Temporary Appointment: Polio Partnerships Manager (P-4), In UAE- Gulf Area Office for 12 Months

The UNICEF Gulf Area Office (UNICEF GAO) is unique in its mandate. It is accountable for providing programmatic support to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. In addition, it identifies, cultivates and sustains partnerships with Gulf-based partners to generate resources for the organization globally. UNICEF has a role to play in ensuring rapid development in the Gulf is child sensitive and child focused and that children remain at the heart of the national development dialogue.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

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For every child, the right to educate

Global momentum around polio eradication, child survival, and health system strengthening has intensified, highlighted by key events such as World Polio Day 2025 in New York and Goalkeepers Abu Dhabi 2025, where global leaders reaffirmed the urgency of finishing the job of polio eradication and reversing rising child mortality. At these events:

• Survivors, scientists, health workers, and youth leaders shared powerful testimonies underscoring the human impact of polio and preventable diseases.
• The UAE reaffirmed strong leadership and partnership, including a pledging event in December 2025 in Abu Dhabi.
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announced US$1.2 billion, as part of a collective commitment by partners of US$1.9 billion in support of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
• Leaders emphasized innovation, AI-driven health tools, maternal and newborn survival, and the moral imperative to eliminate polio—now 99.9% eradicated.

Under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and through the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity, the UAE has committed US$525 million since 2011, enabling the vaccination of more than 400 million children annually.

UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, and the UAE Government continue to partner under a strategic agreement to accelerate polio eradication, strengthen routine immunization, and advance child survival. To ensure coherence, accountability, and strategic coordination, UNICEF seeks an experienced candidate to manage and monitor implementation of the partnership agreement.

How can you make a difference? 

Polio Programme's vision is to gradually transition donor stewardship and grant management of Gulf donors to GAO as part of a broader GPEI sunsetting strategy. This aligns with GAO’s plans to establish a strong Resource Mobilization function in Abu Dhabi given the recent $500M KSA and $140M UAE pledges to polio; and opportunities to tap into new funding from the MBZ Foundation around MNCH and innovations in public health delivery, including in supply.

Against this backdrop, the purpose of this temporary assignment is to manage current donor relationships to ensure effective allocation of resources and fulfilment of donor requirements; and explore additional funding opportunities in Gulf countries, relating to:

• Support to GPEI’s 2022–2029 Strategy
• Child survival and maternal health
• Innovation in public health delivery
• Resource mobilization, donor reporting, and visibility commitments

Under the supervision of the GGC Director, the staff will serve as the central coordination point across partners, ensuring that commitments—alignment, technical, financial, and visibility-related—are met in a timely, accurate, and strategic manner.

Objectives

1. Strengthen the relationship between UNICEF, BMGF, the UAE and Saudi Governments.
2. Ensure timely reporting on progress, risks, and performance indicators related to polio eradication, child survival, and immunization.
3. Support high-level engagement and stewardship with current and potential donors.
4. Enhance visibility of the partnership across media, events, and global advocacy platforms.
5. Ensure alignment between GPEI’s coordination mechanisms, i.e. Resource Mobilization Group (RMG) and Global Communications Group (GCG) and donor expectations.

Scope of Work and Key Tasks

With $200M committed to polio for UNICEF through 2029 and heavy reporting and visibility requirements, as well as frequent demands for partnership calls, KSA remains the largest and most complex partnership in the region for GPEI. While the Gates Foundation was the interlocutor for negotiating the funding, KSA engages directly with WHO and UNICEF on various aspects of the partnership, and there is the risk of losing the remaining tranches if the donor is dissatisfied with updates, reports, and visibility. For this reason, approximately 40-50% of this function will focus on managing the grant, reporting, visibility, GPEI partnership alignment, and coordination to secure the remaining tranches to UNICEF ($160M). This position will have a dotted reporting line to the Resource Mobilization Manager (PG-Polio)to guide the incumbent until this relationship is fully transitioned to GAO.

The $140M in new commitments announced in Abu Dhabi represents a slight decrease from past annual contributions to GPEI. While we anticipate increased reporting expectations, these should be manageable relative to our KSA obligations, as UAE has not been too demanding of GPEI in the past, and a large part of the relationship has been managed and owned by the Gates Foundation. Therefore, 20-30% of this function will focus on GPEI deliverables and the pursuit of other funding opportunities with the MBZ Foundation beyond polio.

This function will also dedicate some 20-30% of the time for new funding exploration in Gulf countries.

