Gender (and Social Policy) Specialist, P-3, TA 364 days, Bamako, Mali

Overview

Provide strategic and technical support for gender equality outcomes

You have:

• An advanced university degree in Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations/Development, Political Science, or relevant technical field is required.
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional work experience in mainstreaming gender in policies and design, implementation, and management of protection and gender equality, preferably with the UN and/or international NGO.
• Professional experience working in a gender equality-focused role related to the social protection system, gender-responsive budgeting, and women’s economic empowerment.
• Excellent facilitation, training, networking, and advocacy skills.
• Fluency in French and English required.
• Background and/or familiarity with emergencies is considered a strong asset.

Contract

This is a P-3 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 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 109,211 USD and 143,004 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 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfil their potential – to the benefit of a better world.

And we never give up.

For every child, inspiration.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

For the 2020-2024 country program, the Government of Mali and UNICEF are adopting a life-cycle approach, which recognizes the need to provide a comprehensive package of gender-responsive services tailored to each stage of a child’s life. The program strongly emphasizes the second decade of life, strengthens the link between humanitarian and development work, reinforces systems at the community level, and recognizes adolescent girls as key agents of transformation.

It is structured around five pillars, the fourth of which aims to enable the environment to promote community resilience and gender equality. To support this vision, the key objective of pillar 4 is to address systemic governance issues in the process of decentralization and ensure access and utilization of basic social services to leave no one behind. From developing and implementing the highest national level Sustainable and Economic Development Strategy (CREDD) to Local Development Plans (PDSEC), UNICEF will bolster the multisectoral approach for more effective and gender-responsive access and use of basic social services by the poorest communities and the most deprived children.

Pillar 4 includes the following key priorities: child and gender mainstreaming in national and local policies, plans, and development strategies; support for a multisectoral approach to the delivery of social services at the community level and implementation of a decentralization system through the support of multisectoral and gender-responsive platforms; an increased focus on child and gender-sensitive public finance; Child rights monitoring and high-quality data and evidence on child-related SDGs (including the SDG 5) and child deprivation and poverty; gender and social protection; and community resilience building and preparedness for shocks through risk-informed (including of GBV) programming.

Considering the criticality of gender equality as a cross-cutting social policy priority, UNICEF MALI CO seeks a Gender and policy specialist who can provide strategic and technical support to achieve expected gender outcomes.

Job organizational context:

The Gender and Social Policy Specialist, P3, TA in Mali Country Office will report to the Gender & Development Specialist, with a dotted line to the Chief Social Policy.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose for the job:

Under the supervision of the Gender & Development Specialist and the Chief of Social Policy, the incumbent will be responsible for providing technical support to ensure the mainstreaming of the gender dimension in the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all stages of social policy programing and related advocacy, from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete and sustainable gender results. This includes programmes aimed at improving (a) gender-responsive public policies to reduce child poverty; (b) gender transformative social protection coverage and impact on children; (c) the transparency, adequacy, equity, and efficiency of gender and child-focused public investments and financial management; and (d) governance, decentralization, and accountability measures to increase public participation, with a focus on women and women-led organizations, and the quality, equity, and coverage of social services. This encompasses both direct programmes work with government and civil society partners as well as linkages and support to teams working on education, health, child protection, water and sanitation, and HIV.

Summary of Key functions/Accountabilities:

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

• Supports the collection, analysis, and user-friendly presentation of gender data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, including strengthening national capacity to collect routinely, report, and use gender data for policy decision-making.
• Provides timely, regular gender data-driven analysis for effective prioritization, planning, and development.
• Facilitates results-based management by ensuring the mainstreaming of gender results for planning, adjusting, and scaling-up specific social policy initiatives to reduce child poverty.
• Analyzes the macroeconomic context, considering the economic contribution of unpaid women’s and girls’ work and evaluates its impact on gender equality and social development, emerging issues, and social policy concerns and implications for children and women.
• Proposes and promotes appropriate responses in respect of such issues and concerns, including government resource allocation policies and the effects of social welfare policies on the rights of children and women.

