Education Specialist (System Strengthening), P4, Fixed Term, ECARO – Istanbul, Turkey

Contract

This is a P-4 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 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 131,997 USD and 170,183 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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 based territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, dedication.

Under the general supervision of the Regional Education Adviser and working in collaboration with other UNICEF sections and key partners, the Specialist leads regional agenda on system strengthening with a focus on education planning, budgeting, data, and statistics to improve learning outcomes for children. Specifically, the Specialist:

• Provides expert advice, advocacy, analysis and technical support to country offices on education sector analysis and planning; education finance/governance; education data management and analysis; national/international education data/surveys (EMIS, MICS, PISA, etc.); and out-of-school children initiatives (OOSCI)
• Contributes to UNICEF planning, monitoring and reporting process, including RO annual work planning, monitoring and reporting; support to Country Programme Documents (CPD) development and quality assurance of Country Office Annual Reports
• Leads strengthening of evidence base through research and evaluation
• Supports the education refugee response in Ukraine and host countries through Information/Knowledge management and Education data management on refugee crisis for improved programming and reporting.
• Support Regional Adviser on partnership building and resource mobilization
• The Education Specialist will contribute to achieving results, consistent with UNICEF’s Strategic Plans, through credible planning, resource allocation, applying results based-management approaches and methodology (RBM) and UNICEF’s standards of performance and accountability framework.

How can you make a difference?

Programme planning, development and management

• Lead, in collaboration with relevant staff at country, regional and head-quarters level, the development and implementation of the programme under her /his responsibility at regional level; including design, implementation and oversight of programme activities and results.
• Provide Technical support/leadership and professional advice to the Regional Office and country offices in operationalising UNICEF's key priorities in Education through the development of results-oriented and costed national education strategies and plans.
• Contribute to accurate, coherent and reliable collection, analysis and reporting of regional information with an emphasis on the disaggregation of data to monitor inequities, and disparities for monitoring, evaluation and advocacy purposes.
• Provide technical assistance and advice to colleagues in the section on all aspects related to data analysis, statistics, indicators and result-based management to enable colleagues to achieve programme/performance objectives.

Technical assistance to country offices

• Coordinates UNICEF’s support to countries in the development and the implementation of education programmes with a focus on data analysis, statistics, indicators, RBM and M&E.
• Contribute to timely and high-quality sectoral analyses to enhance planning and advocacy in respect of equity issues in education; including inputs to situation analyses and education sector analyses, in collaboration with other key stakeholders (government, development partners, academia and other programmes and sectors).
• Support countries during national planning processes, with a focus on the development of education sector analysis, simulation models, education sector plans and policy evaluation.
• organize capacity development programmes based on identified needs and contribute to building a critical mass of specialists in key domains relevant to her/his area of work to enhance technical assistance to Country Offices.

Programme oversight and quality assurance

• Contribute to ensuring that programme delivery, monitoring and evaluation, as well as reporting are carried out efficiently, rigorously and transparently; in compliance with established guidelines and procedures.
• In collaboration with the other regional office sections and HQ, contribute to programme quality assurance and oversight through participation in Regional Office planning and review exercises and support to COs during planning processes (Strategic Moment of Reflection, Midterm Review, Mid-Year Review etc.) and annual reporting (SMQs).

Innovation, knowledge management and intellectual leadership

• Promote critical thinking, innovative approaches and good practices for sustainable education programme initiatives through advocacy and technical advisory services.
• Provide intellectual leadership and support in respect of data analysis, strategy development and coordination in the priority areas of the Strategic Plan; to help facilitate high quality implementation of regional and country strategies developed in collaboration with technical colleagues and management at Country, Regional, and HQ levels.
• Contribute to improving monitoring of results at Regional and Country Office levels and provide capacity development to Country Offices to enhance their results monitoring and knowledge management.
• Keep abreast, research, benchmark, introduce and implement best and cutting-edge practices on education management and information systems. Institutionalize and disseminate best practices and knowledge learned.

Strategic representation, advocacy and partnership

• Establish and pursue strong partnerships with other international agencies and provide guidance and support to form strategic alliances with national and regional partners to influence programme strategies and planning in basic education.
• Contribute to regional office working groups and cross-sectoral work and in areas including (but not limited to) gender, children with disabilities, adolescents, C4D, Migration, emergencies and resilience and early childhood development.
• Participate and/or represent UNICEF in inter-agency discussions and planning on education and related issues to ensure the organisation’s position, interests and priorities are fully considered and integrated.

Communication, resources mobilization and donor reporting

• Contribute, in collaboration with the other Regional Office sections and HQ, to effective fundraising and resource mobilization for education programming and/or leveraging of existing resources for UNICEF's support to education; provide technical and advisory support to ECAR Country Offices for the development of funding proposals to support programme implementation.
• Collaborate with Communications to ensure development of effective communication materials and strategies to support advocacy and resource mobilization efforts.
• Contribute to fundraising and resource mobilization efforts for education programmes and/or leveraging of existing resources for UNICEF's support to education; provide technical and advisory support to ECAR COs for the development of funding proposals.
• Prepare regional office donor reports and quality assurance reviews of country office donor reports

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

• An Advanced University Degree in education, economics, psychology, sociology or related social science field is required.
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant work experience in programme planning, management, and/or research in education at the international level, some of which preferably in a developing country is required. Experience working in the UN system agency or UN organization is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or regional language is considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability (CRITA) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

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 (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

Please see the competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

• Good understanding of the overall global development context, including issues such as: poverty, conflict, and the impact of these factors on education and vice-versa; and inter-sectoral approaches to address such issues in collaboration with other sectors.
• Good knowledge of global developments in education and international engagement strategies, including equity and human rights perspectives on programming.
• Good ability to support policy dialogue: translation of analytical findings and evidence into development programmes and policy discussions around equity and learning with partners, including government, development partners, CSOs and academia in relevant areas.
• Good education sector planning knowledge/ability, including the range of modalities for delivering education, linkages between different sub-sectors (e.g. Primary age, Secondary age, Inclusive Education), cost-effectiveness and efficiency issues, key institutional structures, components and processes, as well as governance issues.
• Good education and policy sector analysis capacity, including understanding of the core education data sets, indicators, tools for analysis of equity, determinants of student access and learning, budget, cost and financing, education system management, political economy and application to education policy and strategic planning.
• Good ability to support engagement with partners (e.g. Sector Wide Approaches, Development Partners, Education in Emergency Clusters, Education Provider Forums, Inter-sectoral partnerships), as well as networking with other key partners.
• Good understanding of gender and equity issues in relation to education and development and the application of gender / equity analysis to policy and planning in education.
• Good understanding of policies and strategies to address issues related to migration and emergencies.
• Experience in work in MIC and HIC countries is considered an asset

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 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 promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, 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.

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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government 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.