Job Opportunities at UNICEF

How can you make a difference?

• Currently across Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) young people are facing unprecedented times around learning and employment, with the rapidly changing nature of technologies, migration, labour markets, the environment, political contexts and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Key stakeholders are increasingly exploring new ways to support young people with learning, engaging, connecting, and working. Viable, scalable and evidence-based solutions and innovations are required to reduce the impact of extended interruptions and on-going challenges to education and livelihoods faced by young people. Within the over-arching framework of ESA’s regional priorities and education flagship programme, there is an important and growing need to strengthen results and investments in opportunities for and with all young people, contributing to learning, skilling and school- to-work transitions.
• Under the overall guidance and direction of the Regional Education Specialist, Adolescent Skills & Employability, the main purpose of this role is to provide coordination and backstopping for robust operational research, thought leadership and knowledge management to accelerate this new and growing agenda in the region. This role will enhance guidance and evidence-based programming to country teams and HQ/Regional Office counterparts and respond to interests and investments of partners.
• The Programme Officer will support the multiple demands and requests for programming information and support within the Skills & Employability portfolio by developing and maintaining robust knowledge management and rolling-out operational research of relevant areas of work om the region. He/She will provide coordination/administrative support, quality assurance and knowledge generation/management and technical assistance to strengthen and expand the Skills & Employability agenda across ESAR.

The successful individual will be responsible for the following key accountabilities:

Coordination of large-scale operational research on skills & employability in the region

• Oversee all related administrative, roll-out and reporting processes for the operational research (including for the ADA and PROSPECTS research initiatives).
• Ensure high quality research inputs from partners and compilations of inputs for various required reports to donors and within UNICEF, as required.
• Manage the day-to-day research contracts and activities, with partners (including academia and service providers) and within UNICEF.
• Facilitate the upcoming dialogues and events for thought-leadership and ‘South-South Learnings,’ including promotion of research findings, evidence and products to a wide-range of stakeholders. 
• Stay up-to-date on relevant research topics (e.g. the ‘circular economy,’ green skilling and jobs, digital learning-to-earning).   

Coordination and support for strategic learning, evidence generation and Knowledge Management

• Support the Regional Office with the development of evidence-based ‘learning to earning pathways’ and ‘Multiple Flexible Pathways’ aligned with C4C priorities, GenU priorities, Yoma vision, with Country Offices and new partners; this will include identifying and developing required guidance materials and products on high potential areas, such as the ‘circular economy,’ green skilling and jobs, digital learning-to-earning.
• Support the Regional Office in identifying, designing and monitoring evidence generation for advocacy, programme development and resource mobilization.
• Prepare and support global and regional events, forums, consultations in ESA on adolescent skills & employability.
• Lead the processes of documenting lessons learned, good practices and innovations of relevant programming areas of skills & employability (remotely and in the field). 
• Provide on-going technical assistance on the required data needs and the development of the data dashboard on skills & employability.

Support with technical assistance to Country Offices and Partners

• Lead the development(s) and improvement of all partnership and programme tools on skills & employability.
•  Map, update and monitor country and regional results on skills & employability (including contributions to the Regional Priorities/Education Flagship programme).  
• Identify and support the CO technical requests/plans; specifically, develop strategic KM activities and plans based on these requests.
• Provide technical reviews, quality assurance and inputs into country and regional programme and policy materials/products. 
• Provide efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support to the country teams and partners, as required; this includes support around new opportunities and the scale-up of the skills & employability agenda.
• Collaborate with various global and regional teams: Partnerships, Innovations, Adolescent and Gender, Migration, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, in addition to Generation Unlimited Secretariat and the Yoma Ecosystem.

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

• A university degree in social sciences, development studies, or a related technical field.
• A minimum of two years of progressively responsible professional work experience at national or international levels in the international development.
• Experience in developing mappings, surveys, knowledge products in the education sector.
• Extensive research experience, including reporting and packaging results for internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience in knowledge management and the development of practical and evidence-based tools for a wide-range of stakeholders. 
• Expertise in event planning and coordination.
• Excellent knowledge of the skills, employability and the learning to earning agenda in Africa.
• Experience with UNICEF administrative processes.
• Fluency in English (verbal and written)
• Good knowledge of French (verbal and written) an asset
• Knowledge of another UN language an asset

Deadline: 17 Jul 2023 E. Africa Standard Time

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How can you make a difference?

