The Social Policy Officer GJP is to be used in a UNICEF country office. Under the supervisor’s guidance, the Social Policy Officer provides technical support throughout the social policy programme cycle, from planning to implementation. The role focuses on strengthening public policies to reduce child poverty, expanding effective social protection, improving child-focused public investments, and supporting governance and accountability reforms that enhance equity and service delivery. The position involves working directly with government and civil society partners, while also supporting related work across education, health, child protection, WASH, and HIV programmes.

Improving data on child poverty & vulnerability for increased use for policy and programme action

• Supports the collection, analysis and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, including strengthening national capacity to collect routinely, report and use data for policy decision-making.

• Provides timely, regular data-driven analysis for effective prioritization, planning, and development; facilitates results-based management for planning, adjusting, and scaling-up specific social policy initiatives to reduce child poverty.

• Analyzes the macroeconomic context and its impact on social development, emerging issues and social policy concerns, as well as implications for children, and proposes and promotes appropriate responses in respect of such issues and concerns, including government resource allocation policies and the effect of social welfare policies on the rights of children

Strengthening social protection coverage and impact for children

• Supports the development of social protection policies, legislation and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention the most marginalized. Identifies, generates and presents evidence to support this goal in collaboration with partners.

• Supports strengthening of integrated social protection systems, providing technical support to partners to improve the design of cash transfers and child grants and improve linkages with other social protection interventions such as health insurance, public works and social care services as well as complementary services and intervention related to nutrition, health, education, water and sanitation, child protection and HIV.

• Supports improved monitoring and research around social protection impact on child outcomes, and use of data and research findings for strengthening programme results.

Improving use of public financial resources for children

• Undertakes budget analysis to inform UNICEF’s advocacy and technical assistance to Ministries of Finance, planning commissions and social sector ministries to improve equitable allocations for essential services for children. Works with sector colleagues to build capacity to undertake costing and cost effectiveness analysis on priority interventions to help inform policy decisions on child-focused investments.

• Supports the identification of policy options for improved domestic financing of child-sensitive social protection interventions.

• Undertakes and builds capacity of partners for improved monitoring and tracking of public expenditure to support transparency, accountability and effective financial flows for essential service delivery, including through support to district level planning, budgeting and public financial management as well as facilitating community participation

Strengthening capacity of local governments to plan, budget, consult on and monitor child-focused social services.

• Where national decentralization processes are taking place, collaborates with central and local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation and accountability processes so that decisions and child-focused service delivery more closely respond to the needs of local communities.

• Collaborates with the central and local authorities to strengthen capacity on quality data collection, analysis for policy development, planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring of essential social services, with emphasis on community participation and accountability.

Strengthened advocacy and partnerships for child-sensitive social policy

• Supports correct and compelling use of data and evidence on the situation of children and coverage and impact of child focused services – in support of the social policy programme and the country programme overall.

• Establishes effective partnerships with the Government, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, civil society and local leaders, the private sector, and other UN agencies to support sustained and proactive commitment to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and to achieve global UN agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals.

• Identifies other critical partners, promotes awareness and builds capacity of partners, and actively facilitates effective collaboration within the UN family.

UNICEF Programme Management

• Helps manage and coordinate technical support around child poverty, social protection, public finance and governance ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion so as to adequately support scale-up and delivery. Ensures risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.

• Supports and contributes to effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the country programme. Ensures that the social planning project enhances policy dialogue, planning, supervision, technical advice, management, training, research and support; and that the monitoring and evaluation component strengthens monitoring and evaluation of the social sectors and provides support to sectoral and decentralized information systems.

• Builds and maintains partnerships (I) • Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (I) • Drive to achieve results for impact (I) • Innovates and embraces change (I) • Manages ambiguity and complexity (I) • Thinks and acts strategically (I) • Works collaboratively with others (I)

Experience working in a developing country is considered as a strong asset. Background and/or familiarity with emergency is considered as a strong asset.

As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials.

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Potential interview questions

Can you describe a time when you had to analyze data to inform a policy decision?	The interviewer wants to assess your analytical skills and experience in data-driven decision making.	Share specific examples of how your analysis impacted policy outcomes.
How have you collaborated with government and civil society partners in your previous roles?	This question seeks to evaluate your partnership-building skills.	Pro members can see the explanation.
What approaches do you use to advocate for child-sensitive policies?	Pro members can see the explanation.	Pro members can see the explanation.
Describe how you've contributed to improving social protection systems.	Pro members can see the explanation.	Pro members can see the explanation.
How do you ensure community participation in social policy initiatives?	Pro members can see the explanation.	Pro members can see the explanation.
Can you give an example of how you worked on a budget analysis for social programs?	Pro members can see the explanation.	Pro members can see the explanation.
What strategies do you utilize to champion accountability in social service delivery?	Pro members can see the explanation.	Pro members can see the explanation.
Tell me about a time you navigated ambiguity in a program. How did you manage it?	Pro members can see the explanation.	Pro members can see the explanation.

Every open position in the UN in Elections & Governance located in Maiduguri