Summary

We are seeking a capable Country Support Specialist to join Giga, an initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice. The Country Support Specialist will work within the Giga Global Country Engagement team and closely with the Country Engagement Adviser to support country offices in initiating Giga, developing work plans, designing procurement processes for connecting and accessing technical support from all parts of the Giga team. Note: Giga reserves the right to engage more than one Specialist, based on the pool of applications and budget availability.

Your main responsibilities will be…

• Support to Country Offices in their requests for support and information on Giga while coordinating with appropriate UNICEF and ITU Regional Offices. 
• Support in-country implementation in active Giga countries. 
• Track country engagement status in each region and maintain up-to-date data in project management tool. 
• Liaise between Country Offices and Giga Finance team and Giga Contracts team to support Country Offices with all materials, guidance and feedback on contracts, procurement and fund mobilization. 
• Support the organization and implementation of any Giga-related events in-country through prep materials, agendas, etc., as well as any Giga-related recruitment in-country.

Please click here to access the full TOR and related information.

To qualify for this position, you will have…

• An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) is required in one of the following fields: statistics, economics, social sciences, development sciences, and management or related degree is required. *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 professional experience in field of development, ideally within UNICEF, and with experience or strong exposure to programming in Country Offices
• Experience in facilitating engagements with an array of partners at the national/reginal level, i.e., international development organizations, government entities, regulators, or civil society, etc. 
• Understanding of connectivity technology, telecommunications, networks would be considered an asset. 
• Experience in monitoring and reporting. 
• Knowledge of national policy frameworks related to technology development, implementation, and infrastructure development is desired. 
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including presentation skills. 
• Proven capacity to work with collaborative teams across different locations and with different technical skills. 
• Proven experience in translating complex ideas from various fields into unified, clear guidance. 
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic environment; proven track record working across a cross-functional team.
• Outstanding communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills; team-first mentality
• Strong planning and organizational and time management skills.

Travel

The consultant is expected to travel to:

• • Geneva, Switzerland 1 time – requiring a stay of 5 nights.
  • Several countries in East and Southern Africa 4 times. Each trip will require a stay of 5 nights.

Payment details and further considerations

• Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.   
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance.
• Consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.

How to apply

• Interest applicant is required to submit a financial proposal with all-inclusive fee. 
• Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance. 

Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered. Please find attached the financial proposal template.

About Our Team

We are a fast-paced, multi-disciplinary team of software engineers, finance specialists, data scientists, policy experts, and much more. Our team is a distributed workforce and plans to remain distributed into the foreseeable future. We are growing fast. Our team has grown by over 400% in the last 6 months as we rapidly scale to meet our stated mission.