Programme and Technical Innovation Specialist, Innovation Unit, Office of the Executive Director, New York, P-3

The Position:

The Innovation Unit leads the implementation of the UNFPA’s innovation strategy as outlined in the Strategic Plan. It acts as a creative, interactive, and agile team at a cross-divisional intersection. It works closely with all respective Business Units across the organization and connects the dots to enable, accelerate, and catalyze innovation at UNFPA.

The Programme and Technical Innovation Specialist reports to the Chief of the Innovation Unit. The holder will collaborate with Innovation Unit team members, relevant Working Groups, and Business Units throughout the organization. The specialist will also closely coordinate actions with external partners and networks, contributing to enhancing UNFPA’s innovation outreach and partnerships. This includes supporting initiatives like the Equalizer Accelerator Fund, Equity 2030 Alliance and the WomenX Collective. 

The Programme and Technical Innovation Specialist will also provide day-to-day planning, managerial, technical, and coordination support to the Chief of the Innovation Unit, timely and effectively supporting and coordinating the office's various initiatives.

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.  UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose:

The Programme and Technical Innovation Specialist will play a vital role within the Innovation Unit portfolio, providing technical advice and support to business units across UNFPA on mainstreaming innovation, especially at the field level. The position will enable accelerated identification of programmatic and technical innovation-related needs, appropriate alignment with country, regional, and global level actors internally and externally, and foster the integration of innovation as an Accelerator in line with the UNFPA Strategic Plan and the innovation strategies.

In this regard, the key duties of the Programme and Technical Innovation Specialist will be:

You would be responsible for:

A. Providing programmatic and technical support

• Under the Chief of Innovation Unit’s leadership, provide programmatic and technical support in delivering the objectives of the Innovation Unit, including tracking and updating major targets, milestones, and deliverables, with a particular focus on the Equalizer Accelerator Fund and its related initiatives, such as the Equity 2030 Alliance;
• Collaborate with Business Units to draft and process programmatic and partnership-related documents on innovation, ensuring adherence to UNFPA policies and procedures;
• Manage the technical coordination of the development, roll-out, and monitoring of the Global Innovation Strategy;
• Prepare and support the monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of information, aligning with the agreed performance indicators to enhance management efficiency and accountability for results on innovation as an accelerator.

B.  Strengthening UNFPA’s internal innovation capabilities

• Provide technical and advisory support to Country Offices in response to needs assessments, including capacity development to strengthen the mainstreaming of innovative products at the program level in close collaboration with HQ and Regional office colleagues;
• Support Regional Innovation Focal Points in executing the regional innovation strategies and mainstreaming innovation within their regions. In particular, contribute to addressing programmatic and technical innovation bottlenecks to supporting current and planned in