Social Policy Specialist (Preparedness, SRSP and Humanitarian Cash Transfers) P4 -Fixed Term Appointment- ECARO O/P Geneva, Switzerland PN

Contract

This is a P-4 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 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 168,113 USD and 216,746 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, Deliver

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”.

UNICEF’s regional office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) is responsible for providing technical support, quality assurance, and strategic guidance to 22 country offices. The Social Policy and Economic Analysis section engages in diverse contexts – high, middle, and low income countries; conflict-affected and stable – providing guidance on social protection, child poverty, public finance for children, and local governance.

In recent years, UNICEF ECARO has scaled up programming in the areas of shock-responsive social protection and humanitarian cash transfers. Though coverage of social protection programmes in the region is generally higher than average and social protection systems in many countries are well-developed, the region is exposed to a wide range of shocks and stressors that point to the need to improve the way systems respond during an emergency. In recent years, countries in the region have been impacted by natural disaster including earthquakes (e.g., Croatia, Turkey) and floods (e.g., Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan). COVID-19 took a toll across the region, both directly and through decreased economic activity. Conflict has impacted the region both directly (Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, Ukraine war and displacement) and indirectly (Syrian refugee crisis in Turkey, Afghan refugees in Central Asia). The current economic crisis is having a significant impact on the region, and particularly on Central Asian countries and the Caucasus. At a regional level, UNICEF has responded by scaling up capacity development and support to country staff and governments on areas related to shock response and humanitarian cash transfers. However, there are still significant gaps and support needs that require dedicated expertise.

Under the general supervision and guidance of the Regional Advisor – Social Policy and Economic Analysis, the Social Policy Specialist (Social Protection in Emergencies) works to improve linkages and address challenges impacting many households at once such as natural hazards, economic crises, and conflict. Specifically, the Social Policy Specialist (Social Protection in Emergencies) supports country offices and the regional office to model approaches, conduct analysis and advocate for better preparedness to enable systems - existing or new social protection or emergency programmes in the region - to be ready to accommodate new populations and needs as a result of a shock. S/he also supports country offices to design, oversee the implementation, monitor, evaluate and improve the delivery of UNICEF’s humanitarian cash transfer programme(s) in the region; ensures that country teams (social policy, operations, and relevant sectors) have the appropriate skills and knowledge to design and implement HCT operations; and helps to solidify UNICEF’s position as a global leader on HCT within the ECA region.

How can you make a difference?

The Social Policy Specialist is responsible for the following functions: 1. Shock-responsive social protection 2. Humanitarian cash transfers 3. Cross-cutting social policy areas/operational and management tasks

Specifically, the Social Policy Specialist (Social Protection in Emergencies) performs:

Shock responsive social protection • Develop a regional SRSP/HCT strategy, including a regional Capacity Development strategy targeting both UNICEF staff and key government partners • Advises and supports country offices on minimum preparedness requirements related to both social protection and humanitarian cash transfers. • Provide support and technical assistance to COs at all stages of implementation - from planning and design to in-country implementation support, undertaking of risk assessments, monitoring, coordination with national social protection and cash working groups, documentation and revision of processes (SOPs and/or operational guidance) • Promotes the strengthening of a shock-responsive social protection system. Supports country offices to apply evidence and appropriate advocacy messaging across the entire spectrum of social protection from a risk perspective, including inter alia: evidence and analysis; contingency planning; strengthening horizontal and vertical coordination between social protection, emergency response; and humanitarian principles, commitments and links between social protection and Humanitarian Cash Transfers. • Supports dialogue, convenes and coordinates with key players in the region, including donor organizations, civil society, and other international organizations (UN and beyond). This includes, where applicable, participation in regional coordination activities. • Conducts operational analysis of the SPiE/HCT programmes, identifying areas for improvement, resolution of implementation bottlenecks, provide quality assurance and identify solutions such as design improvements, additional trainings and technical support. • Supports country offices to improve the quality of MIS and other key operational elements of social protection programmes.

Humanitarian Cash Transfers • Provides technical inputs on the country offices’ and regional strategic positioning on cash in emergencies. • Builds the operational capacity of both country teams and governments to design and implement all aspects of HCT programmes. • Support country offices to conduct operational analysis of cash transfer programmes, including registration, payment, verification exercises, etc., to identify areas of poor performance, bottlenecks, and identify solutions. • Liaises regularly with all key organizational stakeholders – internal and external - through the established coordination mechanisms to help shape the global HCT response and ensure it reflects the ECAR context. • Contributes substantially to drafting and disseminates/ensures take-up in country offices of UNICEF’s HCTs-related guidance and tools as well as, where appropriate, inter-agency strategies and operational guidelines. • Documents ECAR’s field experience with HCTs, including new models of implementation and programmatic approaches, joint programmes delivery and coordination and others for subsequent dissemination. • Produces knowledge management products for cash transfer programmes documenting good practices and lessons learned. • Ensures that all risk-related systems are maintained and risk mitigation measures are in place per corporate HCT risk management processes. • Support country offices to understand and report against HPM indicators, SitReps, etc. • Undertake in-country surge assignments as requested by COs to support implementation of SPiE.

Cross-cutting social policy areas • Supports resource mobilization and partnership activities at the country, multi-country, and regional level, including development and/or review of proposals and support to donor reporting on SPiE activities. • Participates actively in recruitment of essential posts related to this area of work. • Contribute to regional and global analytical products on SRSP and HCT, as needed. • Represent UNICEF’s SRSP and HCT work in regional and global fora with partners and stakeholders. • Build strategic alliances with various international and regional partners, national associations, think tanks, entrepreneurs, academics, religious organizations and NGOs active in the area of SRSP and HCTs. • Contribute to the effective management of the regional Social Policy programme, including through support to budget oversight, updates of workplans and regional management plans, support to country office annual reporting, maintaining and updating travel and recruitment tools, ensuring effective knowledge management of SRSP and HCT products, effective allocation of donor resources, and support to reporting processes, where relevant.

Impact of Results:

Emergency preparedness and the ability to rapidly extend and expand social protection as a result of a shock cuts across all dimensions of the UNICEF’s programming that aims to uphold children’s rights in emergency contexts. It contributes towards the results under Goal Area 5 of UNICEF’s strategic plan and towards the results in other areas.

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

• An advanced university degree in Economics, Statistics, or a related field is preferred. Advanced university degree in Public Policy and/or Administration or other relevant discipline will be considered.
• A minimum of eight years of professional work experience in social protection, including operational and strategic leadership on social protection in emergency settings or programmatic humanitarian cash transfer experience where linkages to government work has been made is required.
• Demonstrated experience managing SRSP and HCT programmes from an operational perspective is required.
• Experience in programme design and management and policy advocacy is required.
• Extensive experience with emergencies and humanitarian contexts, including work in contexts with complex risks related to natural hazards, economic crises, and/or conflicts is required
• Experience in cash transfer programme design and management and policy advocacy is required.
• Background, familiarity and/or knowledge of mainstreaming specific programmes of delivering cash in emergencies into the larger social protection system is a strong asset.
• Demonstrated experience with capacity development of partners is required.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered 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 and Accountability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

Core Values:

• Care
• Respect
• Integrity
• Trust
• Accountability
• Sustainability

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.

Core Competencies

• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Drive to Achieve Results for Impact (3)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Manages Ambiguity and Complexity (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Works Collaboratively with Others (3)

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 committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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.

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 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.