UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND
REQUIRES
Local Consultant
Youth Innovation Lab Coordinator
It is required that the lab coordinator has at least 3-5 years of experience with demonstrated results
in the majority of the following areas:
• Youth Leadership and Developmental Youth work.
• Professional work experience in complex project management.
It is required that the lab coordinator has:
• Advanced university degree in development, social policy, ICT technology, communications or
related fields.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in Montenegrin and English.
• Strong leadership skills; capacity to prioritise and manage a diverse range of staff members, projects
and activities.
• Demonstrated ability to do user-centered technology design and implementation.
• Project management skills including task prioritization, budget monitoring and donor reporting, with
support of Programme Assistant.
• Ability to work with a diverse set of partners to create problem specifications, system requirements,
and then implement software and technology innovations on a national scale (understanding
constraints of working with various partners, but also the strengths of representing an international
organization).
• Excellent communication and documentation skills; ability to represent the lab to a variety of
stakeholders in a range of forums.
• Ability to produce consistent operational documents (like TORs) which are clear, engaging and fit
within UNICEF Rules and Regulations
Terms of Reference for the position and P11 form can be found on the website
www.unicef.org/montenegro or picked up at UNICEF Montenegro office.
If you are a dynamic person who would like to contribute to delivering of long-lasting, positive changes
for Montenegro’s children, please apply with a CV, P11 form, financial offer and cover letter by email,
mail or fax quoting the position “Youth Innovation Lab Coordinator” to the following address:
UNICEF, UN Eco House, Stanka Dragojevica bb, 81 000 Podgorica
Fax: +382 20 447 400
Email: podgorica@unicef.org
Closing date for applications is 16 October 2015, COB (16.30h).
Only short listed candidates will be contacted for interview.
UNICEF IS A SMOKE FREE ENVIRONMENT
1. Objective and Targets
UNICEF is seeking a Youth Innovation Lab Coordinator to manage the establishment and
development of the Youth Innovation Lab in Podgorica, Montenegro. The lab will be the space
that focuses on cultivating innovative approaches to solving the problems of Montenegro’s
youth and adolescents.
The lab coordinator will need to map the landscape of current innovation efforts in the area
of youth employability, participation and empowerment, in collaboration with the country
office. After that mapping, the lab coordinator will work to put together concrete plans for
the lab, including creating the necessary operational documents for partnerships, a
framework for monitoring it, and sustainable connections to the other UNICEF Innovation
Labs via blog posts and other regular communications.
The Lab coordinator will continue to work with UNICEF partners (and formalise those
partnerships) to identify innovative projects based on open source, mobile, and social
technologies; work with youth to develop and implement innovative projects that meet their
needs; develop partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders including academia,
technologists, public and private sectors; connect with global T4D (Technology for
Development) efforts to ensure that the lab is in touch with global conversations.
Background
Youth in Montenegro (15-29) make up 21.5% of the country’s 620,029 population and yet has
a low level of democratic participation. Youth and adolescents are not always recognized as
a resource to be invested in, and not prioritized in the public policy agenda. PISA 2012 results
have shown that a half of Montenegrin 15 year olds are functionally illiterate, that is scoring
below level 2, in maths, mother tongue and science, clearly pointing to under-performing
education system which is not sufficiently equipping young people with the knowledge and
skills necessary for success in life and in further education and employment.
As the KAP survey on youth showed, top life aspiration of young people is to have a secure
job and 55% of them would like to work in the public sector. Also, more than 43% of youth in
Montenegro believes that personal connections and friendships are crucial for employment.
Young people in Montenegro are not satisfied with the support they receive from institutions
and are insufficiently informed about the existing employment programs. Even though one
third of young people are considering starting their own business, only 4% of those are taking
concrete steps. When it comes to participation and activism of youth, two thirds believe that
they cannot influence decision-making, but 90% of them want their voice to be heard, to
participate in decision-making and in improving the environment they live in. However, only
20% know what participation means and just about 25% is familiar with the concept of
activism.
As a response to this situation, UNICEF and other UN organizations in Montenegro are
implementing Joint UN Youth Programme, which focuses on youth empowerment related to
participation and employability.
Youth Innovation Lab is the strategic and programmatic concept for the integrated, holistic
approach to the work with young people in the frameworks of the Joint UN Youth Programme.
The Innovation Lab will respond to the first strategic goal of the programme related to the
demand side, and, accordingly, to its two strategic objectives:
1.
Support young people in creating opportunities for their personal and professional
growth and democratic empowerment.
2.
Improve young people skills and attitudes needed for growing into competent,
resilient, passionate, autonomous individuals and citizens.
Innovation Lab will strengthen the innovation culture within the society, build collaborative
networks to facilitate new technologies and approaches, and apply them in the field. By
making youth communities a part of the innovation process, we can better identify, adapt,
and scale solutions that affect their lives presently and in the future. The Lab will work in close
partnerships with government, business sector, CSOs, academia.
