Careers at UNICEF

How can you make a difference?

As Health Specialist (Adolescent Health), you will provide strategic leadership, technical expertise, and programmatic guidance to advance adolescent health and well-being as a core component of UNICEF's global health agenda. Working closely with governments, development partners, UNICEF Regional Offices and Country Offices, you will support the design, implementation, monitoring and scale-up of evidence-based programmes that strengthen adolescent-responsive health systems and services. 

You will contribute to the development of global frameworks, technical guidance, quality standards and programmatic tools, while promoting integrated and multisectoral approaches across adolescent health priorities, including sexual and reproductive health, mental health and psychosocial well-being, substance use prevention, and the prevention and management of communicable and non-communicable diseases

Join UNICEF's Global Programme Division and help shape the global agenda for adolescent health and well-being. As a Health Specialist (Adolescent Health), you will provide strategic leadership, technical expertise and programmatic guidance to strengthen adolescent-responsive health systems and services across countries. Working with governments, development partners, UNICEF Regional and Country Offices, you will support the development, implementation and scale-up of evidence-based programmes that advance equitable and sustainable outcomes for adolescents. 

Key areas of responsibility include:

• Capacity Development & Institutional Strengthening
• Quality Improvement at Scale
• Policy Reform & Systems Transformation
• Evidence, Data & Knowledge for Action
• Equitable Access
• Programme Management & Results Monitoring
• Strategic Partnerships, Resource Mobilization and Grant Management
• Global Advocacy, Knowledge Leadership and Cross-Sectoral Collaboration

Through this role, you will help strengthen national policies and service delivery platforms, support global guidance and quality standards, foster innovation and learning across countries, and contribute to UNICEF's leadership in advancing adolescent health and well-being worldwide.

Minimum requirements:

• Education: An advanced university degree in public health, global health, adolescent health, health systems and services, epidemiology, health policy and management, medicine
• Work Experience: A minimum of eight (8) years of progressively responsible professional experience in adolescent health, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (MNCAH), health systems strengthening, primary health care, public health, or related fields is required.
• Skills:
  • strategic thinking
  • ability to develop and operationalize frameworks and guidance
  • strong partnership-building and coordination skills across sectors and institutions
  • communication skills for advocacy, technical writing, and presentation
• Language Requirements: Knowledge of English language at a Proficient level is required.

Desirables:

• Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language.
• Demonstrated experience in the design, implementation, management and monitoring of adolescent health programmes, including one or more of the following areas:
  • Sexual and reproductive health,
  • mental health and psychosocial support,
  • school health,
  • communicable/non-communicable diseases,
  • substance use prevention.
• Proven experience providing technical and strategic support to governments, UN agencies, development partners and country programmes, including policy development, programme planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and knowledge generation.
• Demonstrated experience supporting health systems strengthening and service delivery across primary health care, school, community and digital platforms.
• Demonstrated experience managing multi-country grants, programme budgets and donor-funded initiatives, including strategic planning, resource allocation, financial oversight, performance monitoring, donor reporting and partnership management.
• Experience supervising professional staff, consultants and/or multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience supporting programmes in low- and middle-income countries, including humanitarian and fragile settings.

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How can you make a difference? 

UNICEF’s work relies on putting children, young people, their families and communities at the center of its actions. UNICEF promotes evidence-based, people-centered and locally owned development and humanitarian initiatives. This is especially important in settings affected by climate shocks, environmental degradation and persistent gender inequalities, which shape behaviours, access to services and community resilience.  Through its Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) programming, UNICEF helps ensure that programmes and services are more responsive, inclusive and sustainable. This approach also makes public action more inclusive and strengthens relationships between communities, public authorities, and service providers. By building trust, it supports greater uptake of current programmes and services while also helping systems become more resilient to future shocks, including climate-related disasters, environmental crises and public health emergencies. It also strengthens social capital and collective efficacy, reinforcing community cohesion, and people’s ability to adapt and respond together.

In the education sector, SBC helps promote access and retention to school, gender transformative education; ending violence in schools; community participation; parenting practices; supporting learning outcomes and skills acquisition; inclusive education, social accountability and workforce motivation. SBC also supports education policy development and implementation by linking national regulations with community realities, informing implementation and driving systemic shifts.

This assignment aims to produce an SBC in Education Investment Case and a Compendium of best practices using  Social and Behavioral Change in Education to inform programme design, fundraising, and advocacy opportunities. Both documents will be developed using a desk review based on academic and grey literature including GPE and ECW reports, and key stakeholders’ interviews in UNICEF Country Offices and COE

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

Minimum requirements:

• Masters: Social and Behavioral Science, Education, Communication, Journalism

Work Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in research and editing

Language Requirements:

• English and French

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills:

• Knowledge of Social and Behavioral Change techniques based on UNICEF’s SBC Programme Guide (https://www.sbcguidance.org);
• Extensive experience in editing based on UNICEF’s Editorial (writing, editing, terminology and style);
• Analytical, technical, and organizational competencies to conduct a desk review

Desirables:

• Knowledge of Portuguese