Knowledge Management Associate, Sarajevo

General

Description of assignment title

Knowledge Management Associate

Assignment country

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Duty stations

Sarajevo

Work location

On UN premises

Expected start date

02/01/2027

Duration

12 months

Sustainable Development Goal

10. Reduced inequalities

Host entity

UNICEF

Modality

Onsite

Type

International

Volunteer category

Associate UCoS from Apr2026

Work schedule

Full-time

Number of Assignments

1

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs, and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. Guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to deliver life-saving support, promote education, health, protection, and inclusion, and build a world where every child can thrive.

UNICEF in Bosnia and Herzegovina works to ensure that every child can grow up safe, healthy, and empowered to reach their full potential. The Country Office supports government institutions, civil society, and other partners in advancing children's rights and improving access to quality services, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized children, including Roma children, children with disabilities, girls and children living in rural areas. UNICEF focuses on key areas such as health, quality and inclusive education, child protection, and social protection.

Context

Every year, UNICEF in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its partners produce and gather a wealth of knowledge: evaluations, research and studies, data and statistics, field insights and lessons from programmes in health, education, child protection and social protection. Used well, this knowledge is one of the office's most powerful assets. It tells us what works, for whom, where and why, and helps us design better programmes, adapt them during implementation, and measure what really changes for children.

The Country Office is turning this knowledge into a living system: an Evidence Hub that is easy to search, connected across sectors, and analyzed to shape programme design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. A particular focus is on the children most at risk of being left behind, such as Roma children, children with disabilities, girls and children in rural areas, who are often the least visible in existing evidence and data.

The assignment is fully funded by the Czech Republic and builds on shared priorities under the Czech Development Cooperation Programme with Bosnia and Herzegovina 2024–2030, including the inclusion of marginalized groups and persons with disabilities, gender equality, digital transformation and the country's EU integration. The UN Volunteer will help connect UNICEF's knowledge work with these priorities and with Czech partners in the country.

The UN Volunteer will join the Child Rights Monitoring and Evaluation team alongside two other UN Volunteers, with structured mentoring and a reporting line to the Child Rights Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. It is a hands-on opportunity to learn how a UNICEF office generates and uses evidence, and to build skills in data analysis, digital knowledge tools and evaluation.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Child Rights Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, the Knowledge Management Associate will undertake the following tasks:

Building the office’s knowledge system

• Supports the development and curation of the office’s SharePoint evidence repository, making UNICEF’s evaluation findings, research, studies, data and programme documentation easy to access and connected across sectors. Documents are tagged by theme, location and population group, including Roma children, children with disabilities, girls and children in rural areas.
• Contributes to mapping knowledge produced by institutions, United Nations agencies, academia and civil society, keeping an up-to-date picture of what is known about children in Bosnia and Herzegovina and where the gaps are, particularly for the most vulnerable groups.

Turning knowledge into insights for better programming

• Assists in analyzing the office’s knowledge base to inform programme design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation, for example by synthesizing findings and recommendations across evaluations and studies, keeping an overview of evaluation recommendations and follow-up actions, and identifying recurring lessons and challenges.
• Contributes to analysis focused on the children most often left behind, such as reviewing what evidence exists and whether data are broken down by sex, disability, ethnicity or location, to help teams target interventions, select meaningful indicators and see where new evidence is needed.
• Assists in preparing short, engaging knowledge products, such as evidence snapshots, “what we know” briefs and data visualizations, for programme planning, mid-year and annual reviews, advocacy and donor reporting and external audiences.

Voices, innovation and partnerships

• Supports, together with programme colleagues, efforts to bring the voices of children, young people and communities into knowledge products, including by synthesizing feedback from U-Report polls, youth consultations and partner organizations, including Roma and disability organizations, in line with UNICEF ethical standards for evidence generation.
• Contributes to making selected external products accessible to the communities and external audiences they concern, such as plain-language, easy-to-read or child-friendly summaries, prepared with UNICEF colleagues and partners.
• Explores, with guidance, innovative knowledge management and analytics solutions, such as AI-assisted search and summarization in line with UNICEF guidance, simple dashboards (e.g., Power BI) and smarter ways of tagging and connecting evidence and helps pilot those that add value.
• Contributes to cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic and Czech development partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by contributing to updates around common areas of interest (e.g., disability inclusion, Roma inclusion, maternal and child health) that could inform UNICEF’s work.
• Assists in organizing knowledge cafés, brown-bag sessions and other learning moments that bring colleagues together around evidence and strengthen its use in programming.