Through establishing a Youth Innovation Lab, a new way of engaging youth in defining
problems and creating solutions that affect their future will be implemented.
As such, the Youth Lab will be set up as space to:




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Support young people in creating opportunities and solutions for their personal and
professional growth and democratic empowerment.
Facilitate development of young people skills and attitudes needed for growing into
competent, resilient, passionate, autonomous individuals and citizens.
Connect partners to each other in view of creating collaborative networks.
Engage young people in those partnerships.
Collaborate and share knowledge on innovation with other UNICEF labs.
2. Duration
11.5 months
Starting date: 02 November 2015
3. Duty Station
Montenegro, Podgorica. With possible travel.
4. Supervisor
The Lab coordinator will be supervised by UNICEF Program Specialist, with support from the
UNICEF Innovation Unit in New York.
5. Description of Assignment
Scope of Work:
• Under supervision of Programme Specialist, manage overall youth lab strategy/action plan,
including formulation, design, planning and management, with a strategic focus on leveraging
work being done with partners in Montenegro.
• Develop partnerships with a broad range of stakeholders involving youth, technology and
innovation, both in Montenegro (example: universities, ICT association, open source
community, micro-grant funders, etc.) and internationally (example: UNICEF Tech4dev units,
academic institutions abroad).
• Support the lab team in implementing scheduled projects and activities through
identification and adaptation of institutional modalities and procedures.
• Provide ongoing programmatic liaison and overall coordination between the lab and UNICEF
sections.
• Supervise use of Lab space and equipment and assure that child protection and safety and
other procedures are implemented.
•Work with UNICEF sections and partners to formulate, design, implement, test, and scale
appropriate technological interventions to solve data and information needs of UNICEF
partners, with a focus on user-centered technology design.
Specifically:
• Understand UNICEF Montenegro priority areas.
• Come up with a mapping structure for partners.
• Identify the academic and private sector partners already doing work in: youth engagement,
technology innovation, incubation, social development, mentoring, PPPs, etc.
• Describe possible focus areas for lab based on CO priority areas plus possible entry-points
from partners (i.e. where there is mutual interest) and suggest three to five possible focus
areas and which partners would be connected with them, and how young people would be
engaged (i.e. as researchers, technologists, recipients, etc.).
• Plan convening meeting where UNICEF brings together the major possible stakeholders
a) Bind them around the idea of youth engagement + innovation+ technology
b) Present the focus areas
c) Document this meeting
• Finalise TORs for the lab and hand them off to CO.
•Lead on planning and support and supervise implementation of Lab programmes and activities.
•Cooperate and liaison with Joint UN Youth Programme Task Team.
• Document all this work in bi-weekly blog posts.
6. Tangible & Measurable Outputs of the Work Assignment
• Develop the Youth Lab’s specific 2-page document, with relevant appendices, outlining
needs and possibilities.
• 5-10 page partnership mapping.
• Organised workshops with stakeholders in Montenegro.
• Operational documents needed for lab (1 major partnership document with government,
academia and private sector completed).
• TORs for lab, lab staff, and main projects (as per standard UNICEF TOR)
• Weekly documentation on a blog of this work.
7. Performance Indicators for Evaluation of Results
• Delivery of products on dates specified.
• Communication with partners, stakeholders and the team.
• Quality of products (do they fit the needs as defined).
8. Qualifications or Specialised Experience Required
It is required that the lab coordinator has at least 3-5 years of experience with
demonstrated results in the majority of the following areas:
• Youth Leadership and Developmental Youth work.
• Professional work experience in complex project management.
It is required that the lab coordinator has:
• Advanced university degree in development, social policy, ICT technology, communications
or related fields.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in Montenegrin and English.
• Strong leadership skills; capacity to prioritise and manage a diverse range of staff members,
projects and activities.
• Demonstrated ability to do user-centered technology design and implementation.
• Project management skills including task prioritization, budget monitoring and donor
reporting, with support of Programme Assistant.
• Ability to work with a diverse set of partners to create problem specifications, system
requirements, and then implement software and technology innovations on a national scale
(understanding constraints of working with various partners, but also the strengths of
representing an international organization).
• Excellent communication and documentation skills; ability to represent the lab to a variety
of stakeholders in a range of forums.
• Ability to produce consistent operational documents (like TORs) which are clear, engaging
and fit within UNICEF Rules and Regulations.
9. Budget and Remuneration
The total duration of the consultancy is 11.5 months over the period from 02 November
2015 to 14 October 2016.
The candidates are requested to submit their financial offer consisting of fee for the services
to be provided, travel and subsistence costs, as applicable.
10. Payment Plan
The fee will be paid in monthly instalment, upon submission of monthly reports.
11. Recourse
UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is
unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.