system and knowledge of UNICEF’s work would be a strong asset.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required. knowledge of another official UN language is considered as an asset.

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL: [below is the financial proposal template to be used for submission as a separate document]

Financial Bid – Innovative Finance Specialist (Content Creation) on LTA.docx

The application to be submitted through the online portal should contain four separate attachments:

1. A Cover letter explaining the motivation for applying and explaining how the qualifications and skillset of the candidate (to be uploaded online).
2. Curriculum Vitae (CV) (to be uploaded online).
3. A sample of a communication or capacity building asset such as (to be uploaded online): A sample of communication content that has previously developed related to innovative finance or a similar field. This could include any of the following: video script, newsletter, case study, success story, or internal communications that highlight the ability to convey complex financial concepts effectively to various stakeholders.
4. A financial proposal indicating professional fee as per the above template. Please do not forget to specify your name in the file while saving. (to be uploaded online under “Financial Proposal” tab).

Important Note: Please do not indicate financials anywhere else in the online application form, please mark “n/a or 00”, under the fee related questions in the online application form.

Without all the above documents your application will be considered incomplete and invalid and will not be considered further.

Any attempt to unduly influence UNICEF’s selection process will lead to automatic disqualification of the applicant.

• Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.
• Please note, UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the process.
• UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds including persons living with disabilities to apply.

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.

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 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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.