Internal & External: Social Policy Specialist - Social Protection in Emergencies, P-4, FT, PG, NYHQ

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 171,387 USD and 220,969 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.

Note: Programme Group (PG) is currently undergoing organizational changes, therefore the exact location of the post is still under consideration. Currently, the post is based in New York but in case the location of the post will change, s/he would be expected to work remotely as the case may be, during the contractual period.

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.

This post sits within the Social Policy and Social Protection Programme team in UNICEF HQ, and reports to the Social Policy Specialist (Social Protection in Fragile and Humanitarian contexts). The Social Policy and Social Protection Programme team contributes to UNICEF’s strategic results on child poverty, social protection, public finance and local governance. You will work in close collaboration with the Global Social Policy Network; EMOPs; other Programme teams; Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring (DAPM); Public Partnerships Division (PPD) and country offices as required. You will work to support specific GA5 Strategic Plan results to improve access to inclusive social protection through support in strengthening social protection systems that are able to effectively prevent and respond to climate, conflict and economic-related risks and crises and deliver cash in humanitarian contexts.

Under the general guidance of the supervisor, you will provide technical support to countries to strengthen preparedness of social protection systems and to support social protection responses in crisis contexts. As such, you will provide technical support to countries in shock responsive social protection including where necessary the scale up of design, implementation and monitoring of social protection responses. You will also support capacity-building and knowledge management efforts on shock responsive social protection. The post may requires frequent travel including to crisis prone contexts. You will support the knowledge management function and partnerships engagement in terms of country level collaborations. You will support the systems strengthening and risk informed humanitarian and development nexus programming change strategies in Strategic Plan Goal Area 5.

For every child, Hope…

How can you make a difference?

1. Provide technical support to UNICEF regional and country offices on shock responsive social protection, including system strengthening in humanitarian contexts

• Provide technical assistance to regions and country offices to strengthen preparedness of social protection systems for crisis response. Among other things, this will include support in conducting assessment of systems, vulnerability analyses, developing collaborative roadmaps for shock responsive social protection and monitoring/updating emergency preparedness platforms.
• Provide sustained technical support to regional and country offices in operationalizing UNICEF’s social protection commitments outlined in the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs). This includes support to conduct assessments, including the feasibility of cash transfers and leveraging social protection systems for its delivery.

• Support COs to establish robust monitoring and verification systems for implementation of social protection responses, including cash transfers by working closely with Social Policy/Humanitarian Cash Team to monitor results and impacts. This could include direct support/participation in real time assessments and evaluations of social cash transfer programmes supported by UNICEF.

  2. Develop tools, guidance and methods to improve the shock responsiveness of social protection, including development of nascent systems in humanitarian settings

• Contribute to the development of guidance, tools, policy and strategies on strengthening UNICEF’s work on social protection including in humanitarian and fragile contexts.

• Work closely with relevant sections, such as the climate energy and environment team in Programme Team, to develop/strengthen links between social protection and other thematic interventions to support multi sectoral outcomes for children and to leverage the experience to contribute to system strengthening.

• Respond to emerging requests for technical assistance in proactive manner and produce technical notes and support for the sections work on knowledge management.

  3. Generate, consolidate and share knowledge on UNICEF’s work on shock responsive social protection in humanitarian settings

• Gather data, produce analysis, as well as document best practices/lessons learned from ongoing implementation as well as preparedness efforts to generate knowledge and inform the evolution of social protection and cash strategies and approaches including in crisis prone countries.

• Create a community of practice on shock responsive social protection including development of nascent systems in humanitarian settings and facilitate knowledge sharing and learning in this group, including organizing and regularly updating the repository of tools on shock responsive social protection.
• Identify technical capacity needs and operational readiness gaps for UNICEF social policy staff and partners engaged in social protection response. Propose appropriate capacity development activities and resources.

• Ensure and improve capacity of UNICEF social policy teams in countries, partners and where relevant, government (especially local government) counterparts, in emergency response, including designing, implementing and managing social protection responses to crisis

  4. Represent UNICEF in technical discussions on shock responsive social protection in humanitarian and fragile settings

• Represent UNICEF (as needed) in technical discussions on shock responsive social protection including the development of nascent systems in humanitarian and fragile settings and widen UNICEF’s networking with professionals in the area.

• Facilitate the exchange of experience, tools and methods with external stakeholders.
• Assist with expanding up to date UNICEF rosters of consultants, experts and institutions with a high profile and expertise on shock responsive social protection.
• Perform additional duties as requested

To qualify as a champion for every child, the candidate must have…

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, Disaster Management or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of progressively responsible experience in coordination, assessments, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of social protection and cash transfer programmes in humanitarian contexts.
• Developing country work experience
• Strong emergency and operational field experience with UNICEF or another humanitarian agency.
• Experience of providing direct technical assistance to country teams and government counterparts is desired.
• Experience and or exposure to humanitarian coordination mechanism, including cash working groups is desired.
• Excellent communication & presentation skills (written & verbal) across multiple audiences with the ability to influence others while working in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity[AR1] .
• High motivation, and dedication to deliver results within strict timeframes, in challenging environments.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability.

For more information on remuneration and benefits, please visit UNICEF’s Entitlements’ page. If you would like to find estimates for entitlements, you may use the online Salary Estimate Calculator

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 is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, appearance, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, 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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and 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.

“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/