• Under the overall supervision of the Regional Nutrition Advisor, the Nutrition Specialist TA position will be responsible for technical support and strategic direction on food systems transformation for children, overweight prevention and school age and adolescent nutrition (abbreviated as “FS/OW/SACA-N”), across all the country offices of ESAR. The food systems aspect links closely to various other areas of work in the Nutrition Section, including maternal and early childhood nutrition and the prevention of wasting.
• The Nutrition Specialist provides substantive support to the Adviser for the work of the Nutrition Section, in terms of authoritative technical assistance and advocacy, oversight on implementation of multi-country grants and quality assurance to the FS/OW/SACA-N aspects of nutrition programs in countries, contribution to the regional aspects of the nutrition section’s work on FS/OW/SACA-N, including development of tools and guidance, innovation, evidence generation, analysis and knowledge development, exchange and thought leadership. The position contributes to partnerships with regional economic commissions (RECs) in the region, as well as with other stakeholders including UN agencies, NGOs, donors, academia, technical institutions and others on FS/OW/SACA-N. The Specialist provides authoritative technical guidance and management support throughout the regional and country programming processes to facilitate the achievement of concrete and sustainable results in FS/OW/SACA-N programs/projects according to plans, allocation, results based-management (RBM) approaches and methodology and UNICEF’s Strategic Plans, standards of performance and accountability framework.

Duties and responsibilities include the following:

Data, evidence, and knowledge products:

• Provide oversight to the institutional contract on assessment and analysis of packaged foods
• Contribute to the oversight of the contract undertaking scoping of opportunities for improved foods for children and the knowledge products arising from this.
• Provide technical support to countries to identify gaps in current data and generate evidence on topics related to child overweight prevalence, its determinants, the landscape of existing policies and programmes.
• Provide support to countries to advocate for and generate data on overall nutrition status of primary school age children and adolescents.
• Provide support to countries to undertake landscape analyses of food environments and policies, programmes on overweight prevention and SACA-N
• Provide technical assistance to countries to design and implement formative research and qualitative investigation, including profiles of children’s lived experience of food environments, related to nutrition of school age children and adolescents and child overweight
• Contribute to the design and coordinate and support the implementation of assessments of commercial determinants of child diets.
• Produce quality thought leadership/knowledge products of various types – peer reviewed articles, UNICEF reports, policy briefs, case studies, advocacy pieces, multi-media materials, presentations (including on the findings from the landscape analyses and other assessments and documented experiences from various countries on introducing and implementing legislative measures, policies and programmes).
• Analyze country office annual reporting and NutriDash data on FS/OW/SACA-N and prepare updates and reports on progress. Contribute to a scorecard on food systems work in countries.

Regional resources and tools:

• Produce technical briefs and frameworks on policy measures and strategies for food systems, overweight prevention and packages for nutrition of school age children and adolescents, to contribute to increasing UNICEF knowledge and confidence and build capacity of UNICEF offices to work on these domains.
• Support the development/review of SADC resources: i) toolkit on nutrition of school age children; ii) strategy for prevention of overweight and obesity, iii) capacity building on overweight prevention; iv) food systems for children concept note with SADC agriculture section; and contribute to concept notes and advocacy for SADC standards for sugar taxes, food marketing restrictions and front of pack labelling.
• Collaborate with Education Section and WFP to develop guidance and tools on school-based health and nutrition and school meals
• Contribute to dissemination of guidance and tools to UNICEF staff through webinars, network meeting and other means.

Technical assistance to country offices

• Provide technical assistance to UNICEF country offices to develop recommendations for policy change, strategies and programmes on food systems for children, overweight prevention and nutrition of SAC/adolescents, based on evidence generated.
• Provide technical assistance for policy advocacy and dialogue related to food policies and financing, overweight prevention and nutrition of school age children and adolescents.
• Contribute to development of country office funding proposals.

