PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS VACANCY IS ONLY FOR NATIONALS OF UGANDA OR THOSE WHO ARE AUTHORIZED TO WORK IN UGANDA.

Contract duration: 6 months

Purpose of Consultancy

This consultancy at the UNFPA Uganda Country Office offers outstanding and ambitious individuals an opportunity to make a difference by utilizing their skills and experience to train, guide, support, mentor and work with UNFPA staff and young innovators to improve ideas and solutions, advocate for the rights of young people in Uganda, and lead change while acquiring direct exposure to UNFPA operations. 

Background 

Young people are a strategic focus of UNFPA’s work both globally and in Uganda. As part of working with and for young people, UNFPA Uganda leverages innovation for social change to ensure every young person’s potential is fulfilled. Innovation and creativity as corporate priorities seek to foster a culture of innovations within the organization. To fully harness the potential of innovation for and by young people, UNFPA uses several mechanisms including a youth-focused innovation accelerator, an innovation space, and innovation pilots to improve young people’s access to information and services.  

Although innovation pilots are currently being implemented across most technical areas (including GBV, FP, P&D, AYSRH), UNFPA Uganda recognizes the particular power of young people to identify and develop solutions that can spur progress towards achieving UNFPA’s mandate. An active effort is thus being made to engage individuals in innovations for social change through an initiative dubbed Coders for Social Change. 

Who is a Coder?

A Coder under this initiative is any individual with outstanding & proven skills, experience, leadership and professionalism in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Event Coordination and Logistics Management, Supply Chain Management, Communications Product Design, Software Development, Youth Engagement, Sexual Reproductive Health, GBV, Humanitarian or Journalism; aged between 24 - 40 years with passion for social change under UNFPA’s mandate.

Duration of the Assignment

The Coders for Social Change will work for a period of 6 months to improve the country office mechanisms for innovation. The Coders will be part of the Innovation and Change Leadership team and work under the direct supervision of the Program Analyst Social Change Innovations.  

The Coders will propose cutting edge ideas and solutions to identified challenges using testing methodologies such as Design Thinking. They will also support a wide range of operations within the UNFPA Uganda Country Office under the Innovations Team, including but not limited to, supporting youth engagement and participation initiatives, facilitation and promotion of events, events planning and coordination, logistics management, product design, online content management, marketing, communications, supply chain management, and other needs of the Innovations Program at UNFPA.

Duties include, but are not limited to, the following:

Each Coder shall be expected to present a social change idea which can re-modeled to fit the UNFPA programming. While working their idea, each will:

• Consult with internal stakeholders to understand technical needs, analysing solution options and making a recommendation based upon knowledge and experience
• Work with other innovators and users to create consumer-first user experiences
• Provide project management support for a wide range of innovations projects implemented through partners and in the office
• Plan and prepare project documents required for adolescent and youth program implementation, such as concept notes, briefs, reports, budgets, and meeting reports
• Contribute the collection and analysis of data from social innovation activities and implement innovative ways to analyze and disseminate the evidence
• Maintain and improve the utilization of an events space for innovations and youth related activities for social change, including through liaising with partners and other ecosystem players
• Work with other coders and the Innovations Program to continuously explore innovative approaches to achieve UNFPA’s mandate
• Perform any other duties as needed to support the Uganda Country Office in achieving program outputs and the UNFPA mandate

At the end of the assignment the Coders will be expected to deliver the following outputs: 

• Concrete contributions to at least three one innovation per Coder by the end of the assignment
• Updated project plans for pilot and scale-up of UNFPA innovation initiatives
• Streamlined events calendar and management plan for activities implemented in the Innovations Cafe geared towards youth engagement and empowerment 
• At least one monthly youth-related activity implemented in the i-Café throughout the six-month period
• Online portal for youth-related initiatives in Uganda fully developed with polished content from external partners uploaded
• Functional database developed of youth related innovations (at least 30) for social change that use the i-Café resources on a monthly basis 
• At least one partnership developed with the private sector supporting at least one of the regular events through the Innovations Cafe

Duration and Working Schedule

6 months; earliest start date 2 February 2019 to 31 July 2019

Place where services are to be delivered:

UNFPA Uganda Country Office 

Deliverables

Monthly status reports

Monitoring, Progress Control, and Supervisory Arrangement

Regular report to Innovations Analyst

Expected travel:

Periodic

Qualifications and Experience

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, statistics, demography, public health, communications, ICT, business, marketing, or another degree of relevance to supporting development and social change initiatives.

Experience:

• Demonstrable experience delivering results on social change initiatives, either through using technology or supporting public events
• Demonstrable experience in the areas of adolescent and youth programming, research and knowledge management
• Strong teamwork and communication skills
• Excellent project management, planning, and organizational skills
• Software skills that are essential include Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Work well under pressure and tight deadlines
• Fluency in English is required for all Coder positions
• Knowledge of any of the following: statistical analysis software (SPSS, Stata, etc.), Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop), web and/or mobile app development (Swift, Bootstrap, Objective-C, Python, or other) would be especially advantageous, although not required
• Experience in FMCG markets is an added advantage

Inputs / services to be provided by UNFPA or implementing partner:

UNFPA will provide office space and equipment at the Country Office.

Terms and conditions of payment

The consultant will be paid full contract amount upon successful completion of the assignment, delivered and approved by the thematic area focal point and the Assistant Representative.

How to Apply:

• Deadline for applications: Friday, February 8th, 2019, 5 pm Kampala time.
• Interested applicants should first register on the UNFPA Consultancy Roster and apply to the “job post” called UNFPA Consultant Roster. After registering on the Roster, Click ‘Apply Now’. In case you have applied for UNFPA eRecruitment Jobs before, directly click ‘Apply Now’. 
• After application, please send a confirmation email to komugisha@unfpa.org clearly stating the position you are applying to (Coders of Social Change), full name, and date of submission in the subject. Please clearly state your social change idea and how your skill set can contribute to the stated expectations in the job description, such as events planning, software development, innovations product development and management, etc in the body email.
• UNFPA reports – If the applicant has worked for UNFPA in the past, he/she may submit their most recent assessment, consultancy report or other document to illustrate his/work.
• UNFPA will only respond to those applicants in whom the Country Office has further interest.

Disclaimer:

• UNFPA does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.
• UNFPA is committed to maintain balanced gender distribution of the positions and therefore encourage women to apply. 
• There are NO application processing or other fees at any stage of UNFPA application processes.