Urban Technologies & Innovation Consultant at UN-Habitat

UN-Habitat’s Programme Development Branch develops new programmes and ensures coherent coordination between normative approaches at HQ and operational work in regional and field offices. It is also leading on the development of five global flagship programmes. Flagship programme 2 focuses on people-centered smart cities to act as an umbrella and enabler for mainstreaming the approach across all of UN-Habitat work. This function will have a clear mandate to support colleagues in the delivery of their operational and normative work. The function will be supported by committed and mandated smart city focal points with dedicated resources and time in other offices. The objective of this flagship programme is to ensure that the smart cities field is focused on ensuring sustainable development outcomes aligned with human rights, including ensuring that no one and no space is left behind, and that cities reduce carbon emissions.

Supervision

The Consultant will be under the overall leadership Programme Management Officer – Urban Technologies and Innovation with an additional reporting line to the UNITAC Lab Manager.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide technical support to the UN-Habitat Innovation Unit
• Provide technical support to the development of the People-Centered Smart Cities programme
• Provide technical support to the Climate Smart Cities Challenge, particularly the workstream related to Curitiba
• Provide technical support to UN-Habitat’s work on digital rights, including helping establish a digital rights helpdesk
• Provide technical support to the Microsoft Datacenters project
• Provide technical support to UNITAC

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualifications: University degree in social sciences, political science, international development, urban planning, architecture, innovation or related subjects is required.
• Experience: At least five years’ experience in working with innovation and technology projects, policy and strategy is required.
• Experience in open innovation, challenge-driven innovation and design thinking is desirable.
• Experience and knowledge of current debates relating to digital cooperation, digital rights and people-centered smart cities is desirable.
• Experience working with digital platforms, tools and services is desirable.
• Experience in policy communication, including writing policy briefs, reports and producing publications is desirable.
• Experience in project management is desirable.
• Language: Fluency in written and oral English and Portuguese required. Experience of other UN languages including French, Spanish and Arabic is an asset.

Closing: 09  August 2022