Chief Social Policy, P-5, Damascus, Syria

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Application deadline 2 years ago: Saturday 2 Oct 2021 at 20:55 UTC

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Contract

This is a P-5 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 10 years of experience, depending on education. More about P-5 contracts and their salaries.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Hope

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Purpose for the job:

The Chief, Social Policy reports to the Deputy Representative for general guidance and direction and is responsible for leading, managing and supervising all stages of social policy programming and related advocacy from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete and sustainable results. This includes programmes aimed at improving (a) public policies to reduce child poverty; (b) social protection coverage and impact on children; (c) the transparency, adequacy, equity and efficiency of child-focused public investments and financial management; and (d) governance, decentralization and accountability measures to increase public participation and the quality, equity and coverage of social services; and (e) generation of knowledge and strategic think pieces to inform socio-economic policies for children. This encompasses both direct programme work with government and civil society partners as well as linkages and support to teams working on education, health and nutrition, child protection, and water and sanitation.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1- Managerial leadership

  • Establish the section’s annual work plan with the social policy team. Set priorities and targets and monitor work progress to ensure results are achieved according to schedule and performance standards.
  • Establish clear individual performance objectives, goals and timelines; and provide timely guidance to enable the team to perform their duties responsibly and efficiently. Plan and ensure timely performance management and assessment of the team.
  • Supervise team members by providing them with clear objectives and goals, direction and guidance to enable them to perform their duties responsibly, effectively and efficiently.

2- Public policies to reduce child poverty

Improving data on child poverty & vulnerability for increased use for policy and programme action.

  • Oversee the collection, analysis and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, including strengthening 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; facilitates results-based management for planning, adjusting, and scaling-up specific social policy initiatives to reduce child poverty.
  • Analyze the macroeconomic context and its impact on social development, emerging issues and social policy concerns, as well as implications for children, and proposes and promotes 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

3- Strengthening social protection coverage and impact for children

  • Develop 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.
  • Develop effective and efficient humanitarian social protection programming to respond to the immediate needs of children affected by displacement and crisis, with ensuring strong linkages between the humanitarian and development components.
  • Promotes 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.
  • Undertake improved monitoring and research around social protection impact on child outcomes, and use of data and research findings for strengthening programme results.

4- Improving the use of public financial resources for children

  • Undertake budget analysis to inform UNICEF’s advocacy and technical assistance to Ministry of Finance, planning commissions and social sector ministries to improve equitable allocations for essential services for children. Works with sector colleagues to build capacity to undertake costing and cost-effectiveness analysis on priority interventions to help inform policy decisions on child-focused investments.
  • Identify policy options for improved domestic financing of child-sensitive social protection interventions.
  • Undertake and builds the capacity of partners for improved monitoring and tracking of public expenditure to support transparency, accountability and effective financial flows for essential service delivery, including through support to district level planning, budgeting and public financial management as well as facilitating community participation

5- Strengthening capacity of local governments to plan, budget, consult on and monitor child-focused social services.

  • Where the national decentralization processes are taking place, collaborates with central and local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation and accountability processes so that decisions are child-focused and service delivery more closely respond to the needs of local communities.
  • Collaborates with the central and local authorities to strengthen capacity on quality data collection, analysis for policy development, planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring of essential social services, with emphasis on community participation and accountability.

6. Strengthened advocacy and partnerships for child-sensitive social policy

  • Oversees the 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.
  • Establishes effective partnerships with the Government, 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 Convention of the Rights of the Child and to achieve global UN agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Identifies other critical partners, promotes awareness and builds the capacity of partners, and actively facilitates effective collaboration within the UN family.

7. UNICEF Programme Management

  • Manages and coordinates technical support around child poverty, social protection, public finance and governance ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion so as to adequately support scale-up and delivery. Ensures 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.
  • Ensures effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the country programme. Ensures that the efforts enhance policy dialogue, planning, supervision, technical advice, management, training, research and support; and that the monitoring and evaluation component strengthens monitoring and evaluation of the social sectors and provides support to sectoral and decentralized information systems.

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

  • Education:
    • Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field. A first-level university degree in combination with additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
  • Experience:
    • A minimum of ten years of relevant professional experience is required.
    • Experience working in a developing country is considered a strong asset.
    • Demonstrated track record in generating quality evidence and knowledge to inform and influence socio-economic policies is considered a strong asset
    • Experience in managing large scale multi-sector humanitarian programme is considered a strong asset
    • Background and/or familiarity with emergency is considered a strong asset.
  • Language Requirements:
    • Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

Core Values

  • Care
  • Respect
  • Integrity
  • Trust
  • Accountability

Core Competencies

  • Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2)
  • Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (3)
  • Works Collaboratively with others (3)
  • Builds and Maintains Partnerships (3)
  • Innovates and Embraces Change (3)
  • Thinks and Acts Strategically (3)
  • Drives to achieve impactful results (3)
  • Manages ambiguity and complexity (3)

Functional Competencies

  • Analyzing (3)
  • Persuading & Influencing (2)
  • Planning & Organizing (3)
  • Deciding & Initiating Action (3)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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.

Remarks:

The VA is open to all (internal and external candidates)

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

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Please note that Damascus is a non-family duty station.

Contract Duration: Two Years, Fixed-Term Appointment

Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: unicef.org