Senior Adviser (Humanitarian Affairs) - P5 (#561335) - Fixed Term, Florence, Italy

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 110,869 USD and 138,944 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, humanitarian research

How can you make a difference?

Organizational Context and Purpose for the job

Job organizational context

UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight was created in September 2022 from the merger of two former UNICEF offices: the Office of Research-Innocenti, and the Office of Global Insight and Policy. The merger brings together the organization’s leading research and foresight expertise to establish a single unified office that will expand UNICEF’s knowledge base and its capability to act on the basis of evidence. UNICEF views research and foresight as complementary functions that can deepen the organization’s understanding of complexity in the present, and our planning for the future of children.

UNICEF Innocenti is committed to providing evidence-informed narratives that allow policy makers and practitioners to take actions to address important current and evolving issues facing children and young people. To this end we seek to provide UNICEF leadership at all levels – country, regional and global – with evidence-based tools that empower them to make the case for investments in children and young people. We identify gaps in evidence relevant to the world of children and young people, the world at large, and in the world of UNICEF while also seeking to maximize impact and uptake our foresight and research by deploying a wide variety of useful, engaging and insightful tools, products, events and collaboration. An emerging area of focus will develop a human security focus for children to understand how growing global risks, crises, fragile and humanitarian contexts threaten children’s well-being and rights, and ways to protect and promote their rights within these contexts.

UNICEF Innocenti’s approach has the objective of equipping and supporting leaders and decision-makers to take evidenced-based advocacy and programming to the next level, and look beyond the current challenges to the future they want to shape – together with children and young people. Shaping this future through evidence will entail UNICEF Innocenti focusing on three key workstreams in the coming years:

1. First, supporting children’s survival and development through evidence: Leverage global evidence to help UNICEF offices and government systems (including Education, Social Policy, Child Protection, Digital Engagement and Social and Behaviour Change) address current challenges for children and young people, and prepare for the future challenges for them by:

• Generating, synthesizing, curating and disseminating emerging evidence on challenges and opportunities for children and young people • Researching “what works” in child-related policies and actions, including in humanitarian contexts. • Assessing positive outcomes of synergetic cross-sectoral policy and programmatic efforts, including and improved responses to shocks and stressors. • Researching and curating the tacit experiences of UNICEF staff in humanitarian situations and fragile contexts to better understand and curate their evidence, experiences and expertise.

2. Second, understanding child and youth perspectives: Gain a better understanding – through research, foresight and engagement – of well-being today from the perspective of children and young people though our emerging evidence generation and synthesis on such issues as:

• Child Identity and Mental Health • Climate Justice and Sustainable Consumption (and what it takes to create future leaders who take responsibility) • Children in a Digital World • Child and Youth Exposure to Misinformation, Extremism and Radicalization • Child and Adolescent Subjective Wellbeing (their own views of what constitutes a good life)

A key area of focus will include co-creating platforms and forums for meaningful youth engagement with children and young people, and undertaking surveys and other forms of evidence generation and foresight analysis with children and young people.

3. Third, assessing the world at large and its implications for children and UNICEF: Identify geographic hotspots where children are likely to experience the largest impacts of the intersecting and overlapping crises and transitions (climate, financial, demographic, armed conflict) with a view to informing advocacy and programming through:

• Risk analysis of recent and ongoing crises, their impacts on families, children and communities and their coping mechanisms. • Analysis of longer-term trends, using existing data and possible trajectories related to these trends (geopolitical, economic, environmental, technological, health, social etc.) • Scenario planning and predictive analytics, providing quantitative and qualitative analysis of how trends could impact children in the future

The position will report to the Deputy Director, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, and will work across all three streams with a particular focus on how they relate to human security.

