Social policy specialist

Contract

This is a UNV International Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as International UN Volunteer. It is normally internationally recruited only. More about UNV International Specialist contracts.

UNICEF in Benin cooperates with government organizations, as well as with civil society organizations, independent human rights institutions, the private sector and the media. The overall goal of the country programme (2019-2023) is to support the efforts of Benin to promote and protect the rights of all children and to give all children equal opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF’s work spans from early childhood development, a healthy childhood, inclusive education, childcare system reform, justice for children, to addressing violence and giving adolescents who are veering off track a second chance to reach their full potential. Given that traditional approaches are not always the most efficient and successful, the UNV will support UNICEF office in Benin in mainstreaming social innovation throughout its programmes to test and scale up new partnerships, technologies, and collaborations to help Benin to realise its children’ rights.

Under the supervision and technical guidance of the Chief Social Policy, and in close coop-eration with the other sections, the UNV – Social Policy will be responsible of the develop-ment, coordination, and monitoring of innovative social protection initiatives, follow up of SDG at national and local levels, PF4C and other related flagship initiatives.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Contribute to the evidence generation to support budget advocacy with the Government and Parliament: • Provide technical support to the Ministry of Health to elaborate a study for the creation of fiscal space and a financing plan for the neonatal health and immunization • Provide technical support to the Municipalities for the creation of fiscal space for health and nutrition • Contributed to the organization of a high level advocacy with the National Assem-bly for the promotion and protection of social spending Provide technical support to Ministry of Finance (DGB) and Civil Society (Social Watch Benin) on budget transparency, citizen participation and social accountability • Support the Budget Directorate (DGB) for the elaboration and publication of budget transparency documents both at national and local level • Provide technical support to Social Watch Benin for the implementation of the mech-anism of participation of civil society organization in budget and social accountability process.

Provide technical support to generate evidence on child poverty and to monitor the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): • Technique support to monitor and to ensure quality assurance of Child situation analy-sis report • Technical support to develop the annual SDG monitoring reports • Technical support to realize the study on the impact of multiple shocks on the con-sumption structure and household resilience

Provide technical support to strengthen the capacities of national and local actors (MASM) on design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of inclusive and gender sensitive social protection programmes:

• Technical support to the revision of Holistic Social Protection Policy (PHPS) • Ensure and maintain effective partnership with social protection stakeholders in Benin • Technical support to develop the fourth generation Communal Development Plans for the communes of Alibori, Borgou and Zou

Provide technical support to strengthen in strengthening Social Protection donors’ group: • Participate in regular donors’ meeting in social protection and/or exchange infor-mation with partners/stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support, take appropriate action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for resolu-tion. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results. • Participate in monitoring and follow up of decisions taken by the donors’ meetings in social protection and its annual work plan.

Closely and collaboratively with internal and external colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues, provide solutions, recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decision. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned. • Participate in regular program field visits and surveys and/or exchange information with partners/stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support, take ap-propriate action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution. Re-port on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results. • Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, program reviews and annual re-views with government and other counterparts to assess programs/projects and to report on required action/interventions at the higher level of program management.

Establish networking and partnership building: • Contribute to developing partnerships and network with local innovators, youth organ-izations, government, NGOs, cultural and religious organisations, the private sector, local media and academia to build and provide a space to nurture and test new and innovative ideas, develop the next generation of thought leaders and build local ca-pacity. • Support the identification of opportunities for resource mobilisation and new partner-ships and support proposal and partnership development efforts in close collaboration with other UNICEF programmes and UN agencies.

Ensure knowledge management and capacity building: • Document innovation projects in areas of Social Protection and Public Finances for Children PF4C and processes and ensure effective sharing and generation of knowledge around innovations in the Country Office as well as with UNICEF globally. • Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the compe-tencies of clients/stakeholders.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to: - Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); - Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; - Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities; - Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; - Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; - Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

☒ Adaptability and Flexibility ☒ Building Trust ☒ Commitment and Motivation ☒ Commitment to Continuous Learning ☒ Communication ☒ Creativity ☒ Empowering Others ☒ Ethics and Values ☒ Integrity ☒ Managing Performance ☒ Planning and Organizing ☒ Technological Awareness ☒ Working in Teams

• Project/programme management, monitoring and evaluation in the area of Public Finance Management or Development Finances
• Experience in SDG follow up, including in pandemic/ emergency situations an asset.

The contract lasts for the period indicated above with possibility of extensions subject to availability of funding, operational necessity and satisfactory performance. However, there is no expectation of renewal of the assignment. A UN Volunteer receives a Volunteer Living Allowance (VLA) per month and is paid at the end of each month to cover housing, utilities, transportation, communications and other basic needs. The VLA can be computed by applying the Post-Adjustment Multiplier (PAM) to the VLA base rate of US$1282. The VLA base rate is a global rate, while the PAM is country-specific and fluctuates on a monthly basis according to the cost of living. This method en-sures that international UN Volunteers have comparable purchasing power at all duty stations irrespective of varying costs of living. The PAM is established by the International Civil Ser-vice Commission (ICSC) and is published at the beginning of every month on the ICSC web-site http://icsc.un.org. For example, kindly enter the link Calculator In non-family duty stations that belong to hardship categories D or E, as classified by the ICSC, international UN Volunteers receive a Well-Being Differential (WBD) on a monthly ba-sis. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are provided a settling-in-grant (SIG) at the start of the assign-ment (if the volunteer did not reside in the duty station for at least 6 months prior to taking up the assignment) and also in the event of a permanent reassignment to another duty station. UNV provides life, health, permanent disability insurances as well as assignment travel, an-nual leave, full integration in the UN security framework (including residential security reim-bursements). UN Volunteers are paid Daily Subsistence Allowance at the UN rate for official travels, flight tickets for the final repatriation travel (if applicable). A resettlement allowance is paid for satis-factory service at the end of the assignment. UNV will provide, together with the offer of assignment, a copy of the Conditions of Service, including Code of conduct, to the successful candidate.