A. Relationship Management

• Serve as the focal point coordinating PGPolio, Supply Division, PPD, PFP, UNICEF Regional and Country offices to align with donor’s requirements.
• Coordinate partner meetings, briefings, and follow-up discussions.
• Track and ensure the implementation of partnership commitments with PG-Polio, COs and ROs (financial, operational, communications, and advocacy-related). Liaise with Gates Foundation and WHO focal points sitting in the KSrelief Offices in Riyadh on partnerships related matters as needed.

B. Grant Management and Reporting

• Consolidate data from UNICEF country offices (e.g., Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria).
• Identify risks, bottlenecks, and mitigation strategies.

• Monitor and consolidate periodic reporting from COs and ROs and prepare quarterly and annual reports for UAE and GPEI partners.
• Monitor fund utilization, maintain accurate Vision records, including processing and requesting grant extensions from donors, in coordination with PG-Polio, PFP, PPD, DFAM, etc.

C. Stewardship activities

• Support planning for field visits, photo documentation, and media events.
• Prepare talking points, background notes, and presentations for high-level engagements by senior leadership (ED, Regional Directors, Polio Directors, GAO Director).
• Liaise with UNICEF and partner communications teams to ensure donor visibility requirements are met across campaigns and events; and to amplify messaging.

• Maintain a centralized repository of partnership documents in UNISON, documenting lessons learned, best practices, and strategic recommendations.
• Prepare synthesis briefs for global advocacy opportunities.

D. Explore new funding opportunities in the Gulf, including from high-net-worth individuals, foundations, the private sector, Qatar, and Kuwait, both for polio and beyond.

Considering the above-mentioned scope of work:

• 75% of this partnership manager’s time would be allocated to the following key GPEI functions for the KSA and UAE partnerships (with the majority of the time dedicated to KSA):
  • Relationship management
  • Grant management and reporting
  • Stewardship activities (donor visits, visibility, recognition, etc.)
• 25% of the partnership manager’s time would be allocated to exploring new funding opportunities with the MBZ Foundation.

Location

• Primary duty station: UAE with mobility among other gulf countries.
• Travel expected to:
• Saudi Arabia
• UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai)
• Geneva / GPEI coordination hubs
• Polio-endemic or high-risk countries (as relevant)

Reporting Line

The candidate t will report to the GCC Director, and It will have a dotted reporting line to the Resource Mobilization Manager (PG-Polio) and work closely with:

• UNICEF Polio Programme teams (HQ, regional, and country offices), PFP and PPD
• Gates Foundation and WHO Focal Points for KSrelief in Riyadh
• UAE Government partners (MoFAIC, UAE Mission to UN, MBZ Foundation for Humanity)
• GPEI Resource Mobilization Group (RMG) and Global Communications Group (GCG)
• GAO Communications team

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Advanced degree in International Development, Public Health, Global Health Policy, or related field.

• Work Experience:

-Minimum 8–10 years of experience in Programme and partnership management, global health partnerships, donor relations, or complex multistakeholder coordination.  Understanding of immunization, polio eradication, or child survival programs.

-Must demonstrate strong knowledge of and proven professional experience working across, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States, with an in-depth understanding of the regional institutional landscape, private sector and philanthropic ecosystems, cultural and political contests.

- Demonstrated experience with high-level political advocacy and global health financing.

            - Understanding of immunization, polio eradication, or child survival programs.

• Skills :

-Excellent analytical, communication, and report-writing skills.

-Proven track record in managing donor-funded programs.

Language Requirement:

-Fluency in Arabic ( Spoken and written) is required.

-Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

• Experience working with or within GPEI, UNICEF, BMGF, or UAE government institutions.
• Knowledge of Middle East, Asia and Africa public health landscapes.
• Experience supporting high-profile international events.

Competencies

• Strategic thinking and political acumen
• Strong cross-cultural communication
• Partnership-building and diplomacy
• Results orientation and project management
• Ability to synthesize complex information
• High degree of discretion and judgement

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

The 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 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

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Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions 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. 

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UNICEF staff members holding fixed-term, continuing, or permanent appointments who are considered to be on abolished post status may apply for this temporary position and, if selected with a start date before 31 December 2025, may take it up as a temporary assignment, in line with UNICEF guidance on separation due to the abolition of posts or staff reduction. They will retain their fixed-term entitlements but will not hold a lien to their abolished post. For other scenarios where a Temporary Assignment may be possible, please refer to Additional guidance on IP to IP temporary assignments after completion of the full TOD.pdf (accessible to UNICEF personnel only).

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