Early Childhood Development Officer (NO-B, Fixed Term contract) open to Bulgarian nationals only

Contract

This is a NO-2 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-2 contracts.

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, childhood.

How can you make a difference?

The ECD Officer manages and coordinates the Early Childhood development programme and Early Childhood Intervention for children with development disabilities components of the Country Programme. This includes development, management and implementation of technical assistance to the Government, districts and municipalities and support in developing and strengthening services for children.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Support to ECD/ECI programme development and planning.

• Conduct and update the situation analysis and carry out assessments on early childhood development and early childhood intervention for children with developmental difficulties related issues to establish evidence-based data to support holistic policy and programme development, as well as coordinated planning, implementation, and monitoring of ECD/ECI related programmes/projects.
• Contribute to the design of ECD/ECI programme component, including development and establishment of goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based activities through research, collection, analysis of of ECD/ECI related information and data.

Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results.

• Manage and follow-up on the implementation of all program components related to ECD/ECI to ensure their progress in accordance with the established goals, plans and strategies.
• Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss ECD/ECI operational and implementation issues, provide solutions, recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decisions

Networking and partnership building.

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders across relevant sectors through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve and sustain results on ECD/ECI related programmes.
• Draft communication and information materials for CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support resource mobilization for ECD/ECI programmes.

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 practice to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.

Horizontal cooperation and support within the Programme delivery, raising awareness and leveraging resources for children:

• Work in a cross sectoral manner and ensure synergy between ECD and ECI with other prpogramme components.

• Provide technical and operational support to other relevant Country program components – close cooperation with the Private partnership team to ensure that ECD /ECI is well understood and supported by the business partners, close cooperation with the Communication team to ensure that ECD and ECI is well promoted in the country and beyond.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in education, social studies and development, public health and /or medicine, nutrition, psychology, human development, child development, family studies or another relevant technical field *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 two years of relevant professional experience in social development planning and management in early childhood development related areas is required.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English and Bulgarian is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

Core Competencies

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drives to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

Functional Competencies

• Analyzing (2)
• Applying technical expertise (2)
• Learning and researching (2)
• Planning and organizing (2)

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:

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

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