Representative, D-1, Papua New Guinea

Contract

This is a D-1 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 15 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 206,961 USD and 261,163 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, dedication.

The Representative serves as the accredited representative of UNICEF in the country and reports to the Regional Director for general direction and oversight. The Representative is responsible for establishing dialogue with the Government to develop the framework of cooperation in the country and for working closely and collaboratively with the Government and national institutions, stakeholders and partners, to develop the Government-UNICEF Country Programme of Cooperation in active support of efforts to advance children’s rights as established under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, other international treaties/frameworks, the SDGs, and UN intergovernmental bodies.

As Head of a medium size Country Office, the Representative is responsible for providing leadership and vision to the UNICEF Country Office team in managing and leveraging resources for the achievement of results and realization of the rights of children. The Representative leads and oversees the various programme sectors and operations teams ensuring delivery of quality results in accordance with UNICEF’s Strategic Plans, standards of performance and accountability framework, ethics and integrity. The Representative is accountable for upholding UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability, and ensuring the establishment and maintenance of a non-discriminatory, inclusive and nurturing working environment for all staff and personnel, to enable them to effectively and efficiently deliver high-quality results for children.

How can you make a difference?

The Representative’s key functions and accountabilities include:

• Developing and planning the Country Programme
• Ensuring under the ONE UN, CP priority alignment within the UNSDCF
• Leading and managing the Country Office
• Monitoring and quality control of the Country Programme
• Representation and external relations at global, regional, and national level including private sector
• Delivering high quality results for children, including in a complex operating environment
• Support to the Resident Coordinator and UN Country Team to advance the UN Cooperation Framework
• Leading resource mobilization efforts and nurturing and strengthening partnerships
• Leading innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
• Safety, security, and wellbeing of staff, programmes and organizational assets

To qualify as a champion for every child you will have…

Qualifications:

• An Advanced University Degree in social sciences, international relations, government and public relations, public or social policy, sociology, social or community development or other related fields, is required.
• A minimum of 13 years of professional development experience that combines intellectual and managerial leadership in development cooperation at the international level, some of which served in developing countries is required. Relevant professional experience in any UN system agency or organization is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or a local language is an asset.

Person Profile

• Strong background in development, both upstream and at community level, with knowledge of a broad range of children's issues to lead and guide UNICEF's work in a challenging context
• Demonstrated ability to leverage resources with national and international partners, including private sector.
• Strong commitment and experience with UN coherence
• Demonstrated strong experience with emergency preparedness, response and staff security
• Demonstrated team building and leading experience within a complex cultural environment.

Country Typology:

• Country Income Level: Lower Middle
• Duty Station: Port Moresby is a “D”, family duty station.
• Office Size: 46 Staff, 17 IP (24% Female, 65% Programme)
• Annual Budget: 17,174,000
• Good for 1st Time Rep: No
• Schooling: Several international schools including one IB School Port Moresby International School

Brief country context:

• Papua New Guinea is one of the world’s most diverse countries in terms of biodiversity, ethnicity and linguistics (over 850 languages are spoken). It comprises approximately 463,000 km2, including the eastern half of New Guinea Island, the New Britain, New Ireland and Bougainville islands and over 600 smaller islands, 27 per cent of which are inhabited. With an annual growth rate of 2.3 per cent, the estimated population in 2022 was 10.1 million. Forty-three per cent are children, 14 per cent are aged 0 to 4 years and 17 per cent are aged 10 to 17 years.
• This rapid growth, combined with the mountainous terrain, small scattered islands, poor transportation networks and expensive air travel, poses enormous challenges for the provision of basic services and infrastructure. Rural areas host 85 per cent of the population and 80 per cent of the poor, resulting in substantial migration from rural to urban areas, thus creating new challenges for cities, including informal settlements with poor infrastructure and housing and higher levels of unemployment and crime.
• Papua New Guinea did not achieve any of the Millennium Development Goals, despite some progress in health, education and other sectors. Persistent challenges remain in addressing poverty, low levels of literacy, tuberculosis/rubella, maternal mortality, nutrition, immunization, family planning, environmental sustainability, gender and global partnerships.
• Violence, gender discrimination and other harmful practices are socially normalised. The DHS 2016-2018 reported that 27 per cent of girls were married before the age of 18, 75 per cent of children experienced physical violence and 80 per cent experienced verbal abuse in their lifetime.
• Low income and highly ethnically diverse country. Delivering as One country context. Strong presence of extractive industries with significant national resources. High cost operating environment specifically logistics and security. Increasingly high levels of widespread insecurity. 2018 witnessed within the fragile and insecure country of PNG the declaration of Polio Emergency, Civil unrest Emergency, and Earthquake Emergency.

For every child, you demonstrate…

Core Values

• Commitment
• Respect
• Integrity
• Trust
• Accountability
• Sustainability

Leadership Competencies

• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others
• Nurtures, leads and manages people

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Remarks

This position is classified as “rotational” which means the incumbent is expected to rotate to another duty station upon completion of their tour of duty.

This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is either: a role with direct contact with children, works directly with child, is a safeguarding response role or has been assessed as an elevated risk role for child safeguarding. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) applies.

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.

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.