UNV District Facilitator – Adolescent & Youth

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

Adolescents and Youth (A&Y) are at the core of UNFPA’s Vision for a Transformative Agenda. UNFPA works with the governments and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) globally to ensure that the full potential of these young people is fulfilled by making available access to adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health information and services and age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality and gender equality education. For UNFPA addressing the Gender Based Violence (GBV) which adolescents, especially adolescent girls, face is also a key area of intervention and one way in which GBV prevention is addressed, in UNFPA’s programming efforts, is by preventing and mitigating the consequences of child marriage.

Bangladesh has the highest prevalence of child marriage in Asia – both for girls below 15 years and those between 15 and 18 years. While the prevalence of child marriage in the country has been decreasing, its pace has been very slow - in the last 10 years, there has only been a nine percentage point decrease. Adverse consequences of the prevalence of child marriage include the high fertility rate amongst adolescents aged 15-19 years which, at 113 live births per 1000 women, is the highest in the South Asian region. Adolescent pregnancy is also associated with high maternal morbidity, neonatal and infant mortality and malnutrition. Moreover, the majority of the girls who are given in marriage as children have lower levels of education and participate less in the labour market, which consequently perpetuates the vicious cycle of poverty and disempowerment.

As a United Nations agency that is mandated to promote gender equality and empowerment of women and young people, UNFPA recognizes that gender based discrimination and child marriage - which are intricately linked with each other - are among the unfinished agenda in Bangladesh while the country has achieved many other socio-economic development targets in the past decades. Straddling the cusp of the Adolescent

Under the direct supervision of the National Programme Officer – Gender and Adolescents and Youth (A&Y) and overall guidance of the Programme Specialist A&Y, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

Work closely with relevant programme staff in the field and in Dhaka, of the A&Y unit, to support the implementation of all A&Y unit’s interventions at district level by;


Providing administrative support to the A&Y related projects implemented in the relevant district.


Liaising with the Department of Women Affairs/MoWCA and Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education/MoE at district level, as appropriate, to support the provision of life skills education interventions to adolescents and motivate adolescents to engage in the A&Y unit’s project interventions.


Supporting the project interventions by ensuring the availability of resource material, conducting effective sessions and enabling adolescents to use project resources and communication materials.


Acting as the youth focal person whom adolescents can reach out to for addressing specific issues and questions.


Networking with other adolescent groups/clubs/organizations to ensure their participation in UNFPA’s programmes.


Providing necessary support to ensure effective field missions, hospitality events and small scale training programmes.


Supporting the quarterly fund disbursement processes of the Implementing Partners using FACE form.


Assisting the A&Y unit on all programming and procurement related issues.


Preparing bill payments and create requisitions (as applicable) for the A&Y unit.


Working with different partner organizations including the media, as and when required.


Maintaining documents for filing purposes of the A&Y unit – with a special emphasis on project interventions.


Work in coordination with other UNFPA staff (field officers), as appropriate, at the field to implement UNFPA mandated activities




Writing reports, blog 

, Accountability, Adaptability and Flexibility, Commitment and Motivation, Commitment to Continuous Learning, Communication, Ethics and Values, Integrity, Planning and Organizing, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity, Working in Teams

Proven ability to reach out effectively to large groups of people;


Experience in working on issues of A&Y, especially life skills education, child marriage and adolescent friendly health services;


Demonstrated ability to work in teams and in harmony with persons of different national background and cultures;

Bogra has decent, moderate cost accommodation and local means of transportation including bus, rickshaw and three wheeled taxis. Power outage is very common at any time of the day without prior announcement. Colleagues in the field office are useful resources in providing information on accommodation, shopping etc. There are several local restaurants which serve inexpensive food.In the event the selected UNV requires to be relocated, the UNV will be responsible for making his/her accommodation and transportation arrangements. Bogra has decent, moderate cost accommodation and local means of transportation including bus, rickshaw and three wheeled taxis. Power outage is very common at any time of the day without prior announcement. Colleagues in the field office are useful resources in providing information on accommodation, shopping etc. There are several local restaurants which serve inexpensive food.