Job Description

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, evert riht!

UNICEF has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1982. We are a team of passionate professionals committed to the protection and fulfillment of children’s rights.

Supporting the Government’s vision of a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society, the country programme is aimed at contributing to sustainable socioeconomic development that provides all children, including adolescents, with opportunities to fulfil their potential, lead a healthy life, access quality learning and protection and meaningfully participate in society.

For more information about UNICEF Zimbabwe please click here

You can also access and explore all new UNICEF vacancies and create job alerts via the UNICEF Zimbabwe website link below:

https://www.unicef.org/zimbabwe/work-us

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF Zimbabwe is inviting applications for a National Consultant to support Data Visualization.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

UNICEF Zimbabwe Country Office is looking to engage a Data Visualization Consultant with a strong human-rights-based, equity-focused lens and attention to cross-cutting themes (gender, disability, climate resilience, etc.).

UNICEF seeks a Data Visualization Consultant to develop a Power BI dashboard that:

Maps vulnerabilities across Health, Nutrition, Adolescent Development, WASH, Education, Child Protection, and Social Protection.
Highlights areas of severe or overlapping vulnerabilities, enabling joint, multi-sectoral prioritization of interventions.
Supports evidence-based decision-making on where UNICEF interventions should be scaled up, reduced, or converged, based on data-driven insights.
Guide Strategic decisions on UNICEF operational areas across Zimbabwe.

This assignment will strengthen results-based management and integrated program design by transforming raw data into clear, actionable visualizations at province and district levels. The dashboard will incorporate cross-cutting themes (gender, education, health, disability, wash, climate resilience) and ensure accessibility for stakeholders, supporting UNICEF’s commitment to advancing children’s rights through data-driven strategies. . The consultant will play a key role in building a robust, maintainable Power BI dashboard that translates evidence into clear actionable, province-level and district-level insights on child deprivations/inequities across the programme areas, transforming data into visually appealing and easy-to-understand formats, aiding in evidence-based decision-making and communication strategies.

The dashboard will leverage innovative digital approaches to ensure data accessibility for relevant stakeholders, helping UNICEF monitor results, understand the environment enabling children’s rights, and inform strategic programmatic decisions.

BACKGROUND

UNICEF believes that problems that go unmeasured often go unsolved. Consistent, credible, and timely data on children’s situations are essential for improving their lives and realizing every child’s rights.

The UNICEF Zimbabwe Country Office currently uses real-time, mobile-based, and other data-collection tools to monitor the reach and effectiveness of UNICEF-supported interventions, including emergency responses. However, raw data alone is insufficient; it must be packaged, visualized, and presented in timely, accessible formats to inform evidence-based decisions.

To enhance the quality, accessibility, and timeliness of data, there is a need for interactive and visual dashboards that consolidate key indicators, trends, and geospatial insights. These dashboards will support multi-sectoral coordination, program convergence, and informed decision-making. The consultant will work closely with UNICEF’s ICT/T4D and Programme Planning and Monitoring teams to ensure alignment with data standards, analytical requirements, and usability principles.

OBJECTIVE OF ASSIGNMENTS

Under the supervision of PPM Chief (for all programmatic aspects) and ICT/T4D (Technical), the Consultant is expected to:

Design, develop, and deploy interactive dashboards that support evidence-based decision-making, leveraging data from multiple sources, and ensuring integration with existing systems and workflows.
Enable overlap analysis (co-occurrence of high vulnerabilities across sectors) to inform joint interventions and resource allocation.
Map UNICEF interventions to guide decisions on scaling up, reducing, or converging programs.
Embed equity disaggregation (e.g., sex, location, disability where available) and support drill-downs to districts levels where data allow.
Produce a complete data model, indicator dictionary, and user guide to ensure sustainability and proper handover to UNICEF ZCO.

Scope of Work

The consultant/role holder will be responsible for the following tasks:

Data Assessment and Planning Needs

Translating raw data into compelling narrative (i.e. dashboards).
Conduct consultations with ICT/T4D and PPM teams to understand dashboard requirements.
Together with Programme Planning & Monitoring (PPM), identify key indicators, data sources, data updating protocol, and visualization needs.
Develop a dashboard development plan including timelines, tools, and data integration strategies.

