Social Policy Specialist (Shock Responsive Social Protection), P-3, UNICEF Somalia Support Centre, Nairobi, Kenya (Somalia Country Office), 364 days

Overview

Advise on social protection systems to support children's needs in emergencies.

You have:

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant field.
• A minimum of five years of professional work experience in strategic and operational aspects of social protection systems is required.
• Experience in programme design and management and policy advocacy is required.
• Experience in cash transfer programme design and management and policy advocacy is considered a strong asset.
• Experience working in developing countries/contexts is considered as a strong asset.
• Background and/or familiarity with emergencies and humanitarian contexts is considered as a strong 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.

Contract

This is a P-3 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 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 105,180 USD and 137,726 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, Protection

www.unicef.org/somalia

How can you make a difference?

Shock responsive social protection

• Advises and supports the country office on minimum preparedness requirements. Conducts needs assessment to inform the design of programmes addressing barriers to meet humanitarian needs.
• Promotes the strengthening of a shock-responsive social protection system by applying 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 different parts of the government at national and subnational level, with other sectors, with other actors e.g., civil society organizations and with the international organizations (UN and beyond). This includes, where applicable, cluster coordination activities.
• Designs CSSP programme, including inter alia setting benefit levels, eligibility / targeting criteria, transfer values, administration and delivery systems. Ensures operational linkages and referral between the programme and relevant social sectors.
• Oversees the implementation of CSSP programme. Ensures that a sound, efficient and timely monitoring takes place through MIS to collects data, carry out analysis and provide reporting. This specifically relates to registration, payment, verification, complaints and other indicators to enable identification of bottlenecks and execution of improvements including in the design of the programme or through capacity building or technical support in its implementation.

Delivery of Humanitarian Cash Transfers – operational aspects of HCT (programme design/implementation/monitoring)

• Identifies or sets up reliable and digitalized payment systems to increase the efficiency, accountability and transparency of HCTs, while reaching more and the most vulnerable children in fragile humanitarian contexts.
• Helps build infrastructure and capacity that enables linkages of cash transfer programmes with other social protection interventions. Works to ensure sustainability and to avoid fragmentation through – where possible – the subsequent integration of cash transfer programmes into existing systems.
• Conducts operational analysis of cash transfer programmes, including registration, payment, verification exercises, etc., to identify areas of poor performance, bottlenecks, and identify solutions.
• Coordinates and supports payment verification and other elements of the HCTs programmes’ monitoring according to the established monitoring frameworks and schedules.

Cross-cutting social policy areas

• Assesses how specific vulnerabilities are tied to multifaceted aspects of poverty and the contribution social protection has on reducing exclusion, to mainstream inclusion, particularly as it relates to gender, disability and migration. Works towards gender-responsive-transformative, disability-inclusive and migrant-inclusive systems by integrating the inclusion lens into social protection systems, policies and programmes.
• Develops approaches to identify social and behavioural change needs and undertakes interventions for the meaningful accountability to affected populations and community engagement.
• .Monitors current technological trends, new modalities of working applicable to social protection versus current and emerging needs to assess their role and match their potential applicability to social protection for enhanced outcomes for children.

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

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant field.
• A minimum of five years of professional work experience in strategic and operational aspects of social protection systems is required.
• Experience in programme design and management and policy advocacy is required.
• Experience in cash transfer programme design and management and policy advocacy is considered a strong asset.
• Experience working in developing countries / contexts is considered as a strong asset.
• Background and/or familiarity with emergencies and humanitarian contexts is considered as a strong 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 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…

(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.

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 only considers Higher education qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates 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.

Potential interview questions