Social Policy Specialist (Social Protection) P4, Fixed-term, WCARO Dakar-Senegal

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 131,270 USD and 169,245 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, a childhood

How can you make a difference?

Under the general guidance of the Regional Social Policy Advisor, the incumbent is responsible for providing advice, technical support, and strategic guidance to the social protection programming component of 24 country offices in the West and Central Africa region. In particular, the Social Policy Specialist (Social Protection) will provide oversight, quality assurance, and technical support on the strengthening of social protection systems, the expansion of social protection coverage among children, the development of child-focused social protection programmes, notably cash transfers, and the strengthening of shock-responsive and child-sensitive capacity of social protection systems as well as their linkages with other sectors relevant to optimizing impacts on children. This includes support to social protection in humanitarian situations.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Providing effective technical support, quality assurance, and guidance on social protection programming in the region

• Provide support to development of evidence-based social protection policies, financing frameworks, legislation, coordination mechanisms, and child-sensitive social protection programmes with attention to increasing the coverage of and impact on children, with special attention to the most marginalized.
• Provide support to strengthening integrated social protection systems, design and delivery systems of cash transfer programmes and child grants, and improved linkages with other social protection interventions such as health insurance, public works and social care services as well as complementary services and interventions related to nutrition, health, education, water and sanitation, child protection and HIV.
• Develop capacity within COs teams around social protection programming.

Providing effective technical support to social protection evidence generation and system assessments

• Support research around social protection impacts on child outcomes and promote uptake of data and research findings for strengthening programme design and delivery. Ensure adequate dissemination of research findings, including through the development of policy briefs, and keep abreast of latest developments in the field of social protection for sharing with social policy teams in the region in view of strengthening social protection advocacy and programming.
• Support the work of the Transfer Project in the region and the collaboration with the UNICEF Office of Research and research institutes in the region.
• Support assessments of social protection systems, including financing and spending, with a focus on the extent to which they are child- and gender-sensitive, as well as regarding their shock-responsive capacity, to inform the regional social protection systems strengthening agenda.
• Support COs in managing the collection, analysis, and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, including strengthening national capacity to collect routinely, report and use data for policy decision-making.

Providing effective support for establishing and developing social protection partnerships at country and regional level

• Manage the UNICEF contributions to the Regional Social Protection Platform, and represent the region in relevant social protection meetings, webinars, and advocacy events. Ensure adequate relationships with the regional Cash Working Group.
• Coordinate and support the roll-out of the TRANSFORM initiative in the region, in close consultation with TRANSFORM Hub, Steering Committee, and partners.
• Support assessments of social protection systems, regarding the extent to which they are child- and gender-sensitive, as well as their shock-responsive capacity.
• Establish strong substantive work relations with UN partners, notably ILO and WFP, bilateral development partners, notably Germany and the EU, and multilateral partners such as the World Bank, including through its Adaptive Social Protection programme in the Sahel.
• Provide technical support and promote the convening role of the regional office vis-à-vis regional intergovernmental institutions such as ECOWAS, African Union, and regional civil society organizations. This includes collaboration to strengthen exchange of evidence and relevant social protection programming information, advocacy, and support to implementing regional and sub-regional programmes and activities.

Providing effective support to the integration of social protection into strategies and support aimed at achieving UNICEF West and Central Africa’s Key Results for Children (KRCs).

• Provide technical support to Regional Office leads for each of the eight (8) Key Results for Children to ensure adequate integration to social protection as accelerator strategy. Ensure adequate inter-sectoral coordination and collaboration with regional office program sections, and the cash-based programming task force.
• Participate in regional analytical work, planning, budgeting, monitoring, and coordination related to the role of social protection in the implementation of the Regional Office Management Plan.
• Collaborate with the Regional Office Emergency team around systematically ensuring linkages between Humanitarian Cash and Social Protection.
• Manage the planning, budgeting, and monitoring of the social protection component of the Social Policy work plan for the Regional Office. Initiate activities to mobilize financial resources for social protection in the region and support the development of proposals for country offices and for the regional office.
• Ensure relevant and strong work relationships with social protection colleagues in other regional offices and in HQ.

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 technical field.
• A minimum of eight years of relevant professional work experience is required, in managing (technical support to) the design and delivery of social protection programmes, including cash transfers, social protection policy development, and the strengthening of social protection systems.
• Experience working in the West and Central Africa region is considered as a strong asset.
• Background and/or familiarity with emergency is considered as a strong asset.
• Fluency in English and French 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 values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are:

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (3)
• Works Collaboratively with others (3)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (3)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (3)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (3)
• Drives to achieve impactful results (3)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (3)

The functional competencies required for this post are:

• Analysing (3)
• Persuading & Influencing (2)
• Planning & Organizing (3)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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.

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.