Programme Specialist (Child Rights), P-3, Office of Innovation, Helsinki, Finland #121918 (Temp Appointment 364 days) REQ

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. More about P-3 contracts and their salaries.

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, hope

The Office of Global Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

The incumbent is placed within the newly-established Innovative Finance Hub, reporting to both, the Innovative Finance Hub and the Business Engagement and Child Rights team within the UNICEF Programme Group Leadership team (PGLT). He/she will work closely with other divisions on innovation and innovative finance, including OED, PPD, PFP, PG, DFAM, Legal and SD, and external actors such as Finnish DFI Finnfund.

Underpinned by the UNICEF Global Innovative Finance for Children (IF4C) Strategy, the team will develop new transformational strategies, standards & frameworks:

1. To re-define innovative financing & impact standards and concepts to include the needs of children 2. To co-create fintech & cutting-edge technologies to leverage new, innovative resource channels for children

The Innovative Finance Hub in Finland will reimagine how UNICEF operates, accelerates and streamlines finding new sources of funding and financing to fill the SDG gap - to protect gains made, rebuild from losses from COVID-19 and radically accelerate progress towards the SDGs for children. The Team will be at the forefront of building the IF Hub platform that will:

• Unlock the $40 trillion ESG market to meet funding and financing gaps for children
• Better integrate children’s needs into business investment decisions
• Catalyze a global pipeline of investable high-impact child-aligned projects
• Covene industry experts to incubate and build game-changing new social goods constructs

Our aim is to build a genuine, global thought leadership hub around innovative financing that not only be transformational as an approach for UNICEF’s Global Innovation Strategy but also serve as a catalyst for change within the development industry.

One of the main pillars of the IF Hub is the new SDG/Child-Aligned Investment Amplifier, designed to develop an Experimental “Sandbox” Environrment for Innovative Solutions comprised of i) SDG Global Impact Standards for Children, ii) SDG Child-Aligned Metrics for Impact Reporting, and iii) SDG Child-Aligned Pipeline Development Methdology.

The Business Engagement and Child Rights team leads the global rollout of an innovative approach to mainstreaming child rights across business policy and practice. The approach mobilizes UNICEF’s unique position as a UN organization with a child rights mission and mandate and a field presence in over 190 countries, integrating child rights-based engagement with the business sector into programming for results.

A key component of this work is to support investors to more effectively use their influence on its investees to further responsible business practices that respect children’s rights. However, children’s rights risks, beyond child labour, aren’t systematically featured in this process. Children tend to be indirectly affected by company policies, either through their parents’ working conditions, through products consumed by them or through impacts on communities affecting them. Efforts of business aimed at improving social responsibility thus tend to partially leave children out, resulting in less effective risk mitigation and social impact on children. Children make up almost 1/3 of the world’s population. All businesses impact children in some way, and children are a key stakeholder for business, both in the present and the future. Therefore, business or investment activities cannot, by definition, be sustainable unless they address their impact on children.

As governments of the world have set out an ambitious agenda through the Sustainable Development Goals. The annual financing gap to achieve the SDGs by 2030 sits at USD 2.5 trillion, which shows that the current approach is not working. Although the sheer size of the global financial markets represents an enormous, untapped reservoir of potential support for achieving the SDGs, very little of this global funding, financing and influence is being channeled towards the needs of sustainable development or, more specifically, towards ensuring using a child lens for investing. Addressing this requires the development and mainstreaming of a child lens in investing which enables finance sector actors to shape outcomes for children through impact investment approaches, improved ESG incorporation, and stewardship

How can you make a difference?

Based in Helsinki the Programme Specialist (Child Rights) will support the Innovative Finance Hub team in its development of the SDG Global Impact Standards for Children and SDG Child-Aligned Metrics for Impact Reporting with the finance industry. He/she will primarily be responsible for inclusion of child rights and business work of UNICEF and drawing from all its previous learnings in various aspects of investor decision-making. The role will also work with the Business Engagement and Child Rights team to advance its work on responsible investment.

Under the supervision of the Investment Manager, and in close collaboration with the Programme Manager, the Programme Specialist (Child Rights)’s responsibility is to support the IF Hub in its development of a child lens investing framework through incorporating the child rights and business work of UNICEF and drawing from all of its learnings. This, among other related tasks, also includes the following:

1. Support IF team in its development of a Child Lens Investing Framework

• Participate actively and support the development or revision of the child lens investing framework to help the finance sector with child lens in their investment practices, including integration of UNICEF’s child rights and business work
• Support the team in engaging with Finnfund and other key partners in developing child lens in their investing, including integrating UNICEF’s child rights and business work
• Support capacity building initiatives for internal and external actors

2. Support IF team in its technical collaboration with various actors

• Support engagement with strategic partners in the investor world, including Finnfund, to enable learning, generate good practices and proof of concept drawing from UNICEF tools and guidance on child rights and finance
• Support in helping relevant teams and offices across UNICEF to reflect UNICEF’s technical expertise on children (including child rights) into partnerships with finance sector actors

3. Support BECR team in furthering the integration of child rights approaches in responsible investments

• Support partnerships with finance sector actors that can test, pilot and champion child rights approaches to ESG integration within the industry
• Lead development of a tool(kit) for business to measure track child rights outcomes and model impact of business operations, to provide better data for investors and other stakeholders on child rights performance.
• Support with internal team capacities

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

• An advanced university degree in relevant field, e.g., Public Policy, Business Administration, Law, Finance, Development, or related degree.
• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible professional work experience in Child Rights, ESG/sustainability, responsible business, or international development, Or seven years of experience in lieu of an advanced degree.
• A technical background in child rights or human rights is essential.
• Experience in the finance sector and an in-depth understanding of Impact investment or Responsible Investment is highly desirable.
• Experience in development/ESG data, metrics development and monitoring would be considered a strong asset.
• Strong capacity to work effectively in inter-divisional teams.
• Experience in/knowledge of the UN system and knowledge of UNICEF’s work would be an asset.
• Strategic and global thinking and analytical ability.
• Developed organizational, interpersonal and communications skills.
• Ability to conceptualize, plan and execute ideas as well as to manage projects.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is 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…

• Analyzing (III)
• Relating and Networking (III)
• Formulating Strategies and Concepts (III)
• Planning and Organizing (II)
• Entrepreneurial Thinking (III)

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

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.

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 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:

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 UNICEF will facilitate, 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.