Social Policy Specialist (Social Protection), P-3, Addis Ababa, Open to non-Ethiopian nationals only

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 120,185 USD and 157,373 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

Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa and is the second most populous country on the continent with an estimated population of 115 million. It borders six African countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, and covers 1,104,300 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African cultures evident in the religious, ethnic, and language composition of its people.

Over the past two years, children and their families across Ethiopia faced multiple and complex emergencies, such as the conflict in the northern Ethiopia and the drought, which resulted in millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. UNICEF has programmes in Child Protection, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, and Education and serves over 15 million children in Ethiopia. Join UNICEF Ethiopia to contribute to improving the lives of children and women.

To see our year in review, please click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx_DayHVFVA

How can you make a difference?

Purpose:

The social protection portfolio is growing rapidly, both in size and complexity, with high donor expectations and demands. Since mid-2020, there has also been a consistent expansion of humanitarian response through the social protection system, both for COVID-19 and, more recently, for conflict-affected and climate-induced shocks causing massive displacements. This is a rapidly evolving area of work for the Social Protection team and requires additional support to ensure effective and quality delivery.

Therefore, this role will provide technical and operational inputs to support UNICEF’s engagement in the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), Urban Productive Safety Net Programme (UPSNP), and humanitarian cash transfer response programming. The role will also strengthen the technical capacities of government from the Federal to Woreda levels to design, implement and expand an integrated safety net system for the most vulnerable women and children in rural and urban areas.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Strengthening social protection coordination, coverage, and impact for children

• Supports the development of federal and regional social protection directives and programmes, with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention to 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, coordination, and implementation of cash transfers such as PSNP/UPSNP through learning from ISNP.
• Improve linkages with other social protection interventions such as CBHI and complementary services and interventions related to nutrition, health, education, child protection, and water and sanitation.
• Supports improved monitoring around social protection’s impact on child outcomes.
• Supports implementation and engagement with relevant partners to deliver humanitarian cash transfers in regions facing both natural and human-induced shocks.

Strengthening the capacity of the government to plan, budget, monitor and implement child-focused social protection

• Support the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA) in the effective implementation of an integrated safety net system for the most vulnerable women and children in rural and urban Ethiopia, with a geographical focus on the Amhara region and Addis Ababa.
• Support MoWSA and regional bodies to manage the process and co-responsibility linkages for Permanent and Temporary Direct.
• Support clients and destitute groups for the existing safety net programmes in the country.
• Support MoWSA and regional bodies to effectively deliver and monitor humanitarian cash transfers in-line with government and UNICEF protocols.
• Support the annual work plan development with relevant government partners (e.g., MoWSA) at the Federal and Regional levels.
• Coordinate with government and UNICEF field offices and programme sections to ensure workplan deliverables are on-track.
• Support the government through programme visits and other joint monitoring processes to strengthen implementation and accountability.

Strengthened advocacy and partnerships for child-sensitive social protection

• Supports accurate and compelling use of data and evidence on the situation of children, coverage, and impact of child-sensitive social protection services.
• Establishes effective partnerships with the Government, NGOs, civil society, and other UN agencies to support the implementation of ISNP and complementary social protection programming.
• Identifies other critical partners, promotes awareness, builds capacity of partners, and actively facilitates effective collaboration within other agencies.
• Supports advocacy efforts for the scale-up of ISNP, including the social workforce at the regional level.

UNICEF programme management

• Supports the management and coordination of technical assistance around child-sensitive social protection, ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion to adequately support scale-up and delivery.
• Ensures risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into the overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, cooperating partners, and government.
• Supports and contributes to effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation of ISNP.
• Contributes to relevant donor reports concerning pilot programme activities.

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

• Master’s degree in one of the following fields is required: economics or economic sciences, politics, public policy, sociology, social protection, social work and other social sciences, development, or other related programmes.
• A minimum of Five years (5 years) of relevant professional work experience in social protection/social policy, including humanitarian and development involvement.
• Demonstrable professional experience in the Social Protection sector and extensive and applied knowledge of relevant Social Protection actions in developing country contexts.
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience in social protection in emergencies, including humanitarian cash transfers.
• Excellent programme planning, implementation, and monitoring skills
• Work experience in economic data collection and analysis, performing literature searches and report writing, producing technical fiscal/economic papers with policy recommendations; policy advocacy; providing training; and preferably working with national collaborators and civil society to implement social protection.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (French, Spanish, Arabic, or Russian) or the local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of:

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

CRITAS underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

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

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, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.