Jobs at UNICEF

Key Responsibilities:

Under the overall guidance of the Chief, Social Policy and direct supervision of the Chief of Lodwar Zonal Office, the Social Policy Officer will be responsible for:

• 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 the 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; facilitate results-based management for planning, adjusting, and scaling up specific social policy initiatives to reduce child poverty. 
  • Contribute to the analysis of the macroeconomic context and its impact on social development, emerging issues, and social policy concerns, as well as implications for children, and propose and promote 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 on children
  • Support the development of social protection policies, legislation, and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention to 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 the capacity of partners for improved monitoring and tracking of public expenditure to support transparency, accountability, and effective financial flows for such 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 the local communities.
  • Support national and local authorities to strengthen capacity for quality data collection, analysis for policy development, planning, implementation, coordination, and 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 the establishment and enhancement of effective partnerships with National and County Governments, 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 conventions. Of the rights of the child and to achieve global UN agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Identify other critical partners, promote awareness and build capacity of partners, and actively facilitate effective collaboration within the United Nations.
• UNICEF Programme Management
  • Contribute 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 to adequately support scale-up and delivery.
  • Ensure risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into the overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.
  • Supports and contributes to effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation of the country programme.
  • Ensure that the social planning project enhances policy dialogue, planning, supervision, technical advice, management, training, research, and support; and that the monitoring and evaluation component strengthens the 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 program status and progress.
  • A short, timely submission of progress and resource 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 minimum of two years of relevant professional experience is required. Experience working in a developing country is considered a strong asset. Background and/or familiarity with emergencies is considered a strong asset.
• Fluency in English. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For Every Child, You Demonstrate...

• UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF Competencies Required for this Post are…

• Builds and maintains partnerships 
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness 
• Drive to achieve results for impact 
• Innovates and embraces change 
• Manages ambiguity and complexity 
• Thinks and acts strategically 
• Works collaboratively with others. 

Deadline: 01 May 2024

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How can you make a difference?

The Nutrition Officer will provide professional technical, operational, and administrative assistance throughout the programming process for the nutrition programmes/projects within the Country Programme, from development planning to delivery of results. Specific focus will be on strengthening nutritional interventions in maternal infant and young child nutrition (MIYCN) and micronutrient deficiency control (MNDC) efforts at a zonal level.

• Programme management, monitoring, and delivery of results. 
  • Ensure the availability of accurate, complete, and up-to-date information required for an effective nutrition programme and project design, addressing gender inequalities and determinants of gender equality where relevant implementation, management, monitoring, and evaluation. Additional technical support to focus on the integration of High Impact Nutrition Interventions into zonal office efforts (particularly MIYCN and MNDC). Draft sound Nutrition programme budgets for review by the supervisor.
  • Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners at National and County levels to discuss operational and implementation issues. Provide solutions, and recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decision-making. Keep a record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.
  • Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews, and annual reviews with the government (National and County) and other counterparts to assess programmes/projects and to report on required action and interventions at the higher level of programme management. 
  • Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative, and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocation, goals, organizational rules, regulations/procedures, donor commitments, standards of accountability, and integrity. Report on issues identified to ensure timely resolution by management and stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution. 
  • Prepare regular and mandated sectoral programme/project reports for management, donors, and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.
• Technical and operational support to programme implementation: 
  • Conduct regular programme field visits and surveys, and exchange information with partners and stakeholders in counties supported by the Garissa Field office 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. 
  • Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts at the national and county level, NGO partners, UN system partners, and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes, and best practices on nutrition-related issues to support programme implementation, operations and delivery of results. 
• Networking and partnership building: 
  • Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with nutrition sector government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build the capacity of stakeholders to achieve programme goals on maternal and child rights as well as social justice and equity.
  • Draft communication and information materials for CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances and support fundraising for nutrition programmes.
  • Participate in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT) meetings and events on programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners and colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of nutrition programmes/projects, and to integrate and harmonize UNICEF’s position and strategies with the UNDAF development and planning process.
  • Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fundraising and partnership development purposes.
• Innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building
  • Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.
  • Apply innovative approaches and promote good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.
  • Research, benchmark, and report on best and cutting-edge practices for development planning of knowledge products and systems.
  • Participate as a resource person in capacity-building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders.

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

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required:  nutrition, public health, nutritional epidemiology, global/international health and nutrition, health/nutrition research, policy and/or management, health sciences, or another health-related science field.
• A minimum of two years of professional experience in a developing country in one or more of the following areas is required: nutrition, public health, nutrition planning, and management, or maternal, infant, and child health/nutrition care. Experience in health/nutrition programme/project development in a UN system agency or organization is an asset.
• Fluency in English.  Knowledge of another official UN language or the local language of the duty station is considered an asset.

For Every Child, You Demonstrate...

• UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF Competencies Required for this Post are…

• Builds and maintains partnerships 
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness 
• Drive to achieve results for impact 
• Innovates and embraces change 
• Manages ambiguity and complexity 
• Thinks and acts strategically 
• Works collaboratively with others. 

Deadline: 07 May 2024