Social Policy Officer, NOB, Fixed-Term, Kenya Country Office, Lodwar# 120852 (Only open to people with Kenya work authorization)

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

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For every child, an equitable chance in life…

Social policy UNICEF

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:

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4.  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.

5.  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…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others. 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

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UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. 

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. 

Remarks:

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.