UNV Knowledge Management Officer

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

UNICEF India, under the broader UN Sustainable Development Framework, is committed in its continued support to the Government in the development of Indian children. Our goal is to enable every child born in India to have the best start in life, to thrive and to develop to her or his full potential.

UNICEF has been present in India for 74 years. UNICEFs key strength lies in our evidence-based technical expertise that informs policy action and implementation, along with building the capacity of partners. With some 450 staff members working in 17 states that together cover 90 per cent of India’s child population - largest field presence among UN agencies – we are well positioned to reach the country’s most vulnerable children.

UNICEF in India recognizes the centrality of evidence, data, and knowledge for delivering results for children. Evidence, data, knowledge management and monitoring are critical to support UNICEF's programming goals in India and achieve our objectives. By using relevant, equity-focused, high-quality and timely evidence, UNICEF India aims to inform better policy formulation, to improve policy or programme implementation, and to empower groups/communities/institutions to achieve their own rights.

Under its new Country Programme 2023-2027, UNICEF has prioritized ‘evidence, data and knowledge management’ as a key change strategy to achieve its programmatic goals and ultimately results for children. UNICEF India has recently developed its own Evidence Strategy, in which knowledge management (KM) is positioned as an additional key functional area to provide sufficient technical and managerial support across all the 9 programmatic sectors UNICEF works in and the 13 field offices, covering 16 states.

The overall evidence work in UNICEF India is coordinated and technically led by the Evidence for Children Section under the leadership of the Chief of Evidence. The Knowledge Management Specialist anchors UNICEF India’s KM strategy and action plan, in coordination with designated KM focal persons across all programme sections and field offices.

Broadly the Knowledge Management pillar provides technical and operational support to the office to improve the effective and efficient use of robust knowledge in UNICEF programming, to promote a culture of learning, and strengthen UNICEF’s role externally as a credible knowledge broker on child rights in India. The function supports building internal KM resources/platforms, facilitating knowledge exchange between UNICEF teams and offices, developing and applying tools/strategies to ensure better dissemination and use of knowledge, and championing a culture of learning.

In order to ensure that the aforementioned KM Pillar is sufficiently resourced to undertake all the tasks on the work plan for 2025-2027, we are looking for an additional team member – Knowledge Management Officer to join. The role will be to generally support support all key areas of the Knowledge Management at UNICEF , focusing on activities related to setting up and managing internal KM systems and processes, creating tools and templates for knowledge dissemination, communication and use, strengthening internal capacity and behaviour change toward knowledge management practices, engaging with and leveraging external expertise to further the KM strategy for UNICEF India.

With in the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Knowledge Management Officer or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Knowledge Management Officer will:


• Support program sections and field offices in developing and tracking their Knowledge Management action plans, aligned with the KM Strategy and the UNICEF India Evidence Strategy
• Support program sections and field offices in updating and strengthening the use of their ECM (End Child Marriage) sites, in coordination with digital impact team.
• Support in developing guidance, tools and templates for internal learning & sharing exercises, such as Lessons Learned Reviews, Acter Action Reviews, Learning from Failure Festival etc.
• Support in the office-wide operationalization of knowledge platforms like (Knowledge@UNICEF), a global external-facing knowledge platform for documents created by UNICEF
• Support the planning and coordination of the annual ‘Roundtable on Evidence for Children’
• initiative, as well as any side events or associated panel discussions.
• Support in better understanding/diagnosing key knowledge management needs and challenges to be addressed for each program section and field office
• Support in coordination and convening of the internal KM Network and its quarterly meetings
• Support in organizing UNICEF India’s annual ‘Learning from Failure’ Festival, including promotional materials, videos, blogs, designing the ECM submission page, reviewing submissions and developing profiles on the office Learning Champions.

Furthermore, 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. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• 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.

Results/expected outputs:

As an active UNICEF team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNICEF and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including:

For the KM team, the expected results from the NUNV are:
• Support provided to all key areas of the Knowledge Management at UNICEF, focusing on activities related to setting up and managing internal KM systems and processes, creating tools and templates for knowledge dissemination, communication and use, strengthening internal capacity and behavior change toward knowledge management practices, engaging with and leveraging external expertise to further the KM strategy for UNICEF India.
• Internal knowledge sharing and capacity around evidence generation, supported by the KM team, is improved; webinars/seminars, training sessions, resources are accessible, engaging and useful
• Flagship events and platforms like Learning from Failure Festival, Evidence for Children Roundtable, KM network meetings etc. are successfully organized, reports prepared and disseminated internally and externally
• Support is extended to KM focal points to update and effectively use digital platforms like ECM, Knowledge@Unicef etc.

For the NUNV, the expected results from working with the UNICEF India KM team are:
• Knowledge of the key development and evidence issues related to children in India
• Improved design and knowledge management skills, through learning by doing
• Strong knowledge of the policies, processes, guidelines and norms that guide evidence generation at UNICEF globally and specifically at UNICEF India
• Strong understanding of how evidence can be used for advocacy and to influence decision- making, for the well-being of children and their families
• Building a network internally with UNICEF India programme staff, as well as externally, with research organizations/institutions in India (and internationally)

• Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment
• A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.