Social Policy Officer, NO2, Yangon, (364 days, Extendable, Open to Myanmar Nationals Only)

Contract

This is a NO-2 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-2 contracts.

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

UNICEF Myanmar

Eliminating child poverty and ensuring access to social protection have been recognized as critical priorities of the Agenda 2030. An explicit requirement to measure and monitor multidimensional child poverty is included under SDG 1.1.2, and similarly, the need to accelerate progress around public spending for poverty reduction under SDG 1.a.2, and SDG 1.b.1 for which UNICEF has recently become a custodian. The effective scale-up of social protection, with a specific attention to children, is included as part of ensuring access to social protection, a core target of SDG 1 (Elimination of poverty), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). Moreover, social protection is also an accelerator for multiple other goals. Addressing the multiple and compounding deprivations experienced by children requires an explicit commitment to understand their drivers and to scale-up comprehensive strategies to address them. The full realization of the right of children of access to social protection and adequate standard of living will not only ensure that every child lives free of poverty, but also prevent those at risk or vulnerable to poverty due to exclusion and discrimination, or facing environmental and conflict-related risks, from falling into poverty.

Reducing child poverty, enhancing access to gender-transformative, and inclusive social protection, promoting efficiency, transparency and equity of financing, while strengthening capacities at subnational level, including in urban contexts, is critical. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development for every child.

UNICEF has articulated its contribution to this agenda and added value across various instruments including, the Social Protection Strategic Framework, the Call for Action on Inclusive Recovery and roadmap, the Urban Evaluation and Management Response, the social protection commitments to the Core Commitments on Children (CCS), as well as - most recently - in the new Goal Area 5 of UNICEF’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025, “Every Child has Access to Inclusive Social Protection and Lives Free of Poverty”.

How can you make a difference?

Under the general guidance of the supervisor, the Social Policy officer is accountable for providing technical support and assistance in all stages of social policy programming and related advocacy from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete and sustainable results. Specifically, this includes support for strengthening and expansion of integrated social protection systems and the delivery of UNICEF’s humanitarian cash transfers. This encompasses both direct programme work with partners as well as linkages and support to teams working on education, health, child protection, water and sanitation, and HIV.

Key functions and accountabilities of the position (detailed job description attached):

• Inclusive and shock-responsive social protection
• Humanitarian Cash Transfers (HCT)
• Cross-cutting social policy areas

Detail Job Description can be found here; Final JD-28102022 Social Policy Officer Level 2.docx

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

• A university degree in one of the following or related fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of (2) years of professional work experience in social protection and/or humanitarian assistance programmes is required.
• Experience in designing cash transfer programmes and/or support to their operations (e.g., community outreach, payment mechanisms, management information systems, grievance processes) would be considered as a strong asset.
• Experience in developing and managing partnerships with civil society and other organizations and reporting processes is an asset.
• Knowledge of the social protection landscape in Myanmar (e.g., the Maternal and Child Cash Transfer scheme) is an asset.
• Understanding of other sectoral and complementary interventions (e.g., social and behavioural change communication, nutrition) is an asset.
• Background and/or familiarity with emergencies and humanitarian contexts is 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, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) 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...

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

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, all eligible and suitable applicants are encouraged to apply.

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.