During the first month of the assignment, the UN Volunteer will work closely with his/her direct supervisor to finalize an agreed-upon work plan. The work plan should outline key objectives and activities and include regular check ins with the supervisor to review progress and receive performance feedback.

Eligibility criteria

Age

18 - 80

Required experience

1 month

Donor priorities

Nationality

Candidate must be a national of a country other than the country of assignment.

Additional eligibility criteria

This assignment is funded by the Government of the Czech Republic and therefore specific criteria apply:

• Only nationals of the Czech Republic can be considered.
• Candidates who already served on a UN Volunteer assignment funded by the Government of the Czech Republic are not eligible.

APPLICATION

• You may apply to a maximum of three assignments and indicate the order of preference in the ‘Additional remarks’ field when filling in the application form.

SELECTION

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. The selection will be done by the UN Host Entity at the level of the country of assignment.

Assignment requirements

Relevant experience

No experience required

Languages

• English, Level: Fluent, Required
• Bosnian, Level: Basic, Desirable
• Croatian, Level: Basic, Desirable
• Serbian, Level: Basic, Desirable

Required education level

Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences, Public Policy, International Development, Information and Knowledge Management, Data Science, Statistics, Economics, Human Rights, or a related field. Coursework or research on social inclusion, child rights, or monitoring and evaluation would be an asset.

Competencies and values

• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Building Trust
• Commitment and Motivation
• Commitment to Continuous Learning
• Creativity
• Ethics and Values
• Knowledge Sharing
• Planning and Organizing
• Professionalism
• Respect for Diversity
• Technological Awareness
• Working in Teams

Skills and experience

Demonstrated interest and/or experience in:

• Knowledge management, research, data analysis, or monitoring and evaluation;
• Using knowledge and evidence to support programming, advocacy or policy process-es, ideally with a focus on social inclusion or child rights;
• Contributing to knowledge products and/or communication materials based on data, research and evaluations;
• Supporting collaborative learning or knowledge sharing with public institutions, academia or civil society;
• Working with or for marginalized communities (e.g., Roma, persons with disabilities) would be an asset;
• Previous experience as a volunteer and/or experience of another culture, (i.e. studies, volunteer work, internship) would be highly regarded.

Skills in:

• Excellent written communication in English, with the ability to draft clear, engaging and user-friendly content for different audiences
• Curiosity and an analytical mindset, with the ability to extract key insights, patterns, lessons and programmatic implications from diverse documents, data and sources of evidence
• Synthesis: distilling large volumes of information into concise summaries, briefs and key messages
• Organization and digital tools: structuring and maintaining digital knowledge systems (e.g., SharePoint, repositories, knowledge libraries), with an interest in new digital and AI tools
• Inclusive communication and respect for diversity, presenting information in accessible formats, including for children and communities
• Assets: basic data analysis and visualization (e.g., Excel, Power BI); familiarity with monitoring and evaluation or results-based planning; familiarity with development co-operation or European Union accession processes

Area(s) of expertise

Communication, advocacy, public information, Community development

Driving license

Other information

Volunteerism is understood as a wide range of activities undertaken of free will, for the general public good, for which monetary reward is not the principal motivating factor.

Living conditions and remarks

Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its largest urban centre, with an estimated population of around 370,000. The city lies along the Miljacka river, surrounded by the Dinaric Alps, and is known for its long tradition of religious and cultural diversity. It has a continental climate with warm summers and cold, often snowy winters, so warm winter clothing is needed. There are no administrative restrictions on international personnel travelling within or from the country.

Regular medical facilities are available, including two main hospitals and a number of private clinics. Banking services (credit cards, ATMs), domestic and international communications, and food, furnishings and other necessities are readily available. Public transport (tram, bus, trolleybus, taxi) is available, and the international airport is a 20-minute drive from the UN building. Public water supply, electricity and sewerage systems are in place.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is at United Nations Security Level 1 (minimal), the lowest level in the Security Level System, across the whole country including Sarajevo. The situation is generally calm; as elsewhere in Europe, personnel should take normal precautions against petty crime and traffic accidents. Some areas remain affected by landmines, so personnel are advised not to deviate from well-travelled routes and paths.

The Conditions of Service, available here: https://explore.unv.org/cos, outline the policies and rules governing UN Volunteer assignments. Full information on entitlements at the duty station can be accessed here: https://app.unv.org/calculator.

Inclusivity statement

United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Reasonable accommodation

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for UN Volunteers 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 recruitment process and afterwards in your assignment.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements

In addition to duty station-specific vaccine requirements, appointments 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 appointment. It does not apply to UN Volunteers 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 contracts.

Scam warning

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