Giga Multi-Country Deployment Officer at UNICEF Tanzania

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and Governments.

Context

Launched in 2019 as a joint initiative between UNICEF and ITU, Giga has set the ambitious goal to connect every school in the world to the internet. Half of the world’s population has no regular access to the Internet. Millions of children leave school without any digital skills, making it much more difficult for them to thrive and contribute to local and global economies. This has created a digital divide between those who are connected and those who are not, a divide that has become even wider during the Covid-19 pandemic. UNICEF and ITU have therefore joined forces to create Giga, an initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet and address this new form of inequality.

Giga focuses on connecting schools so that children and young people have access to information, opportunity, and choice. It also uses schools as anchor points for their surrounding communities: if you connect the school, you can also connect local businesses and services. This creates opportunities for service providers to generate revenue from paying users, making connectivity more sustainable. A 2021 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%.

Giga’s headquarters are based in Geneva, Switzerland, with a Technology Centre in Barcelona, Spain. Giga helps connect schools by providing governments with innovative connectivity solutions and technical support. Giga’s open-source tools enable countries to map schools and monitor their real-time connectivity, conduct infrastructure mapping and cost modelling, unlock sources of funding for connectivity, and facilitate better contracts with service providers. Giga currently provides advanced connectivity support in 44 countries.

Task Description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Giga Programme Manager (Country Engagement) or their designated representative(s), the UN Volunteer will work with multiple countries in collaboration with national and regional stakeholders and will be embedded at UNICEF Tanzania Country Office.

The UNV will be responsible for driving opportunity identification, planning, implementation, and adoption of Giga’s technology services and tools (primarily its mapping and monitoring platforms) across multiple countries assigned to them (80%), while also providing targeted project management support in Tanzania (20%). This hybrid role combines technology delivery expertise with country-level execution and stakeholder management to ensure Giga’s services are effectively localized, integrated, and sustained.

1. Account Management (5%)

• Tanzania (5%)
  • Serve as the primary point of contact for in-country users and counterparts, chair regular coordination meetings, and ensure onboarding, adoption, and long-term success of Giga platforms.
  • Lead knowledge and risk management at the country level, capturing lessons learned and escalating risks where appropriate.

2. Opportunity Development & Identification (25%)

• Multi country (20%)
  • Develop a strong understanding of school mapping and monitoring initiatives across the assigned countries.
  • Identify and qualify high-value opportunities to roll out Giga’s tools in UNICEF programmatic countries.
  • Tailor Giga’s solution pitches and delivery plans to reflect the needs of assigned countries and stakeholder motivations.
• Tanzania (5%)
  • Rapidly scope new project requests from in-country stakeholders, defining effort, timelines, and resources.
  • Surface emerging use cases and unmet needs from in-country engagements to inform Giga’s product and technology teams.

3. Delivery & Project Management (45%)

• Multi country (35%)
  • Plan and manage implementation of Giga’s mapping and monitoring products and services in coordination with Delivery Leads and implementing partners.
  • Collaborate with Giga HQ Technology teams to adapt and improve tools to align with country systems, capabilities, and evolving needs.
  • Support national partners in collecting, cleaning, classifying, and validating data for Giga’s mapping, monitoring, and planning tools.
  • Travel to countries being supported as needed to support coordination, training, troubleshooting, and stakeholder engagement.
• Tanzania (10%)
  • Lead end-to-end project management of in-country rollouts, including onboarding, adoption, and handover.
  • Monitor progress against deployment milestones and KPIs, proactively addressing risks or bottlenecks.
  • Coordinate additional in-country implementing partners, where applicable.
  • Support monitoring and evaluation activities and surface impact evidence from deployments.

4. Customer Success (20%)

• Multi country (20%)
  • Deliver or organize trainings for governments and partners to build long-term ownership of Giga platforms.
  • Capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned across assigned countries to inform Giga’s global knowledge base.
  • Lead customer retention efforts, ensuring Giga tools are integrated into workflows and deliver measurable value.
  • Support the design and implementation of robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
• Tanzania (5%)
  • Provide targeted training and ongoing support for in-country government and UNICEF staff.
  • Lead user acquisition and retention efforts in-country, ensuring consistent performance and value delivery.
  • Oversee quality assurance and user monitoring, ensuring local relevance and sustainability.

UN Volunteer Programme Mandate Activities

UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. Suggested activities include:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities.
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
• Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers.
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 - 80
• Required experience: 3 years
• Nationality: Candidate must be a national or legal resident of the country of assignment (Tanzania).

Assignment Requirements

• Relevant experience: 3 years
• Languages:
  • English, Level: Fluent, Required
  • Swahili, Level: Fluent, Desirable
• Required education level: Bachelor's degree in information technology, business administration, public administration, international development or a related field is required.

Competencies and Values

• Professionalism
• Integrity
• Teamwork and respect for diversity
• Commitment to continuous learning
• Planning and organizing
• Communication
• Flexibility
• Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement.

Skills and Experience

• Minimum of 3 to 5 years of progressively responsible project management experience, including technology implementation and stakeholder coordination.
• Proven ability to work with administrative datasets (EMIS, census, geospatial), including cleaning, validation, and transformation into actionable insights.
• Technical fluency with data workflows and digital tools; experience supporting government adoption of data and analytics platforms is highly desirable.
• Experience working with governments to support digital tool adoption, including scoping, user requirement gathering, localization, and training.
• Strong understanding of regional cultural and political landscapes and demonstrated track record of collaboration with ministries and local partners.
• Knowledge of internet connectivity ecosystems, including stakeholders, infrastructure challenges, and opportunities, is a plus.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Strong analytical, proactive, and pragmatic approach.
• Prior experience with UN agencies, UNICEF, or other international development organizations is an asset.

Area(s) of expertise

• Business management
• Information technology
• Administration
• Driving license: Not specified/Required.

Other Information

• Volunteerism is understood as a wide range of activities undertaken of free will, for the general public good, for which monetary reward is not the principal motivating factor.
• Living conditions and remarks: Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country full of beautiful contrasts, reflected by more than 120 tribes and languages, with Kiswahili as the official one. It is the second-largest country in East Africa, after Ethiopia, and has a tropical climate. The average temperature in Dar es Salaam is 31°C. In the highlands, temperatures range between 10-20°C. Dodoma, the official capital of Tanzania, is centrally located. Dar es Salaam, however, is the largest city and port for the country.
• Inclusivity statement: United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics.
• Reasonable accommodation: UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for UN Volunteers with disabilities.
• Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements: Appointments are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a WHO-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the appointment. This does not apply to UN Volunteers who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises.
• Scam warning: The United Nations does not charge any fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. You are advised to apply particular care when receiving solicitations for payment.