Youth-Led Action Specialist, P-3, TA, NYHQ USA (Remote)

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 140,639 USD and 184,155 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 fulfil 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, hope...

UNICEF works with adolescents and young people to empower them with the improved knowledge, skills and capacities to successfully bring about positive change in their lives and in their communities, towards achieving results in line with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan.

Throughout history, engaged young people and youth-led action have been a powerful force for change. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 12 further enshrines the right of every child to express their views freely in matters affecting them and for these views to be taken seriously.

In addition to the well-documented benefits to individual development and transferable life skills, young people’s empowerment as change makers are crucial investments because they lead to long-term positive societal outcomes for all children. Around the world, we see young people who have used enhanced confidence and skills to strengthen civil society and increase the accountability of their communities, governments and corporations. This has resulted in more relevant and effective programs and policies on education, mental health, climate change, protection, and other matters in development and humanitarian situations; young people’s action has also enhanced inclusion, social cohesion, violence prevention, and contributed to peacebuilding. At the local level, we see adolescents and young people advocating for and making daily changes for the better in their families, in peer groups, in schools, and in their communities.

With this position, UNICEF’s Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP) section as part of the Education/ADAP team is accelerating efforts to scale country and regional-level youth-led action, across sectors, in UNICEF countries and regions.

How can you make a difference?

This position’s scope builds on UNICEF’s momentum and support for youth-led action. It is intended to accelerate existing and catalyze new youth-led action initiatives, via resources and processes including but not limited to UNICEF’s Youth Advocacy Guide (YAG) initiative and climate change advocacy training for adolescents and young people.

This position will be responsible for leading and/or contributing to these efforts to accelerate meaningful and safe youth-led action at the global, regional and country levels. The focus is on ensuring young people are capacitated and supported with the knowledge and skills to progress along their action journeys and succeed as change agents. Within the scope of youth-led action, this position will have a particular focus on youth-led advocacy and mechanisms to connect young people to other young changemakers and allies.

Efforts under this position will advance youth-led action in a select set of UNICEF’s strategic priorities: climate change, mental health, the prevention and reduction of harmful practices, education transformation, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and HIV, and young people as changemakers in humanitarian settings. Efforts will include both youth-led action in these specific priority areas, as well as a focused effort on bringing together youth-led action that speaks to the inter-sectorality of these issues as they impact the daily lives of adolescents and young people (i.e., the intersection of climate change and mental health for youth advocates; youth-led action on the prevention and reduction of harmful practices and ASRH; youth-led action for education transformation in humanitarian and peacebuilding contexts, etc).

The incumbent will be expected to liaise closely with UNICEF teams and country offices as collaborators and partners and help build and maintain successful internal and external partnerships for the scale-up of UNICEF’s youth-led action initiatives.

Summary of results-based key functions/accountabilities:

Provide technical assistance to scale youth-led action programs

• Develop, manage, and support rollout of initiatives for UNICEF’s youth-led action portfolio in support of the country and regional scale-up, including leading and conducting capacity-building efforts, including trainings and master trainings
• Lead partnerships with sectors, including but not limited to Mental Health, Health, Child Protection, Gender, Education, HIV and WASH sections, and UNICEF’s Division for Global Communication and Advocacy, for meaningful and sustained collaboration to realize the goals of scale for youth-led action
• Develop, cultivate, and maintain productive collaborations and partnerships with youth-focused organizations and networks

Provide leadership support and management to connect young people

• Work with UNICEF teams to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and connecting platform for young people to accelerate their action and advocacy goals
• Help maintain, curate and support online platform for young people
• Offer other support as emerges to connect young people

Develop and support global goods, resources and tools to accelerate youth-led action

• Develop guidance, tools and approaches for young people, countries and partners on amplifying youth-led action
• Maintain and curate youth-led action online resources on UNICEF Voices of Youth website and other platforms
• Ensure young people are involved in influencing, shaping, designing and contributing to programs and particular resources and tools, for a youth-centred approach

Document, share and promote key findings, lessons learned, and other knowledge management products and opportunities

• Identify and lead the development of new, relevant resources as determined in coordination with UNICEF teams and partners
• Document and share best practices for internal purposes and externally on social media
• Ensure youth-led action is included in advocacy and related events, and participate in internal and partner events, fora, webinars, etc
• Work with monitoring and evaluation colleagues to develop M&E frameworks and strategies to assess the impact of youth-led advocacy approaches utilized under this portfolio, and share these learnings widely

Be key liaison across UNICEF initiatives to support and promote uptake and integration of youth-led action across sectors

• Work with Education/ADAP team, including the Learning to Action team, to integrate streamlined action opportunities and youth-led action learning into various initiatives including in Learning Passport
• Identify other strategic opportunities across UNICEF and externally to promote and scale youth-led action
• Play key role in resource mobilization for youth-led action, including with PFP, PPD, private sector and individual donor networks

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

Education:

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: international relations, adolescent development, public policy, human rights, public health, education, anthropology, psychology, sociology, or another relevant technical field.

Experience:

• Five or more years of solid relevant work and/or volunteer experience at the national and international levels in programme planning, management, monitoring and evaluation in youth advocacy and action, with emphasis on working for and with young people, technical support, and partnerships.
• Strong oral and written English communication skills; exceptional presentation and public speaking skills are highly desirable.
• Required demonstrated experience as a trainer and in experiential learning techniques.
• Direct work experience with youth organizations and young people is required; experience with adolescent participation and civic engagement is highly desirable.
• Direct work experience with youth-led action and/or advocacy initiatives required; specific experience related to mental health, climate change, education, ASRH and HIV, and young people in humanitarian settings desirable.
• Strong IT skills and fluency with Microsoft Office Suites, SharePoint, Zoom, Drupal, and other programmes required.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of a second UN language (i.e. Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) is considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability (CRITA) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

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 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.

Remarks:

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

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to delivering the best results for children.

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 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.

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 may also be 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.