2. Strengthening social protection coverage and impact for children from a gender perspective

• Supports the mainstreaming of a gender-transformative approach in developing social protection policies, legislation, and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children (boys and girls) and with special attention to the most marginalized. Identifies, generates, and presents gender evidence to support this goal in collaboration with partners.
• Ensure the integration of gender in all stages of planning, implementation, and monitoring of multi-sectoral programs, specifically the “Income Generating Activities” and “Public Work” programme within the country programme;
• Promotes strengthening of integrated social protection systems, providing technical support to partners to improve gender equality and women empowerment in the design of cash transfers and child grants and improve linkages with other social protection interventions such as health insurance, public works, GBV, and PSEA, social and care services as well as complementary services and intervention related to nutrition, health, education, water and sanitation, child protection and HIV.
• Undertakes improved monitoring and research around social protection impact on gender equality and use of data and research findings for strengthening programme results.

3. Improving the use of public financial resources for children, gender equality, and women's and girls’ empowerment

• Undertakes a gender budget analysis to inform UNICEF’s advocacy and technical assistance to Ministries of Finance, planning commissions, and social sector ministries to improve gender-sensitive budget allocation for essential services for children.
• Works with sector colleagues to build capacity to undertake gender cost and cost-effectiveness analysis on priority interventions to help inform policy decisions on child-focused investments.
• Undertakes and builds the capacity of partners on gender mainstreaming, including gender-responsive budgeting, 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.

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

• Where national decentralization processes are taking place, collaborates with central and local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation, and accountability processes so that decisions and child-focused service delivery promote gender equality, GBV risk mitigation, and response and are more responsive to the needs of local communities, particularly of women and girls.
• Collaborates with the central and local authorities to strengthen capacity for quality gender data collection and gender analysis for policy development, planning, implementation, coordination, and monitoring of essential social services, emphasizing community participation and accountability.

5. Strengthened advocacy and partnerships for gender and child-sensitive social policy

• Supports correct and compelling use of gender data and evidence about children and women and coverage and impact of gender and child-focused services – in support of the social policy programme and the country programme overall.
• Identifies critical partners, such as women-led networks and organizations, promotes awareness and builds the capacity of partners, and actively facilitates effective collaboration within UN agencies engaged in gender equality and social policy and protection.

6. UNICEF Programme Management

• Under the supervision of the Chief of Social Policy and the Gender specialist, manages gender equality technical support in social protection and public finance, ensuring that it is well planned, monitored, and implemented promptly to support implementation and scaling up.
• Ensures that the social planning project strengthens policy dialogue, planning, supervision, technical advice, management, training, and research on gender equality and women's empowerment and PSEA; and that the monitoring and evaluation component strengthens monitoring and evaluation of social and gender sectors and provides support for sectoral and decentralized information systems from a gender perspective.

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

Education:

An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations/Development, Political Science, or another relevant technical field.

A Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional work experience in mainstreaming gender in policies and design, implementation, and management of protection gender equality, preferably with the UN and/or international NGO.

Candidates holding a first university degree (Bachelors’ level) and two additional years of relevant professional experience may be considered.

Experience:

Professional experience working in a gender equality-focused role related to the social protection system, gender-responsive budgeting, and women’s economic empowerment.

Excellent facilitation, training, networking, and advocacy skills.

Experience working in a developing country is considered a strong asset, including through government systems.

Background and/or familiarity with emergencies is considered a strong asset.

Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment, establish harmonious and effective working relationships within and outside the organization, and exercise sound judgment in high-pressure situations.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in French and English required. Knowledge of an additional official UN or local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s 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)

Job's Functional Competencies

• Analyzing (3)
• Deciding and Initiating Action (2)
• Persuading and Influencing (3)
• Applying technical skills (3)
• Entrepreneurial thinking (2)

During the recruitment process, we assess candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

Remarks:

• UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable women are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
• This VA is open to all UNICEF staff and other personnel (including consultants, JPOs, UNVs, TAs etc.)
• UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized by a government, or 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/
• Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
• Please note Bamako is a Category D, non-Family duty station. The Rest and Recuperation Cycle is 8 weeks.
• 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 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.

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.

Potential interview questions