Regional Adviser Education, Fixed Term, P-5, Nairobi, Kenya, Eastern & Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO)

Contract

This is a P-5 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 10 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 165,084 USD and 206,888 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.

For every child, learning!

The Regional Education Adviser leads the work on ensuring technical support, quality assurance and oversight of the education programming in the 21 countries in eastern and southern Africa. It will entail supporting and guiding countries to collectively address the global learning crisis which is in an even more dire situation in the region where 90% of ten-year-olds cannot read and understand simple texts. As a flagship collaboration-for-children programme of the regional office, the regional education adviser will play a critical and transformative role in moving the needle on one of the highest priorities in the region for UNICEF. Since the contexts in the region varies immensely, programming will need to be flexible and adaptable so that to many types of contexts including in humanitarian situations which can be climate induced, result of conflict or disease outbreaks and pandemics.

How can you make a difference?

Under the direct guidance and supervision of the Deputy Regional Director, the Regional Adviser serves as an authoritative and expert adviser to the Office of the Regional Director, the Regional Management Team, Country Offices and Government institutions/officials on innovative and cutting-edge strategies, policies, approaches, best practices and knowledge on education, learning and related issues such as inclusion. The incumbent leads regional office support to CO’s on programme development planning, implementation, management, resource mobilization, capacity building and knowledge management to advocate for innovative education transformative practices and translate these in concrete action to achieve concrete and sustainable results on strengthening the national education systems. Within the wider SDG context, the efforts should lead to improving learning outcomes and universal access to quality, equitable and inclusive primary/early childhood education and renewing involvement in secondary education especially, for children who are marginalized, disadvantaged and excluded in society, in line with UNICEF Strategic Plans, performance standards and accountability framework.

Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

Policy Direction and Strategic Positioning

• Guide UNICEF's regional strategies as they relate to Education, Learning and Skills, in the context of the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan and the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Advocate for ESAR (RO and COs) prioritization of transformative education system that further promote and realize their potential as a mean for transforming societies and economies both as a good in itself and as an accelerator of multiple Development Results.
• Initiate innovative approaches for enhanced support to sector-wide analysis, planning, implementation, and accountability, with a clear focus on feasibility, promoting learning and greater equity.
• Assist the global and lead regional efforts to elevate the learning agenda in relevant strategic fora, influencing policy discussions and agenda setting within and beyond traditional education networks
• Repositioning and progressively transition UNICEF's advocacy, knowledge-base and partnerships to addressing the breadth and depth of the global learning crisis, including by promoting sustainable and equitable financing for education services.
• Provide strategic advice to regional and country management to ensure impactful education programmes and sustained efforts for the agenda.

Support to Regional and Country Offices on Programme Design, Implementation, and Providing Oversight

• Support the adoption of tailored and efficient education operational models in offices across the region in all country contexts.
• Bring coherence, complementarity, and synergies between UNICEF’s education sectoral and cross-cutting areas, promoting alignment of resources and uptake of quality programming standards.
• Ensure clear and pragmatic programme guidance is available and followed (where required through ESAR’s specific interpretation of global guidance) to support UNICEF staff at all levels in particular focusing on:
• Children excluded on the basis of gender, children with disabilities, the poorest, ethnic and linguistic minorities, and children affected by emergencies.
• Expanding support for reaching children during their early years (3–5 years old) by increasing work on pre-primary education
• Prioritizing Foundational Literacy and Numeracy learning as major strategy
• Expanding support during adolescence (10–19 years old) by providing multiple learning pathways, particularly for adolescents, by introducing and scaling up innovative approaches
• The generation and use of data and evidence, particularly related to levels of learning, to generate a better understanding of the children being left behind, the viability of current system’s thinking and the effectiveness of education systems in meeting the learning needs of every child.

Partnerships and Inter-Sectoral Alliances

• Build network of academic/research institutions and think tanks in the region to strengthen to the knowledge base while contributing to innovation and capacity building.
• Ensure the education and inclusion teams are contributing to the thought leadership in learning and inclusion across the different sectors, with UN at large and as part of community addressing the learning crisis in the region
• Explore innovative partnerships, leveraging resources for education and learning which connect with other pertinent issues as climate crisis
• Work with wide range of stakeholders to forward Reimagine Education: high-impact technology for learning programmes and support and coordinate the five pillars of the global Reimagine Education programme (connectivity, world class digital learning solutions, affordable data, devices and youth engagement).
• Create new opportunities for and support regional resource mobilization, increase donors', private sector partners interest in quality transformative programmes and confidence in UNICEF's ability to deliver them.
• Strengthen UNICEF's leadership in delivering learning of education in humanitarian action, through interagency humanitarian mechanisms.

Management and Leadership Responsibilities

• Provide direction and managerial support to the ESA Regional Office Education and Inclusion team.
• Manage the sustainability of the RO Education and Inclusion team and meet timely budgetary requirements.
• Oversee and manage performance of direct report and ensure capacity development of the team to fulfill its roles and responsibilities.
• Ensure inclusive management and well-being of the Education and Inclusion team.
• Participate in the RO leadership team and contribute to CRITAS in the RO as in COs.
• Support the wider Regional Education and inclusion network through capacity building and other support.

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

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: education, economics, psychology, sociology or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of twelve (12) years of professional experience in social development planning and management in education and related areas at the international level is required.
• 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 and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

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 and (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

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 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:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female programme country nationals are encouraged to apply.

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 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.