Advocacy and partnership on legislative measures, policies and strategies:

• Produce briefing notes and advocacy materials on FS/OW/SACA-N
• Engage with RO and HQ Supply colleagues on improved foods for children
• Engage with partnership and fundraising colleagues in ESARO on the investment case for food systems for children including improved foods
• Identify and pursue collaboration with WFP and FAO and other key food systems partners on food policies and improved foods for children
• Working together with WHO and others, support country advocacy efforts to address child overweight through creating improved regulatory and legislative environments, including on food and beverage marketing, front of pack warning system labels, fiscal measures and school food environment and nutrition policies.
• Provide technical assistance to the design, implementation and monitoring of school nutrition programmes in the UNICEF-WFP HOA partnership focus countries (Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan) and coordinate with WFP’s regional bureau in Nairobi on this aspect of the partnership. Coordinate with the WFP regional bureau in Johannesburg on school-based programmes in the southern Africa sub-region.
• Help establish a regional network of experts on food systems, overweight in children and nutrition of school age children and adolescents.

Double duty actions in existing health, ECD, SBCC and school platforms:

• Provide technical assistance to countries to integrate child overweight prevention into existing systems and platforms, including IYCF counseling in the health system and communities, social and behavior change (SBC), parenting programmes and ECD centers, and pre-schools, including to model and document effective “double duty” actions.
• Contribute to updating country IYCF counseling packages with overweight prevention content.
• Contribute overweight prevention content for ECD, and parenting materials and resources as required.
• Provide technical assistance to countries on design or improvement of school nutrition curricula, school nutrition education, weekly iron folate supplementation and deworming interventions, physical activity, healthy school canteens and restrictions on marketing and selling of unhealthy foods through primary and secondary schools.
• Contribute to design and content of SBC strategies on child overweight and nutrition of school age children and adolescents.
• Contribute nutrition content of multi-sectoral materials related to adolescents as required.

Food systems and nutrition of school age children and adolescents in humanitarian contexts:

• Work with Supply and Nutrition in Emergencies colleagues to position local solutions for nutrient-dense foods to prevent malnutrition in young children and women as part of the response and procurement plans in emergencies
• In collaboration with ESARO Nutrition in Emergencies colleagues and UNICEF HQ, develop/adapt guidance, and tools on delivering on UNICEF Nutrition CCC #4 on nutrition of school age children and adolescents in emergencies
• Contribute to the provision of technical assistance to countries on Nutrition CCC#4

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

Education:

• Advanced university degree in Public Health or Nutrition (preferably with specialized training in one or more of the following: public health and nutrition planning, health and nutrition education, health care system management, or epidemiology, food systems, food policy, food technology, overweight and NCD prevention), Social Policy, Social Development, Community Development, Food Policy, or other relevant disciplines.

Experience:

• At least eight years of professional work experience at the national and international levels in planning, programming, implementation, research, monitoring and evaluation of nutrition programmes. Professional work experience in a managerial/leadership position, or a technical expert position in nutrition.
• Developing country work experience.
• Relevant experience in nutrition program/project development and management in any UN system agency or organization is an asset.
• Background/familiarity and specific work experience on food systems, overweight prevention and school age and adolescent nutrition

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of a second UN and/or local working language of the duty station an asset.

Deadline: 17 Jul 2023 E. Africa Standard Time

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How can you make a difference?

