Social Protection and Public Finance for Children Specialist at UNICEF

How can you make a difference?

Under the direct supervision of the Social Protection Specialist, with the co-supervision of the Social Policy and Economics Specialist, The selected candidate will deliver 50% on social protection and 50% on public finance management. S/he will work within the Social Policy section and in cooperation with section colleagues. S/he will interact with a variety of stakeholders, including other sections within UNICEF, national and county government representatives, implementing partners, development partners including UN agencies, World Bank, donors, firms and consultants supporting the section’s work. The selected candidate will:

• Provide Technical Assistance and Strategic Coordination of NICHE with Governments at the national and county levels”
• Act as Programme Manager for the cross-sectoral work of the NICHE Programme and ensure internal UNICEF coordination
• Support in the implementation of a sustainability strategy for NICHE and linking to broader discussions on the scale-up of social assistance for children, including universal child benefit pilot and county-level maternal and child grants.
• Support the evaluation and assessment of NICHE
• Designing of the UNICEF Kenya office-wide Early Child Development (ECD) Financing Programme with the Government being central to the investment and the programme to be anchored in the National Treasury Budget Department. Ensuring the ECD Financing Programme speaks to human capital development and the demographic dividend returns for Kenya and promoting collaboration with World Bank.
• Work closely with the Social Policy and Health teams to design e a programme on financing for health, including the influencing towards the adoption and upscale of the Health Facilities Improvement Fund at the county level and a national policy/legislation to guide the same. The Financing for Health will closely be linked to the ECD Financing in ii above.
• Support in the linkages for financing for social protection especially creating the working coordination mechanisms between the Ministry for Social Protection, National Treasury and Planning, other line ministries and county governments.
• Support in influencing intergovernmental policies and budgeting impacting national and county governments, especially in the social protection and health sectors.
• Support to internal and external coordination on social protection, including Secretariat assistance to the Sector Group on Social Protection which is chaired by UNICEF and FCDO from the development partners side and linking discussions with work in the PF4C pillar.
• Support in Social Protection programming with a particular focus on support to the NICHE programme including its various components such as on-demand registration, evaluation and simplification, and sustainability strategy which includes integration and consolidation with other social assistance initiatives for children during their early years.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Economics, Public Policy, Planning, Statistics, or related fields from a recognized university. 
• A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in the design, implementation and monitoring of Social Protection programmes, ideally in Kenya, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
• At least 2 years experience in Public Finance aspects relating to social protection in Kenya
• Proven experience in coordinating social protection and/or public finance platforms.
• Proven experience in the management of projects with cross-sector teams.
• Experience in ECD and health financing.
• Excellent data analysis and presentation skills.
• Excellent research and writing skills.
• Knowledge of UNICEF programme areas and experience with UNICEF is a major 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.

Other skills

• Must be reliable, creative, and able to work with little supervision.
• Must be able to work effectively under tight deadlines.
• Demonstrable ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships both within and outside the organization.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergencies is considered an asset.