Purpose of the job

The Senior Adviser (Humanitarian Affairs) heads a section that carries with it three main responsibilities:

1. Serve as senior advisor on issues relevant to human security and children, including political analysis, peacebuilding, security risks, and human rights in armed conflict and broader crisis contexts. 2. Lead on incubating new topics for research and foresight, with a particular emphasis on the humanitarian sphere. 3. Serve as lead at UNICEF Innocenti on creating a research agenda relevant to staff members’ experiences in working with the organization, including in contexts of senior staff engagement in the context of human security crisis.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Senior Adviser on Human Security and Children

Provide advice on key human security issues, including those related to political and military security, with a clear focus on key issues facing children in armed conflict and other emergency situations. Provide guidance on key directions to unpack the research, foresight, programmatic and advocacy agenda ensuing from the ongoing global poly-crisis. Lead on partnerships development with government, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, other UN agencies and humanitarian organizations, academia, and private sector of relevance to the human security advisory position, with a view to strengthening the network of partners focusing on the protection of children’s rights in the ongoing global crisis. Lead on synthesizing what has been learnt and what works in emergency contexts.

Curating Key Experiences in Advancing Child Rights Advocacy at UNICEF

Gather experiences across all levels of the organization in advancing children’s rights through closed-door and public advocacy. Draw out lessons on what seems to work, taking into account the vastly different political contexts. With a view to expanding the role of advocacy and ensuring that UNICEF staff become increasingly aware of the basics of children’s rights in the organization, come up with models of how staff can access interesting materials on child rights advocacy to further build a pool of future leaders in UNICEF who are able to increasingly advance this area of work.

Curating Staff Members’ Experiences in Humanitarian and Fragile Contexts

Oversee opportunities for UNICEF senior staff to reflect on experiences from serving in emergencies and the key lessons for the organization from working in highly politicized and fragile contexts, including on negotiations with government and non-state actors and opening space for addressing complex child rights issues. Build up a library of important lessons and experiences, including on specific thematic issues that are consistently facing children in humanitarian contexts. Consider also in collaboration with DHR, certain areas of evidence on human resources and staff well-being practices that may help UNICEF in providing stronger leadership of staff serving in humanitarian contexts.

Incubating Research and Foresight Topics

Act as the focal point to nurture and facilitate new evidence areas of interest to UNICEF-Innocenti, UNICEF PG and UNICEF more broadly, ‘incubating’ such research until such a time as the work ‘graduates’ into new independent, established and financially-sustainable research streams producing evidence for children or scoping is concluded. Such work could also evolve in collaboration with regional offices to identify locally relevant research questions and future research issues coming down the track for children and young people.

Section Management and Profiling

As Chief of Section, directly develop and monitor an annual workplan and budget for the section in collaboration with other UNICEF Innocenti teams and wider partners. Mobilize interest and fundraise for team activities. Supervise, mentor and develop team members. Undertake results-reporting in terms of outputs and outcomes, ensuring that objectives and targets are achieved within appropriate timelines and quality standards.

Act as a member of the Office Management Team and participate in other relevant decision-making and advisory committees of the office as required by the Director. Act as a champion of research, foresight and evidence knowledge-brokering for children, helping to raise the visibility of the section, the office and UNICEF’s evidence work to both internal and external audiences, including through participation in relevant conferences, events and policy dialogue processes as needed.

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

Education: Advanced university degree in a relevant domain, including social sciences, law, and politics. Relevant work experience with other academic background can also be considered as fulfilling academic requirements as this particular position will require extensive field experience.

Experience: • A minimum of (10) years of progressively responsible and relevant work experience. • A background in evidence generation on emergency and/or humanitarian contexts, or human security approaches is desirable. • Track record in involvement in complex child/human rights advocacy, partnership building, and resource mobilization desirable. • Demonstrable experience of working in low and middle income country contexts required, with long-term country level experience seen as an advantage. • Excellent communication, advocacy and presentational skills with a demonstrated ability to champion the importance of evidence for children. • Some knowledge of organizational learning processes and the incentives and barriers to getting evidence into action is desirable. • Familiarity with the UN and its regulations and administrative systems desirable. • Excellent organizational skills with the ability to juggle and manage multiple linked workstreams. • Demonstrated commitment and ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and commitment to UNICEF and its vision.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required, knowledge of another UN working 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 (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:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.

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