Youth & Adolescent Development Specialist, NO-C, Fixed Term Appointment, New Delhi, India, South Asia Region (SAR), Post Number 122684

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, AN ADVOCATE...

Generation Unlimited is a new global partnership that aims to ensure that every young person age 10-24 is in some form of school, learning, training or employment by 2030. Generation Unlimited brings together public and private partners – and young people to identify and scale solutions related to

• skills for learning, employability and decent work;
• access to economic opportunities and
• empowerment and participation, with a focus on girls and marginalized groups. It aims to unlock investments and empower all young people to play a positive role in their societies, create synergies between major global actors and accelerate momentum towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In India, Gen-U signifies catalytic partnerships to unleash the potential of adolescents and young people and was launched as YuWaah in November 2019. It has a unique position to approach education, skilling, employability and economic opportunities (including jobs &

entrepreneurship), empowerment, participation especially of girls as a continuum.

With Gen-U, UNICEF India and a diverse group of stakeholders from public, private and civic spheres – including young people – will develop a partnership to scale up programmes, identify new solutions and support systems that deliver results for adolescents and young people, unlock investments and unleash the voice and participation of young people in shaping a brighter future. In the above context, a governance structure for YuWaah in India has been set up. This is made up of the Board which will provide strategic direction, overseeing the partnership and mobilizing knowledge, resources and leadership and the Secretariat which will be responsible for planning,

young people’s participation, investment and programme support, communication and advocacy and operations.

How can you make a difference?

The Youth & Adolescent Development Specialist supports the development and coordination of operations of the work on adolescent and youth engagement and leadership initiatives. S/he coordinates with public and private sector organizations, NGOs, UN Agencies, industry aggregators, solutions partners, young people and UNICEF field offices at national and state level. S/he supports YuWaah related planning, communication with key partners and knowledge management. S/he is responsible for managing resources and funds for Pillar 3, building pipeline for new partnerships and collaboration opportunities, and reporting the progress of projects within the country programs.

S/He provides technical guidance and management support throughout the programming processes to facilitate the administration and achievement of results on programmes/projects to improve learning outcomes and equitable and inclusive

access to employment opportunities, especially for young people who are marginalized, disadvantaged and excluded in society.

S/He contributes to achievement of results according to plans, allocation, results based management approaches and methodology (RBM), as well as UNICEF’s Strategic Plans, standards of performance, and accountability framework.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Technical guidance and support
2. Partnerships and Networking
3. Innovation
4. Advocacy & communications and Knowledge management

Technical guidance and support

• Support co-creation and validation of solutions with existing stakeholders and potential solution providers.
• Identify new partners and stakeholders in employment ecosystem that align with Yuwaah’s strategy and support them with partnership opportunities
• In cooperation with key stakeholders (YuWaah Secretariat, UNICEF ICO teams, government, private, CSO partners and young people) and in accordance with YuWaah developing the Theory of Change, develop strategy and implementation plans.
• Prepare annual workplan and budget for thematic area “Youth civic engagement, innovation and meaningful participation” and track fund needs and utilization
• Provide technical guidance for identifying key partnerships opportunities for “Youth civic engagement, innovation and meaningful and equitable participation”
• Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic materials for YuWaah advocacy purposes
• Support YuWaah India partners’ perspective-building and systems’ strengthening on the importance of and how to nurture young people’s “civic participation, social innovation and meaningful and equitable participation”
• Contribute to the development and implementation of policies to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy
• Operationalization of the taskforce, including support to the finalization of membership and distribution of roles and responsibilities
• Monitor key partnerships to access progress, identify bottlenecks, problem solve and co-create new ideas and initiatives
• Provide oversight to enablement of civic and social engagement and leadership opportunities through YuWaah digital aggregator platform, Skills platform and YuWaah Social Impact platform
• Plan and contribute to scaling up of pilots that were initiated in the first year with support from partners
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes and to ensure integration, coherence and harmonization of programmes/projects with other UNICEF sectors and achievement of results as planned and allocated.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual reviews with the government and other counterparts to assess progress and to determine required action/interventions to achieve results.

Partnerships and Networking

• Support development of programmatic and strategic relationships with existing and potential partners including the state government, private sector, NGOs/CSOs, industry aggregators, young people, other partners to optimize their contribution to YuWaah and to reinforce cooperation to achieve sustainable and broad results on Yuwaah programmes.
• Support enhancing relationships with existing and potential contributors for catalytic funding and with non-traditional partners, including on innovative financing modalities and leverage financing
• Coordinate information exchange and synergies between flagship initiatives advancing young people’s civic leadership, social innovation and meaningful and equitable participation
• Actively monitor key partnerships through field visits, surveys and/or exchange of information with partners/stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks and potential problems and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant team members for timely resolution.
• Prepare regular/mandated reports for management and YuWaah partners to keep them informed of partnership progress.
• Organize large scale consultations by convening various public and private partners together on a forum to inform policy recommendations and bring the voices of young people to the centre

Innovation

• Apply/introduce innovative approaches to enhance opportunities of youth civic engagement, social innovation and leadership for young people, for the delivery of concrete and sustainable results
• Research and suggest on best international practices to be explored for possible adaption in India
• Plan and conduct joint research studies with government and private partners to understand future employment ecosystem in the country and support stakeholders with informed decision making
• Draft policy papers with support from partners and major players in the ecosystem and align with relevant ministries for advocacy
• In alignment with Yuwaah’s core principles, engage closely with young people and YPAT network to imbibe youth centrality in all the work across pillars
• In alignment with UNICEF and Yuwaah’s core principles, build strategy and engage closely with partners to include marginalized youths and enable opportunities for them

Advocacy & Communications and Knowledge Management

• Support in drafting of public advocacy materials, human interest stories, social media material as applicable.
• Support development of lessons learned, review of successful and unsuccessful experiences and share observations/findings so that best practices benefit YuWaah’s implementation and strategy.

To qualify as a champion for every child you will have…

Education

A Master's degree in one of the following fields is required:

Social sciences, international relations, public/business administration, government and public relations, public or social policy, sociology, social or community development, or another relevant technical field.

A university degree in a relevant field combined with at least seven (7) years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Experience- Mandatory

1. At least 5 years of progressively responsible professional work experience at national levels in programme/project planning and implementation, with a particular emphasis on adolescent and youth programming, understanding of the cultural context with regards to adolescent/youth development, engagement and participation issues including innovations, volunteering etc.
2. Relevant experience in adolescent/youth-related areas, program/project development and management in a UN system agency or organization including youth-centered governance and programming.
3. Experience of working with Government departments and understanding of government systems including policy advocacy related to adolescents and youth and raising funds with philanthropies and private sector and in management of various types of partnerships including private sector, foundations, UN agencies, CSOs and Government.

Experience-Desirable:

1. Developing country work and/or field experience is an asset.
2. Experience in managing team is desirable.

Language

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of the local language of the duty station or another official UN language 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 Core Competencies required for this post are:

• Builds and maintains partnerships (I)
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (I)
• Drive to achieve results for impact (I)
• Innovates and embraces change (I)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (I)
• Thinks and acts strategically (I)
• Works collaboratively with others (I)

To view our competency framework, please click here.

Remarks:

• This position is based in New Delhi (India).
• Selected applicants will have an initial two (2) year fixed-term contract, with the possibility of extension subject to satisfactory performance.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNICEF only considers higher educational 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 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.

  UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). 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.