Programme Officer

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfil their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The past two decades have seen important progress on child rights, yet while much has been achieved, sharp disparities remain. In most countries, inequality is higher today than a generation ago, including in middle income countries where a majority of the world’s poor children now live. The rapid pace of urbanization and the growing youth bulge in Africa and parts of Asia will require significant expansion of the provision of essential services for children. These challenges are compounded by the scale and complexity of crises triggered by conflict, natural disasters or epidemics. The global community faces these challenges when the political and economic environments pose challenges of their own, testing the world’s commitment to protecting the most vulnerable. In this environment, strong and consistent leadership of UNICEF is critical to enable the achievement of results for children.
The situation in Afghanistan remains exceptionally complex, with a protracted emergency situation, characterized by recurrent natural disasters, an increased number of people living in poverty, continued internal displacement, unprecedented levels of food insecurity, which has been further compounded since the COVID-19 pandemic. This complexity has greatly impacted the situation of children and women in the country. The withdrawal of United States military forces from Afghanistan in August 2021 and the establishment of a de-facto government by the Taliban has exacerbated the complexity and uncertainty of the situation. UNICEF is required to rapidly adapt the ways of working to address the multiple operational constraints present in the highly volatile and unpredictable context. This included the need to establish a Project Management Unit (PMU) to provide operational and transactional capacity to the Afghanistan Country Office (ACO) to ensure urgent lifesaving and resilience building programmes can continue.
Under the supervision and guidance of the supervisor, the Programme Support Officer supports the PMU by carrying out a range of programme support functions to help develop, implement and monitor the Project’s managed by PMU ensuring effective and timely delivery that is consistent with UNICEF rules and regulations, to enable achieving ACO Programme Results. The Programme Support Officer will primarily support the Cash Incentives and Cash Assistance Projects managed by PMU.
The Programme Support Officer will work in close collaboration with a range of staff in the ACO, external partners and agency counterparts in support of programme design and delivery. S/He provides regular feedback on the status of projects through monitoring milestones and contributes to efforts to keep activities on track.

• Support through effective drafting, the preparation of documentation required for implementation of project, with a primary focus on humanitarian cash transfer and cash incentives payment projects.
• Support to conduct risk analysis for project management.
• Support coordination and communication among internal and external stakeholders for effective project implementation.
• Support service provider contract monitoring and payment processing, ensuring effective follow-up and coordination needed.
• Support to review Implementing Partner and Service provider progress report and financial reports, and table analysis of findings for Programme Officer review and clearance.
• Support regular Project financial analysis for effective project management, as required
• Proactively, lead on documentation management for projects and ensure systematic availability of documentation in keeping with UNICEF’s rules and regulations.
• Coordinate setting up of internal and/or external meetings, making travel arrangements, logistics requirements for meetings etc.
• Ensure availability of meetings records through timely drafting and circulation of minutes, and undertake timely follow-up on agreed upon actions.
• Undertake any other tasks that would be assigned.