Strategic Political and Socio-Economic Analyst, P-4, ESARO Kenya (Eastern & Southern Africa Regional Office), Temporary Appointment at UNICEF

Regional Political and Contextual Analysis

• Monitor and analyze political, governance, legislative, and socioeconomic developments across countries in the region, including tracking shifts in political leadership, governance frameworks, legislative agendas, public policy debates, and broader socioeconomic dynamics that may influence the operating environment for UNICEF. This includes maintaining situational awareness across multiple country contexts and identifying cross border or regional trends of relevance to UNICEF’s work.
• Assess the implications of regional and country level political trends, elections, policy reforms, and governance shifts for UNICEF’s mandate, programmes, partnerships, and operations, translating complex political developments into clear analysis of potential impacts on programme delivery and organizational positioning. This includes advising on both risks and opportunities arising from changes in the political and policy landscape.
• Produce high-quality regional political briefs and scenario analyses for the Office of the Regional Director, synthesizing country level and regional insights into concise, decision-ready products.

Strategic Advisory Support

• Provide evidence based political advice on emerging risks and opportunities, including anticipating political shifts, advising strategic positioning and engagement options, and proposing risk mitigation or opportunity leveraging measures to support informed decision-making at regional and country levels.
• Support the Office of the Regional Director in preparing for high level engagements with key stakeholders, including by synthesizing political and contextual analysis, and preparing concise, decision ready briefing notes, talking points, and background materials for meetings with governments, UN system leadership, development partners, and other strategic counterparts. This includes coordinating inputs across relevant sections, COE and global divisions as necessary to ensure coherence of messaging, clarity of strategic objectives, and alignment with UNICEF’s regional priorities and positioning.
• Flag emerging political risks affecting programme delivery and UNICEF’s reputation, and propose mitigation measures, This entails assessing the likelihood and potential impact of such programmatic risks for Country Offices and recommending practical mitigation and engagement strategies.
• Support engagement with the Regional Coordination Platform (RCP) by contributing political analysis and strategic insights to inform the development, alignment, and implementation of coherent regional positions. This includes ensuring that political considerations, risks, and opportunities are reflected in RCP discussions, and supporting coordination.
• Provide strategic analysis and advice on UN reform processes, including UN80, by assessing implications for UNICEF’s mandate, positioning, and operating model at regional and country levels. This includes supporting leadership in navigating reform-related shifts, identifying risks and opportunities, and ensuring UNICEF is proactively positioned in inter-agency discussions and evolving UN system architectures.

Stakeholder Mapping and Regional Engagement

• Conduct regional stakeholder mapping and political economy analyses, identifying key political influences/policy makers, regional, multilateral and emerging actors, their interests, influence, power dynamics, and relationships. This includes analyzing how stakeholder positions and incentives shape policy decisions, governance outcomes, and the operating space for UNICEF across countries in the region.
• Support regional engagement strategies with governments, regional bodies, UN entities, development partners, and diplomatic missions, as appropriate, by providing politically informed analysis to guide positioning, sequencing engagements, and messaging. This includes advising entry points for dialogue, potential sensitivities, and opportunities to advance UNICEF’s priorities and partnerships at regional and country levels.

Coordination Support to the Deputy Regional Director

• Develop Briefing Notes, prepare material, strategic papers, though pieces   for the ORD’s high-level engagements (e.g UN system coordination, regional management team, government and partner meetings), ensuring materials are politically informed, coherent, and decision ready.
• Draft and quality assure talking points, briefing notes, and strategic correspondence, ensuring clarity, factual accuracy, and alignment with UNICEF’s positioning
• Serve as a focal point for rapid synthesis of inputs across sections, including gathering and integrating analysis from relevant leads to support timely decision making and senior engagements.
• Serve as a coordination focal point for follow-up on agreed actions and decisions arising from meetings and engagements, liaising with relevant internal stakeholders to support timely implementation and information flow.
• Support coherence between political analysis, programme priorities, and management considerations by ensuring that relevant risks, sensitivities, and contextual insights are reflected in materials prepared for the ORD.
• Support preparation for official missions and priority meetings by coordinating with relevant internal stakeholders to ensure the ORD has complete background information, risk sensitivities, and key asks.
• Provide liaison support, as requested, with internal and external counterparts (e.g., other UN entities and senior offices), ensuring politically consistent messaging and follow through on agreed actions.

Knowledge Management and Information Sharing

• Maintain regional political analysis tools, trackers, and knowledge products, including developing and updating repositories, dashboards, and analytical frameworks that consolidate country level and regional political insights. This ensures consistency, comparability, and ease of access to political analysis across the Regional Office and Country Offices.
• Ensure timely dissemination of key political insights and political economy to relevant regional and country level stakeholders, including the ORD, Regional Management Team, Deputy Representatives, Regional Advisers, and selected Country Office leadership, through regular briefs, updates, and targeted analytical notes that support decision making, planning, and risk management.
• Capture lessons learned and contributed to institutional knowledge on regional political economy analysis, including documenting good practices, emerging patterns, and contextual insights from across the region, and integrating these into regional guidance, planning processes, and knowledge sharing platforms.

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

Education:

•  Advanced university degree in Political Science, International Relations, Public Policy, Development Studies, Law, or a related field.
• A university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Work Experience:

• Minimum eight (8) years of progressively responsible experience in political analysis, governance, policy advisory, international development, or a closely related field.
• Experience providing substantive, strategic, and confidential advisory support to senior level officials, including the preparation of policy briefs, analytical reports, briefing notes, and high-level correspondence on sensitive and politically complex issues, to inform management decision making and external engagement.
• Proven experience in providing high level coordination support, including managing and synchronizing inputs across multiple sections and offices; overseeing workflow systems, monitoring tools, and tracking mechanisms; and ensuring timely follow up and implementation of priority actions and senior management decisions in complex, multistakeholder environments.
• Experience in data analytics to support evidence-based analysis, risk assessment, and decision making is desirable.
• Experience working with or within the UN system or a comparable international organization is an advantage.

Language Proficiency [ III ]

• Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of French and Portuguese is an asset.