Social Policy Officers, (NO-2) at UNICEF

The Social Policy Officer is based in the Country Office and reports to the Chief of Field Office (CFO); and provides technical and operational support in all stages of social policy programming by administering, implementing, monitoring, and reporting of social policy initiatives and activities particularly supporting programme implementation, capacity building, documentation and strengthening evidence based social policy dialogues focusing on social policy especially at the county level.

Improving data on child poverty & vulnerability for increased use for policy and programme action

• Support the collection, analysis and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, including strengthening national capacity to collect routinely, report and use data for policy decision-making.
• Provide timely, regular data-driven analysis for effective prioritization, planning, and development; facilitates results-based management for planning, adjusting, and scaling-up specific social policy initiatives to reduce child poverty.
• Contribute to analysis of the macroeconomic context and its impact on social development, emerging issues and social policy concerns, as well as implications for children, and proposes and promotes appropriate responses in respect of such issues and concerns, including government resource allocation policies and the effect of social welfare policies on the rights of children.

Strengthening social protection coverage and impact for children

• Support the development of social protection policies, legislation and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention the most marginalized. Identifies, generates and presents evidence to support this goal in collaboration with partners.
• Support strengthening of integrated social protection systems, providing technical support to partners to improve the design of cash transfers and child grants and improve linkages with other social protection interventions such as health insurance, public works and social care services as well as complementary services and intervention related to nutrition, health, education, water and sanitation, child protection and HIV.
• Support improved monitoring and research around social protection impact on child outcomes and use of data and research findings for strengthening programme results.

Partnership, capacity building and coordination

• Build and sustain capacity of partners for improved monitoring and tracking of public expenditure to support transparency, accountability and effective financial flows for essential service delivery, including through support to district level planning, budgeting and public financial management as well as facilitating community participation.
• Conduct regular programme field visits for technical support and surveys, and exchange information with partners and stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support. Take appropriate action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results.
• Support National and Local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation and accountability processes so that decisions and child-focused service delivery more closely respond to the needs of local communities.
• Supports National and Local authorities to strengthen capacity on quality data collection, analysis for policy development, planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring of essential social services, with emphasis on community participation and accountability.
• Participate in capacity development activities involving knowledge sharing, the organization of training workshops, seminars and meetings as well as the development of related materials and online tools and information kits;

Strengthened advocacy and partnerships for child-sensitive social policy

• Support correct and compelling use of data and evidence on the situation of children and coverage and impact of child focused services – in support of the social policy programme and the country programme overall.
• Participate in establishment and enhancement of effective partnerships with National and County Government, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, civil society and local leaders, the private sector, and other UN agencies to support sustained and proactive commitment to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and to achieve global UN agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Identify other critical partners, promotes awareness and builds capacity of partners, and actively facilitates effective collaboration within the UN family.

UNICEF Programme Management

• Contribute to and coordinate technical support around child poverty, social protection, public finance and governance ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion so as to adequately support scale-up and delivery.
• Ensure risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.
• Support and contributes to effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the country programme.
• Ensure that the social policy project enhances policy dialogue, planning, supervision, technical advice, management, training, research and support; and that the monitoring and evaluation component strengthens monitoring and evaluation of the social sectors and provides support to sectoral and decentralized information systems.
• Ensure effective implementation of monitoring plans by consultants and development partners.
• Prepare quality programme reports and briefing notes to ensure regular internal and external updates on programme status and progress.
• Ensure timely submission of progress and results for inputting into donor reports, and for planning, management, monitoring and evaluation purposes as needed.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field. A Master's degree is considered an added advantage.
• A minimum of two years of relevant professional experience in social policy areas is required.
• Developing country work experience and familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Closing: 8 July 2022