Dashboard Design and Development

Produce digital mapping for ZCO highlighting our operational areas in Zimbabwe.
Provide real-time visibility into KPIs and trends for evidence-based decision making.
Design user-friendly and visually engaging dashboards including a set standard page to track interventions and administrative indicators.
Develop a convergence dashboard that visually shows interventions and results for every program in UNICEF including the crosscutting thematic areas. Results presentation will be by district up to the lowest entity e.g, facility, school, ward, village etc.
Integrate data in a star schema in Power BI from internal databases and platforms, information systems developed internally by UNICEF or in collaboration with/in support of institutional partners, surveys, and geospatial platforms.
Identify/set up necessary connections (API, web hooks, etc.) for data retrieval and sync.
Ensure usability and user-friendliness by adopting intuitive KPI tiles, traffic-light thresholds, narrative annotations, etc.
Setup a user-friendly protocol for updating the data sources, by respective UNICEF Programme Officer for usability and sustainability of the final product.
Ensure dashboards are responsive, accessible, and optimized for various devices.

Data Management and Integration

Work with PPM to validate data quality, consistency, and relevance.
Implement automated data refresh mechanisms where applicable.

Testing and Validation

Conduct usability testing with stakeholders to ensure dashboards meet analytical and operational needs.
Refine dashboards based on feedback and ensure alignment with ZCO requirements.

Documentation, Training, and Handover

Prepare user Guide for the dashboards.
Run training sessions for users in the agreed number of cohorts (Section Chiefs and Programme Officers) – To be determined with Chief PPM.

Expected Deliverables

Fully functional interactive dashboards that map UNICEF interventions across Zimbabwe.
Dashboard development plan and requirements document.
User guide and final report summarizing activities, challenges, and recommendations.

Major tasks and deliverables:

Tasks/Milestone:	Deliverables/Outputs (ref. “Scope of Work” Section of these TORs):	Timeline, % invoice
Inception & storyboard; data access; requirements gathering	Dashboard development plan & Requirements document (including timelines, tools and integration strategies)	Week 1-3, 25%
Data assessment and integration set up	Data Integration framework ready for dashboard development Dashboard Design and Development	Week 4-8, 30%
Dashboard design and Prototype v1&2 with geospatial and overlaps; documentation drafts	Prototype dashboards for review	Week 9-11, 25%
Testing Validation & Refinement Documentation & Training	User acceptance tests Dashboards refinements [iterative] Functional Dashboards	Week 12-14, 10 %
Final Handover and Reporting	Final products and documentation Training completed (User guide and training session) Final report + Signed off dashboards		Week 15-16, 10%

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

Advanced degree in public health, health policy, health economics, international relations, diplomatic studies, computer science, health systems strengthening or a related field.

Experience:

Previous experience working on Health and Nutrition dashboards and emergency response dashboards a plus.
Knowledge of data management, analytics and visualization tools including Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, and other similar tools.
At least 2 years of substantive experience in data visualization (preferably using Microsoft Power BI), in data management (such as Tableau and similar tools), data analysis (SPSS, SAS), and/or and relevant media arts and sciences.
Demonstrated ability to manage and analyze complex information and/or large data sets and translate them for use in interactive data visualizations for the web and other media.
Ability to collaborate with multiple diverse groups across team.
Ability to work on multiple projects at one time.
Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills - strong oral, written communication, and presentations skills as evidenced by publications or cover letter; and
A strong commitment to delivering timely and high-quality results.
Proficient in MS Word, MS Excel and other statistical packages

Desirable

Working within the UN system in particular UNICEF is an added advantage

The detailed consultancy terms of reference is downloadable via this link TOR - Data Visual Consultant.pdf

If interested and available to undertake the individual consultancy, please submit your application online and attach the required documents including the technical proposal and an all-inclusive financial proposal incorporating an approximate number of travel days for field (local) travel.

Technical proposal: The Technical Proposal should articulate an understanding of the TOR and include the proposed Tasks/Milestones, Deliverables/Outputs, Timeline and level of effort by deliverable. The similar table provided in the TOR is indicative. Applicants may use the indicative table as a guide or deviate as per the proposed approach. The proposal should also cost-effectively propose the local travel proposed by the applicant to undertake the assignment.

Financial proposal: The Financial Proposal should include the costs (providing a daily rate as justification) for each task, including consultant fee, proposed travel costs and perdiem, communications costs and any other proposed cost.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

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