Are you passionate about transforming food systems for children and empowering young people to shape healthier, more equitable and sustainable food environments? UNICEF is seeking an experienced Programme Specialist, Children’s Food Practices and Youth Engagement to provide strategic leadership and technical direction for the Food Systems for Children agenda, with a particular focus on First Foods Africa Pillar 3 (Practices), social and behaviour change, social marketing, youth engagement and advocacy. In this role, you will lead global efforts to strengthen food-related practices, behaviours and social norms that influence child and adolescent nutrition outcomes. You will provide technical assistance to country offices, support evidence generation and organizational learning, lead major initiatives including First Foods Africa and Fix My Food, and engage with governments, donors, civil society organizations, private-sector partners and young people to advance food systems transformation. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to global policy, innovation, capacity strengthening and advocacy efforts that improve nutrition outcomes for children and adolescents worldwide.

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.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to Empowerment

The Centres of Excellence (CoEs) represent UNICEF’s commitment to delivering high-quality, demand-driven technical assistance to Country Offices, Regional Offices, and partners. Strategically located in Nairobi, Panama, Amman, Bangkok, and Istanbul, the CoEs consolidate technical expertise from Headquarters and Regional Offices into unified teams across four time zones, ensuring equitable and timely support. Each CoE serves as a single entry point for tailored assistance, offering specialized skills in thematic areas, financing for scale, and institutional strengthening, while also supporting global policy leadership, standards setting, and cross-sectoral coordination. By leveraging digital platforms, agile expertise-matching systems, and external rosters, the CoEs enhance efficiency and responsiveness, driving sustainable, at-scale impacts for children in diverse contexts, including humanitarian settings. Embedded within the Global Programme Division, the CoEs align with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, fostering innovation, accountability, and resilient systems to advance child rights and equitable access to basic services worldwide. 

UNICEF’s work to transform food systems for children is articulated across three Action Areas: improving children’s foods, improving children’s food environments, and improving children’s food practices. UNICEF’s Food Systems for Children agenda includes major initiatives such as First Foods Africa, which aims to improve access to and consumption of nutritious foods for young children through coordinated action across food systems, and Fix My Food, which supports young people to advocate for healthier food environments and food systems that better meet the needs and rights of children and adolescents. 

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision of the Senior Adviser, Food Systems for Children, the Programme Specialist, Children’s Food Practices and Youth Engagement, provides strategic leadership and technical direction for UNICEF’s Food Systems for Children agenda, with a particular focus on First Foods Africa Pillar 3 (Practices), social and behaviour change, social marketing, youth engagement and advocacy. The incumbent will lead UNICEF’s global efforts to strengthen food-related practices, behaviours and social norms that influence child and adolescent nutrition outcomes, while supporting actions to transform food environments through policy advocacy, youth mobilisation and systems approaches. 

The position serves as UNICEF’s focal point for key areas of work related to food practices, youth engagement and social and behaviour change within the Food Systems for Children agenda. The incumbent will provide strategic leadership and stewardship for major global initiatives, including First Foods Africa and Fix My Food, ensuring technical quality, consistency of approach, cross-regional coordination, knowledge generation and organizational learning. The role will support country offices in generating evidence, strengthening capacity, implementing social marketing and behaviour change approaches, and engaging young people as agents of change in food systems transformation. The incumbent will also provide leadership and technical expertise in social and behaviour change for nutrition programmes, responding to technical assistance requests from country offices.

Under the supervision of the Senior Adviser, Food Systems for Children, the Programme Specialist, Children’s Food Practices and Youth Engagement provides strategic leadership and technical direction for UNICEF’s Food Systems for Children agenda, with a particular focus on First Foods Africa Pillar 3 (Practices), social and behaviour change, social marketing, youth engagement and advocacy. The incumbent leads UNICEF’s global efforts to strengthen food-related practices, behaviours and social norms that influence child and adolescent nutrition outcomes, while supporting actions to transform food environments through policy advocacy, youth mobilisation and systems approaches. 

Key responsibilities include leading global initiatives such as First Foods Africa and Fix My Food; providing technical assistance and strategic guidance to country offices; developing guidance, tools and learning resources; promoting knowledge generation and organizational learning; coordinating youth engagement and advocacy initiatives; supporting partnerships, donor engagement and resource mobilization; and strengthening UNICEF’s leadership on social and behaviour change for nutrition programmes and food systems transformation

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Download File JD_Programme Specialist - Children's Food Practices and Youth Engagment.pdf

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

Minimum requirements

      • Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Social Science,Behavioural Science,Nutrition and Dietetics,Anthropology,Psychology, sociology, marketing and any other related fields.
      • Work Experience: At least 8 years of relevant work experience at national and international levels in social and behaviour change, social marketing, nutrition and food systems programming.
      • Experience designing and implementing demand-generation and social marketing initiatives to increase adoption of nutritious foods and healthy practices. 
      • Demonstrated experience in nutrition-related product positioning, consumer behaviour, and behavioural science applications.
      • Proven experience working across food systems and engaging governments, civil society, and private-sector stakeholders.
      • Experience leading youth engagement and advocacy initiatives.
      • Strong partnership-building and donor relationship management experience.
      • Skills: Nutrition Programmes, Strategic Planning, Nutrition Strategy, Food Systems, Technical Leadership, Child Development
      • Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables

  • Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language
  • A PhD in a relevant discipline is an asset.
  • UNICEF programmes in nutrition and child development, UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, Nutrition Strategy and Food Systems for Children agenda.
  • Experience in resource mobilisation, donor stewardship and management of large multi-country initiatives is highly desirable.
  • Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts. 

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 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.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments are conditional on the selected candidates’ willingness to comply with current or future vaccination requirements, should UNICEF mandate it for personnel.

Failure to comply with such requirements, where applicable and without a duly approved medical exemption from the relevant UN authority, will result in the cancellation of the selection or may lead to other administrative measures, including separation from service.

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. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates are encouraged to apply.

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.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

The conditions of a temporary assignment, including relocation entitlements, will depend on the status of the staff member's original appointment and may be limited in accordance with applicable UNICEF policies, procedures, and practices in force.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

At Impactpool we do our best to provide you the most accurate info, but closing dates may be wrong on our site. Please check on the recruiting organization's page for the exact info. Candidates are responsible for complying with deadlines and are encouraged to submit applications well ahead.
Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify. Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.