National Consultancy on Business Operations Strategy

United Nations Children's Fund

Tehran, Iran

Experience: 3 to 5 Years

Skill Required: Accounts and Finance

A core element of implementation of the UN General Assembly resolutions in relation to the repositioned UN development system is the Secretary-General’s efficiency agenda. The agenda aims to achieve improvements in the coherence, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the UN development system with a focus on both the Headquarters and country level. On this basis, the Business Operation Strategy (BOS) as one of the strategic elements is a joint, common approach for a select range of operational support services to harmonize and/or provide jointly services as a group of agencies, rather than providing these services as individual agencies to improve programme and business operations at country level.
The BOS facilitates strategic planning, management, and monitoring by eliminating duplicate processes in business operations, utilizing UN joint purchasing opportunities, and enhancing the quality of services to achieve effectively as well as sustainable results through the following six possible joint service lines:

  • common procurement services;
  • common information and communication technology (ICT) services;
  • common human resources (HR) services;
  • common logistics services;
  • common finance services, and;
  • common facility services including common premises as an important component of the UN

Reform Programme to build closer ties among United Nations staff and promote a more unified presence at the country level in a cost-effective manner.
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United Nations is represented by 20 resident and non-resident entities that carry out their respective activities. The UN Country Team (UNCT) is made up of representatives of the agencies, funds and specialized programmes. As the head of the country team (UNCT), the UN Resident Coordinator (RC) guides and supports the work of the UNCT, ensuring effective coordination and cooperation within the mandates of each UN entity.
The UN Resident Coordinator's Office (RCO) is the main support structure for the activities of the RC and the UNCT, to help strengthen the joint activities of the United Nations system in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its mission is to maximize, in a coordinated manner, the work of the United Nations to ensure that the system provides a collective, coherent and integrated assistance to national priorities and needs, within the framework of the Global Goals and other international commitments.
Against this backdrop, the Operations Management Team provides leadership on the implementation of a coordinated, efficient, and effective common operational support agenda at the country level. As an accountable entity to the UNCT, the OMT is responsible for identification, assessment, prioritization and planning for common operations in support of programme delivery. Since 2020, the OMT worked to develop the Business Operations Strategy 2.0, which the UNCT endorsed annually.
This position will support the RCO and the OMT in implementing the critical work areas.
Under the leadership of the OMT, the Business Operations Strategy (BOS). BOS is a mandatory framework that focuses on joint business operations with the purpose of business process harmonization for improved delivery efficiency and reduced transaction cost. It allows UNCTs to take a strategic and results-oriented approach to planning, management and implementation of harmonized business operations at a country level aligning operational activities to programme activities as outlined within the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).
Scope Of Work:

The key objectives for this consultancy are:

  • In collaboration with the working groups assess the plan and provide reports at the beginning of BOS planning process
  • Delivering analysis of BOS service solutions as part of reporting on implementation and Quality Assurance on a quarterly basis
  • Identify bottlenecks in implementation (if any), provide recommended actions to resolve these bottlenecks, and do an analysis on which services are better and why they’re doing better and recommend the way forward to capitalize on these services/expand this success to other services
  • Annual Review and preparations for report for Quarter 1 2024 for OMT/UNCT review, discussion, and endorsement.

Terms of Payment/Remuneration:

  • The payment will be made to the consultant based on the actual deliverables as per the objectives to be achieved.
  • Financial submission to indicate how much to be paid for each deliverable as payment will be upon completion of deliverable or can be paid 100% at the end of the contract

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

  • A master’s degree with 5 years' work experience in Operations, finance, Human Resources, Procurement.
  • (A bachelor’s degree with 8 years of experience in lieu of advanced university degree. This can be combined with other relevant academic qualifications and experience).
  • Minimum 5 years of experience in the implementation of BOS. Training in BOS

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/562945