Social Protection and Public Finance for Children Specialist, NOC, 364 Days, Kenya Country Office, Nairobi #124139 (Open to Kenyan Nationals Only)

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Application deadline 11 months ago: Tuesday 4 Apr 2023 at 20:55 UTC

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Contract

This is a NO-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-3 contracts.

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

In terms of Social Protection, UNICEF has been playing a critical role in supporting the scale-up of an innovative government-led integrated cash transfer programme for children by providing technical assistance to the State Department for Social Protection. The programme, called Nutrition Improvement through Cash and Health Education (NICHE), is demonstrating how government can reduce malnutrition and improve ECD outcomes at scale by expanding social assistance for children and caregivers. While NICHE has recorded many successes and seen strong uptake by the government, at the same time, there remain several risks relating to its full and successful scale-up which will require intensive support from UNICEF. We continue to engage closely with the SDSP and World Bank under the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) to ensure that the achievements made are safeguarded and built upon to address the critical gaps in social protection coverage for children in the country.

Social policy | UNICEF

How can you make a difference?

Under the direct supervision of the Social Protection Specialist, with the co-supervision of the Social Policy and Economics Specialist, The selected candidate will deliver 50% on social protection and 50% on public finance management. S/he will work within the Social Policy section and in cooperation with section colleagues. S/he will interact with a variety of stakeholders, including other sections within UNICEF, national and county government representatives, implementing partners, development partners including UN agencies, World Bank, donors, firms and consultants supporting the section’s work. The selected candidate will:

  • Provide Technical Assistance and Strategic Coordination of NICHE with Governments at the national and county levels”
  • Act as Programme Manager for the cross-sectoral work of the NICHE Programme and ensure internal UNICEF coordination
  • Support in the implementation of a sustainability strategy for NICHE and linking to broader discussions on the scale-up of social assistance for children, including universal child benefit pilot and county-level maternal and child grants.
  • Support the evaluation and assessment of NICHE
  • Designing of the UNICEF Kenya office-wide Early Child Development (ECD) Financing Programme with the Government being central to the investment and the programme to be anchored in the National Treasury Budget Department. Ensuring the ECD Financing Programme speaks to human capital development and the demographic dividend returns for Kenya and promoting collaboration with World Bank.
  • Work closely with the Social Policy and Health teams to design e a programme on financing for health, including the influencing towards the adoption and upscale of the Health Facilities Improvement Fund at the county level and a national policy/legislation to guide the same. The Financing for Health will closely be linked to the ECD Financing in ii above.
  • Support in the linkages for financing for social protection especially creating the working coordination mechanisms between the Ministry for Social Protection, National Treasury and Planning, other line ministries and county governments.
  • Support in influencing intergovernmental policies and budgeting impacting national and county governments, especially in the social protection and health sectors.
  • Support to internal and external coordination on social protection, including Secretariat assistance to the Sector Group on Social Protection which is chaired by UNICEF and FCDO from the development partners side and linking discussions with work in the PF4C pillar.
  • Support in Social Protection programming with a particular focus on support to the NICHE programme including its various components such as on-demand registration, evaluation and simplification, and sustainability strategy which includes integration and consolidation with other social assistance initiatives for children during their early years.

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

  • An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Economics, Public Policy, Planning, Statistics, or related fields from a recognized university. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
  • A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in the design, implementation and monitoring of Social Protection programmes, ideally in Kenya, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • At least 2 years experience in Public Finance aspects relating to social protection in Kenya
  • Proven experience in coordinating social protection and/or public finance platforms.
  • Proven experience in the management of projects with cross-sector teams.
  • Experience in ECD and health financing.
  • Excellent data analysis and presentation skills.
  • Excellent research and writing skills.
  • Knowledge of UNICEF programme areas and experience with UNICEF is a major 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.

Other skills

  • Must be reliable, creative, and able to work with little supervision.
  • Must be able to work effectively under tight deadlines.
  • Demonstrable ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships both within and outside the organization.
  • Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergencies is considered 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: UNICEF Values

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 (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

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 including 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 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 promoting 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 appointments are subject to medical clearance. 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.

Added 1 year ago - Updated 11 months ago - Source: unicef.org