Strategy, Global Goods and Knowledge Products

• Identify, document and validate key UNICEF health and immunization programme priorities as well as specific interventions / activities that should be included in the digitalization of integrated campaigns, including in the pre-, Intra- and post-campaign phases.
• Review existing guidance, standards and capacity building materials on RTM, including Campaign Digitization Guidance, Reference Architecture, routine admin data and information systems, monitoring approaches and tools, validate materials and identify any gaps as relevant through consultation with stakeholders at various levels, and develop workplan to revise and update (if needed), finalize, package and disseminate materials.
• Review existing UNICEF and partner digital health, health information system, GIS and RTM assets and planning tools, and provide recommendations on what can be repurposed and packaged as a global good, as well as gaps.
• Develop guidance for integrating RTM / Digitalized Campaign Monitoring into Routine Immunization Information Systems, including considerations at the planning stage - ie Digital Readiness and Health Information System (HIS) Assessments, Geospatial / Digital Microplanning, Health Management Information Systems (HMIS), Platform and Interoperability Considerations, and Enterprise Health Systems Planning. Where relevant, include guidance in existing / planned Digital Health and Health Information System strategies and toolkits, including the GAVI Digital Health Information (DHI) 5.0 Strategy and the Guidance on the Use of Digital Solutions to support National Deploment and Vaccination Plans (NDVPs).
• Develop standardized data element / indicator package for integrated campaign, mapped against recommended routine data packages.
• Provide recommendations on the viability to create WHO approved SMART Guidelines for integrated campaigns.
• Develop and / or update costing tools and guidance, including to address data affordability and hardware, to plan and implement digitalized campaign monitoring. Align and integrate these tools into broader Immunization and DH&IS guidance and capacity building initiatives.

Capacity Building

• Conduct rapid technical capacity assessment of UNICEF staff at regional / country levels for the planning, design and implementation of integrated, digitalized campaigns and RTM approaches, identify capacity building needs, and develop a corresponding workplan.
• Review the global WHO Digital Health Competency Framework (GDHF), including the “Digital Health Planning National Systems” course. Assess existing assets, including UNICEF’s RTM course, against the broader framework, identify opportunities and gaps, and provide recommendations to align and integrate existing training modules within global frameworks.
• Develop plan for the training of concerned staff (Digital health and Immunization) at regional and country offices on RTM modules for supplementary immunization activities (SIAs). Facilitate trainings on RTM modules for SIAs; Ensure availability of all resources (HR, Financial and other logistics) for trainings on RTM modules. Ensure that the RTM approaches are in line with the guidance in RTM modules for SIAs.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Documentation

• Organize rapid landscape assessment of how UNICEF has implemented digitalized campaigns at country level, including a) government leadership / ownership of the process and tools, b) integration of tools and data within national health information systems and routine admin data, c) ability to repurpose country tools across different programme needs and campaigns, capacities required, e) contribution to improved results and / or cost savings.
• Develop workplan to track country demand and implementation progress, develop documentation and capture of country experiences and the integration of lessons into routine immunization.
• Coordinate with countries through regional offices for documentation of best practices, lesson learned and challenges during the use of new approaches about RTM modules. Review the RTM modules on the basis of best practices from the countries.
• Conduct evaluation of the effectiveness of campaign digitalization, including integrated approaches and use of RTM data, to improve outreach, coverage and identification of zero-dose children.

Coordination and Partner Engagement

• Keep close liaison with focal points for RTM work in Digital Health and Information System and Immunization sections. Ensure coordination between the two sections regarding planning and implementation of activities related to RTM for SIA’s.
• Represent UNICEF in the Campaign Digitization Workgroup (CD WG), established as part of the Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition.
• Engage key partners, including WHO, Gavi, CHAI, and BMGF, to track and contribute to partner strategies, tools, country prioritization, documentation, and ongoing activities. Provide recommendations on opportunities for convergence.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree) in public health, data science, statistics or a related technical field required.
• 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 five (5) years of relevant professional experience at national and/or international levels in in health informatics, health information systems, and / or monitoring, including with immunization is required.
• Experience with digital health, including planning, designing, costing, and supporting implementation of national / sub national programmes.
• Experience with capacity building, including planning, designing, costing and supporting implementation of national sub national programmes.
• Experience with the Campaign Digitization framwork, including familiarity with Reference Architecture.
• Experience with Digital Microplanning and Enumeration.
• Experience with DHIS2, RapidPro, ODK, and other relevant digital health platforms.
• Experience working in UNICEF Programme Countries. Multi-regional experience preferred.
• Experience with the UN, including UNICEF, is preffered.
• Fluency in English (written and verbal) is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian, French or Spanish) is an asset.

Deadline: 18 Jul 2023 E. Africa Standard Time