Terms of Reference

Knowledge Management Officer

UNICEF MADAGASCAR

1. Informations sur le Programme :

Programme (No. & Nom) : Programme intersectoriel (YI-205)

Project (No. & Nom) : Politique Sociale et Evaluation (YI-205-02)

Activity (No. & Nom) : Assistance Technique en Politique Sociale (YI-205-02-001)

2. Background

Knowledge management has become a key strategy of big organisations to ensure that they maintain a cutting edge position in their field of operations. Large profit- or results oriented organisations – and governments too - are increasingly concentrating on investing in their capacities to manage data and create knowledge – this being considered a key factor in ensuring a lead role in their respective operating field. The ability to innovate and be ahead is closely associated with the investment amounts into research and analysis structures of these organisations and countries. All large organisations are in need of managing systematically a growing amount of data and information that has become ever more abundant thanks to technologies that help produce, transfer and store at the same time reducing limitations of access. The great challenge herein lies in turning the existing data into actual knowledge, i.e. filtered, processed and analysed data, to disseminate this to the right recipients and to put it into productive use.

In order to ensure that key research documents, namely studies and evaluations are being stored and kept in a place where other development workers have access to these, not just in the immediate term through e-mail sharing, but also in the longer term – which is even more important in an organisation that sees such regular and high staff turnovers as the United Nations, the SNU Madagascar has commissioned a public-access, web-based Knowledge Management Portal named HayZara, planned for launch in early December 2010. In addition to the Agency-level need to manage and facilitate access to ‘knowledge’, the HayZara portal also responds to the critical need to provide crucial data and development programme experience from within and about the country to the broader development community and the Malagasy public for its own consumption.

The HayZara system contains three key components: the Knowledge Bank, the Exchange Platforms, and the Mapping, Visualization, and Tracking Tools. As an inter-Agency KM portal, HayZara has been designed for joint management by all of the UN Agencies in Madagascar. Knowledge Focal Points (“Knowledge Brokers”) have been designated in each Agency, and are receiving ongoing training to ensure effective use and roll-out of HayZara at the Agency level. In addition, a representative from CINU Madagascar has been engaged throughout the system development process and also received training from the KM Consultant who designed the portal, such that CINU can participate in managing HayZara in the future. Despite these existing management structures, the HayZara development team has advocated for additional management support from an international consultant during the first year of HayZara (2011) to ensure smooth roll-out, uptake, and management in the portal’s inaugural year. The UNCT endorsed the proposal to engage such a consultant at the 20 October 2010 UNCT meeting, with UNICEF and UNFPA agreeing to evenly divide the costs associated with this post.

To ensure sound management and roll-out of the inter-Agency HayZara Knowledge Mangement Portal, UNICEF (on behalf of the SNU MADAGASCAR) thus seeks to engage a Knowledge Management Officer who will oversee this process for the duration of 2011.

3. Duty Station

Antananarivo, with travel to the different regions of Madagascar as necessary

4. Key Activities and Outputs[1]

5. Period of Consultancy

15 January – 15 December 2011

6. Qualifications

· Bachelor’s Degree in social science, media or another related field

· Minimum 2 years international working experience (experience in Madagascar a plus)

· Fluency in English & French

· Superior ability to organize, classify, and digest information for public use

· Superior ability to work within a team and engage with Agency-level counterparts

· Superior coordination skills

· Familiarity with web-based information management tools (esp. Joomla) a plus

· Proactive and results-driven

· Ability to work well in a multicultural UN environment

· NB: Both national and international candidates are encouraged to apply for this post.

7. Working Process and Supervision

• KM Officer will be contracted by UNICEF but will interact with focal points in all of the SNU Madagascar agencies

8. Terms

Total Payment and Fees: $30,000 lump sum payment, to be disbursed on a monthly basis over the 11 months of the consultancy. Flexible working hours and holidays are open to discussion.

UNICEF to provide computer and office space.