Programme Specialist - Child Rights and Business (P-3), PGLT - BECR Outposted Nairobi Kenya (Temporary Appointment 6 months) - Fully Remote

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 111,152 USD and 145,545 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 territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

Note: This role will be on a fully remote work modality. The position will be based in Nairobi and no installation will be applicable and relevant entitlements will be adjusted based on lower of the two costs between the remote work location and the duty station.

Strategically leveraging the role of the business sector to achieve, accelerate and scale up results for children is a core strategy of UNICEF’s programming, advocacy, and private sector agenda. The Programme Group Leadership Team (PGLT) provides strategic oversight and coordination of the Programme Group (PG) to ensure multisectoral approaches and horizontal integration across programmes. As part of the 2022-25 Strategic Plan, mobilizing the role, influence and investment of business has been outlined as key change and programming strategy to achieve and accelerate outcomes for children. Promoting sustainability standards and influencing business policies and practices to respect and integrate child rights is an integral aspect of this agenda, also known as Child Rights and Business (CRB).

The newly established Business Engagement and Child Rights (BECR) Team in Programme Group (PG) is a direct expression of the organizational commitment to ensure that UNICEF:

• Maximizes the role of business as a stakeholder, a consideration, and a strategy in programming, by leveraging of the multiple ways in which business can impact on, contribute to, and influence child rights outcomes.
• Engages with and on the world of business in a way that is driven by and aligned with the child rights agenda and programme priorities in support of delivering results for children.

Strategically, the BECR team’s work focuses on providing global leadership and coordination on the following:

• Preventing, mitigating, and transforming adverse business impact on child rights through policy work, evidence generation and by influencing the business sustainability environment (CRB).
• Leveraging programme-led technical collaborations and engagement with business through strategy development, engagement scoping and opportunity cultivation.
• Integration of business engagement strategies through policy, guidance and technical tools and systems.

Building institutional knowledge and capacity on the different UNICEF business engagement strategies and workstreams across UNICEF (HQ, RO and CO), particularly among programme, planning and advocacy networks, and across National Committees.

For every child, Hope for all……

Under the supervision of the Senior Adviser, Child Rights and Business, the Programme Specialist will support UNICEF National Committees, Regional, and Country Offices to engage industry, policy makers, and other stakeholders on the government duty to protect and business responsibility to respect children’s rights in the context of workplaces and global supply chains. Jointly with relevant PG teams (e.g., CP, SP, ECD, Gender, Nutrition), the role will have a dedicated focus on promoting child rights responses to child labour, as well as lead on business responsibility in the context of family-friendly policies and wider care and support systems. It will entail duties in relation to the creation, dissemination, and promotion of internal and external CRB guidance (incl. linked to forthcoming EU standards on responsible business); strengthen knowledge management; and lead external stakeholder engagement, including for resource mobilisation in support of CO programme implementation.

How can you make a difference?

Deliver on existing CRB commitments and advance new opportunities.

• Lead delivery of CRB components and deliverables in existing donor grants and commitments, including bilateral CRB support on family-friendly policies and technical CRB support for an EU-funded programme on child labour. Among other activities, this includes providing technical support and develop guidance on inclusive family-friendly policies; and the development and dissemination of updated material on child rights approaches to child labour. Responsibilities also include advancing partnership opportunities with investors, businesses, and industry standards, where strategic.

  Strengthen advocacy messaging on child rights in GSC in the context of HRDD.

• Develop key messaging, update content, and provide guidance for UNICEF offices on the implementation of meaningful child rights approaches in the context of emerging mandatory human rights due diligence requirements in global supply chains. This requires liaising and working closely with programme teams in HQ, ROs, and COs to embed programmatic expertise, evidence and guidance in CRB approaches to ensure mandatory HRDD delivers for children. The role will also lead on content leadership and technical input to influence strategic external frameworks and initiatives, such as reporting, benchmarking and wider ESG and sustainability frameworks (linked to workplace impacts and GSC).

  Further programme integration and provide wider organizational support.

• Provide technical support to PG, ROs, COs, National Committees and other HQ teams to further drive momentum on CRB and programme integration. This includes existing priority areas (e.g., FFP, child labour) and advancing emerging themes (e.g. urban waste, migration, etc.), as relevant. Duties include delivering on GTT commitments on family-friendly policies (e.g., co-lead for drafting of strategy note for internal advocacy and resource mobilization), and acting as focal point with CP to advance responsible business practices within UNICEF’s multi-sectoral response to child labour.

Support evidence generation and strengthen thought leadership.

• Lead on consolidating learnings from existing GSC work and pilots and related experiences, and advance concepts to strengthen CRB and programme integration. This includes further conceptualizing the role of business in relation to internal agendas (e.g., care and support systems strengthening) and external topics (e.g. landscape approaches). The role will also provide substantive content support on emerging (and critical) CRB-wide themes such as climate, environment and just transition (e.g., recycling value chains).
• Support resource mobilization and strengthen UNICEF’s external positioning with private and public donors.
• Drive content development, proposal writing and donor engagement (incl. follow-up) to support resource mobilization in support of CRB and programmatic work at CO-level. This requires working closely with relevant Natcom and HQ, ROs, and COs to develop tailored and targeted proposals, and engaging with relevant UNICEF parts before and during donor engagement.

Facilitate internal capacity building and knowledge exchange.

• Duties include coordinating regular information exchange and experience sharing meetings (e.g., GSC Natcom Working Group); regularly liaising with ROs and relevant COs; responding to requests for technical support; and capturing case studies of impactful UNICEF programming, partnerships and advocacy work and initiatives at country-level to strengthen CRB in workplaces and GSC.

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

• Advanced University degree in business, international development, human rights, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science, or another relevant field is required.

• Minimum 5 years of work experience in one of the following is required: business and human rights, children’s rights and business, decent work, child labour, gender in the workplace, or related area is required.
• Experience working in the context of business responsibility in global supply chains will be highly valued.
• Experience working in an international environment on topics related to responsible business conduct, decent work, and related, will be highly valued.
• Strong research background and writing skills are required. Fluency in English (written and verbal) is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian, French or Spanish) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

Please click Here to view UNICEF's core values and Here to view our competency framework.

UNICEF competencies required for this post are.

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

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 including 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, 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 promoting 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.

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 may 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.

“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/”

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

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