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, Education :
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.
In West and Central Africa at least 41 million children are out of school – 29 million are in fragile countries such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, DRC, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. In addition, in 2019 more than 12 million children were in need of humanitarian assistance in education, and in 2020 the Pandemic crisis (COVID-19) led to the closure of schools which implied that over 128 million children are temporarily out of school and need to continuing learning through remote learning approaches including digital learning. UNICEF has developed a strategy to respond to the COVID pandemic which promotes innovative ways to deliver remote learning through a wide range of approaches including online learning, television, radio, as well as provision of printed material to those in low connectivity areas.
Under the supervision of the Education in Emergencies Specialist and the overall guidance of the Regional Education Advisor, this position aims to provide the technical assistance needed by 24 countries in WCAR to implement these alternative pathways, with a focus on Digital/ distance learning strategy. The incumbent will also support the implementation of the Digital Learning within the COVID period and beyond. It will include supporting the Regional Office and countries on information management needs of the COVID and other education in emergency and development responses. The incumbent will contribute to building the capacity of UNICEF country offices (COs) to provide appropriate solutions that can be applicable to scale up innovations in distance learning (digital learning, learning by TV, radio) to support the continuity of learning for all children during and to scale them up to reach all children and adolescents , especially those in remote rural areas, those inaccessible due to conflict, and those were already out of formal schools (never been in school and early drop outs).
Additionally, the incumbent will support evidence generation and documentation of interventions that work in digital and other pathways to learning for the regional office to inform regional and global advocacy. S/he will support the WCARO education section in identifying innovative ways to monitor attendance and learning outcomes in humanitarian/pandemic and development situations, document gaps and practices, including aspects of multi-sectoral programmatic convergence. S/he will support the WCARO Education Section in identifying fundraising opportunity and strategic partnership to enhance the results in the region.
How can you make a difference?
The purpose of the temporary appointment- Education specialist in Alternative Pathways (Digital Learning, Learning by TV and Radio, including Information Knowledge Management and Documentation of good practices) is to support the Country offices in the West and Central Africa Region and the education regional team for West and Central Africa, on identify, implement and strengthening distance/digital learning education and data collection, analysis, information management in both humanitarian and development context. The key result is to ensure effective and efficient remote learning that can respond to education needs for children in and out of schools in UNICEF-assisted projects and programmes.
Summary of key functions/accountabilities :
Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results :
- Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual reviews to assess progress and to determine required action/interventions to achieve results on distance learning initiatives (with a particular focus on digital learning) – with a strong focus on inclusion of the most marginalized/vulnerable children in most deprived municipalities and zone ;
- Ensure compliance of distance learning initiatives with the principle of no child left behind and the Principles for Digital Development (http://digitalprinciples.org/) and UNICEF technology for development best practices ;
- Actively monitor programmes/projects through field visits and surveys, and exchange information with stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks and potential problems, and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution.
Technical and operational support to programme implementation :
- Provide technical guidance and operational support to UNICEF Cos, Government and national education institutions to translate the global and regional distance learning strategies (digital, TV, Radio) into regional tools and resources for policy development, advocacy and capacity building initiatives to enhance the capacity and knowledge for on distance/digital learning ;
- Support the country offices and regional office to develop innovative and standardized data collection, analysis and reporting tools and systems for monitoring of access, learning and young people’s participation in digital learning and other pathways in collaboration with UN agencies and stakeholders, and creating a regional UNICEF platform of existing resources that countries can adapt, contextualize and use ;
- Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials for management use.
Networking and partnership building : Develop partnerships and networks with local solution providers, innovators, NGOs, cultural and religious organizations, 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. Identify opportunities for establishing linkages between resource mobilization and new partnerships and lead proposal and partnership development efforts in close collaboration with Country Offices and the Regional Office.
Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building :
- Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned and use knowledge gained for integration into broader knowledge development planning and management efforts including from countries via the global and regional networks available within UNICEF. Maintain an inventory of remote/distance learning initiatives and Innovations, assets, resources and networks ;
- Organize and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of UNICEF staff, partners, government counterparts and other end users in distance learning through digital learning, TV and Radio) and the use of human centered design methods to enable user-acceptance testing, evaluation, documentation and analysis, and in scaling up successful innovations.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- An advanced university degree is required in one of the following fields: education, technology in education, communications, international development, IM, mapping, data mining, data analysis and presentation or another relevant technical field. A bachelor’s degree with an additional two years of relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of an advanced degree ;
- A minimum of five (05) years of professional experience in 3 or more of the following areas is required: education, programme management, integrating technology into teaching and learning initiatives; implementing educational technology solutions (through different projects and initiatives), Good working knowledge of technical platforms, eLearning authoring tools, multimedia applications, web and virtual classroom technologies, mobile apps and social media appropriate to support technology-enhanced learning, external relations, data analysis and representation ;
- Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset ;
- Fluency in English and proficient in French is required. Knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese and 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 :
- Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1) ;
- Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2) ;
- Works Collaboratively with others (2) ;
- Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2) ;
- Innovates and Embraces Change (2) ;
- Thinks and Acts Strategically (2) ;
- Drives to achieve impactful results (2) ;
- Manages ambiguity and complexity (2).
The functional competencies required for this post are :
- Analyzing (3) ;
- Deciding and Initiating action (2) ;
- Applying technical expertise (3).
View our competency framework at : UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
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.
Remarks : Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.