Digital Literacy and Essential Digital Skills Contractor

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a full-time individual contractor position supporting the Innovation Service. The position is home-based.

The Digital Literacy and Essential Digital Skills Contractor will temporarily support the Innovation Service’s digital inclusion programme on digital literacy programming, also working closely with the Connected Education Team in the Division of Resilience and Solutions.

UNHCR is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are in over 125 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions of displaced people and supporting the communities where they live.

Title: Digital Literacy and Skills Specialist

Duty Station: Home-based

Working Hours: 20 hours a week

Duration: 1st August 2022 to 31st December 2022 (5 months)

Contract Type: Individual Contractor

Closing date: 21st July 2022

Start date: ASAP

Organisational context

Led by UNHCR’s Innovation Service, the Digital Inclusion programme aims to ensure that refugees and the communities that host them have the right, and the choice, to be included in a connected society, and can have their voices heard in the design and implementation of humanitarian response and development programmes. This programme seeks to break down barriers to digital inclusion spanning the technological, economic, social and cultural.

Based on a number of assessments, including the Digital Lives of Refugees, conducted by the GSMA and supported by UNHCR, a lack of prerequisite digital skills was highlighted as one of the major barriers to adoption of digital technology amongst refugees. While a number of interventions have been pursued within UNHCR to advance foundational digital literacy amongst refugees and hosting communities, these have been ad-hoc – often driven by country teams – without an overarching framework or strategy for addressing the digital skills deficit amongst forcibly displaced populations. Through its Digital Transformation strategy, currently in development, the organization aims to build out more strategic and systemic approaches for addressing digital inclusion challenges, with digital literacy and skills being one element within this priority area.

Furthermore, as a protection agency, UNHCR is acutely aware that digital awareness and capacity in navigating digital spaces is fundamental to refugee’ safety online, as detailed in the Connecting with Confidence report. As such digital awareness and data literacy will be a fundamental dimension to UNHCR’s approach regarding digital literacy and skills.

The position

This role is designed to both support UNHCR with developing appropriate strategic approaches to addressing digital literacy and essential digital skills gaps within forcibly displaced communities, and design and oversee select digital literacy and essential digital skills projects or initiatives with a view to capturing key learnings. Over the five month period, the consultant will be expected to map initiatives, review key digital inclusion frameworks and develop a blueprint for taking this work forward, both within the Innovation Service but across the organization. In parallel, there will be a critical supporting function provided in regard to practical projects on digital literacy and essential digital skills, providing support to existing initiatives and designing new ones that will generate vital learnings for UNHCR’s strategic approach.

Duties and responsibilities

• Map existing initiatives within UNHCR, the humanitarian ecosystem, and development sector that focus on digital literacy and essential digital skills, and digital awareness disaggregated by region/country, and by level and type of credentialing/certification offered.
• Review existing curricula, frameworks and approaches, and Develop a Blueprint for how UNHCR can take forward its work on advancing digital literacy and skills and digital awareness of forcibly displaced people, using an Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) approach
• Design specific digital literacy and essential digital skills interventions utilizing untested or nascent approaches that require testing to develop learning, addressing the intersectional vulnerabilities and risks encountered by forcibly displaced persons online and offline compounded by AGD and other relevant variables such as different digital literacy foundations and country-specific job market demands
• Review of approaches to digital awareness raising and data literacy and develop, in collaboration with UNHCR regional and country teams and relevant external partners, community-facing training and advocacy material focused on online safety and managing and mitigating digital risks in connected society, including in the digital economy
• As applicable, support UNHCR country teams with delivery of existing digital literacy and essential digital skills Innovation projects, covering design through to implementation and monitoring. This includes coordinating and supporting regional and country teams with technical support and guidance
• Support with the design and implementation of interventions to improve market-oriented digital skills trainings
• Facilitating M&E across the Innovation Service initiatives linked to digital literacy and skills, ensuring adequate documentation is produced to capture projects progress and impact, in liaison with Innovation Service staff
• Engage with a diverse range of stakeholders and partners active in the digital literacy and skills space, or digital awareness
• Ensure that activities undertaken are carried out with due consideration of data protection policies and frameworks
• Support on other digital inclusion and innovation activities / interventions as required

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required

Academic Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree (essential) or graduate degree (desired) in a related discipline (Education, Politics, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Action, International Development, Social Sciences, Communications,Telecommunications, Innovation, Technology, Engineering etc.)

Experience (Required / Desired)

• Minimum of 5 years of previous job experience (with a graduate degree) or 6 years (with an undergraduate degree) working in a humanitarian aid or development context with prior experience or interest in issues relating to technology, telecommunications, education and digital services – with a focus on digital literacy and skills development
• Experience in design and delivery of digital literacy and skills project required
• Demonstrated experience in undertaking research projects similar in nature and level of complexity.
• Prior experience in a supporting function to humanitarian country operations desired (particularly strategy design and implementation pilot projects designed for scaling)
• Prior experience working in forced displacement contexts

Skills and Competencies

• Excellent knowledge of English (both written and spoken) and working knowledge of another UN language an advantage
• Specific knowledge on digital inclusion, digital literacy and skills
• Knowledge of protection principles and community-based protection a distinct advantage
• Highly organized and autonomous, able to multitask and prioritize workload when necessary
• Excellent writing and documentation skills, demonstrating high levels of attention to detail
• Works well in a multicultural team and has a strong work ethic: strives to deliver high-quality, error-free deliverables potentially targeting different types of users (e.g. senior management, fundraising specialists and advocacy officers)
• Some knowledge of the telecommunication sector

Core competencies

• Innovation and Creativity – Generates innovative and creative solutions to problems that contribute to Organizational and inter-agency effectiveness. Tries different and novel ways of approaching work to create added value in the services provided.
• Knowledge sharing – Actively develops and shares knowledge, leverages expertise to improve organizational and inter-agency effectiveness and add value within sphere of influence
• Collaboration and Influence – Encourages teamwork and cooperates with others to achieve mutually beneficial results. Gains the support of others for own ideas and initiatives, regardless of formal authority and organizational boundaries
• Critical Thinking and Judgment – Uses data, experience, and good judgment to make sound decisions and devise effective solutions to problems. Assesses and manages risk in own work

Location

The position is home based, with potential travel as necessary.

Conditions

The successful candidate will be expected to work 20 hours a week. Specific hours will be subject to negotiation based on timezones.