Emergency Specialist (Outbreak Response), P-3, Fixed Term, Polio Eradication Programme, Nairobi, Kenya, #128173

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.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.
UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, Health

By reaching the most underserved communities with polio vaccine, UNICEF is realising the rights of the most excluded children and preventing girls and boys from being paralyzed. Within the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), UNICEF maintains a leading role in the areas of strategy development, strategic oversight, vaccine procurement, technical assistance in vaccine management, communication and social mobilization, social data, monitoring and evaluation. The GPEI seeks to ensure that future generations of children will be free from the threat of polio paralysis. Achieving this goal depends on ensuring rapid and effective responses to poliovirus outbreaks in polio-free countries. Polio eradication continues to be an organizational priority and is a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). The number of polio outbreaks has far exceeded global expectations in recent years. UNICEF is scaling up support to ensure countries have the resources to be prepared and respond, in our areas of accountability.

The Polio Outbreak Workstream of the UNICEF Global Polio Team provides oversight, quality assurance, technical assistance, and knowledge management to country offices, with particular emphasis on communication for social and behavior change and vaccine management within the outbreak response and preparedness context.

How can you make a difference?

Under the guidance of the Senior Programme Manager (Outbreak Response), you will provide overall coordination support to regional (ROs) and country offices (COs) on Polio outbreak responses (encompassing planning, preparedness, response, and monitoring) in affected countries, working in close collaboration with Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners and RO/CO/HQ colleagues.

Key functions and accountabilities include the following: 

1. Work closely with the Polio Outbreak Response team and RO polio focal points to ensure timely and efficient coordination of Polio outbreak responses in affected countries.
2. Support the Senior Programme Manager in providing strategic and operational oversight of polio outbreak response operations, particularly around the areas Vaccine Management (VM), Social Behaviour Change (SBC) and access constraints, ensuring that the needs of the population are addressed and are aligned with the government/Ministry of Health (MOH) plans and strategies and the polio outbreak response SOPs.
3. Support RO/COs in developing outbreak response plans, including campaign and surge budgets. Periodically conduct reviews of operational bottleneck hampering polio outbreak response efforts.
4. Provide in-country support to COs before, during and after polio campaigns with a focus on coordination and operational issues. 
5. Support RO/COs in the implementation and monitoring of Polio Emergency Procedures (PEP) where applicable.
6. Contribute to the deliverables of the Outbreak Response and Preparedness Group (ORPG), in particular on response strategies, coordination and efforts to improve the quality of responses.
7. Monitor emerging humanitarian, economic, political, and recovery trends, and potential socio-political instability. Identify impact on polio outbreak response efforts.
8. Provide UNICEF Polio Eradication senior leadership with timely updates and analysis on the Polio outbreaks, emerging trends and risks. Provide inputs for UNICEF documentation/reports and briefing notes for senior management.
9. Work closely with planning, finance, human resources and advocacy colleagues to ensure quality responses and that processes are streamlined and efficient.
10. Support in-country and regional SBC and VM assessments and interventions as needed, as well as the development of polio response strategies with humanitarian partners during humanitarian and protracted emergency situations.

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

The following minimum requirements:

Education:

• An Advanced University degree in one of the following fields: public health, social sciences, international law, public health, international relations, or other related disciplines.

Work Experience: 

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible professional work experience at the national and international levels in emergency programming, public health emergencies, programme/project development, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and administration.
• Knowledge and field experience of UNICEF programmes required.

Language Requirements: 

• Fluency in both written and spoken English is required. 

The following desirables:

Work Experience:

• Prior emergency response experience with UNICEF especially in polio eradication and complex humanitarian environment are an asset

Language:

• Working knowledge of French is a strong asset. Knowledge of Arabic and Portuguese or another official UN language (Chinese, Russian or Spanish) is also 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.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.