Make a difference for children in one of the world’s most challenging humanitarian environments. Join UNICEF Sudan as a Humanitarian Affairs Specialist (Access and Civil-Military Coordination) and use your expertise to strengthen humanitarian access, support principled engagement and negotiations, and help create the conditions for timely and equitable delivery of assistance and protection to children and communities in need.

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 Access

How can you make a difference?

Sudan remains one of the world’s most complex humanitarian environments, where access constraints and a rapidly changing operational context can significantly affect the delivery of life-saving assistance and protection to children and communities in need. UNICEF Sudan works across challenging and hard-to-reach areas to ensure that children and vulnerable populations can access essential humanitarian assistance.

As Humanitarian Affairs Specialist (Access and Civil-Military Coordination), you will play a strategic role in helping UNICEF navigate this complex environment and expand principled humanitarian access. You will work across the Country Office and Area Offices, particularly in areas facing severe access constraints, while engaging with government and non-State actors, UN agencies, humanitarian partners and other stakeholders.

This is an opportunity to make a tangible difference for children by shaping humanitarian access strategies, strengthening the capacity of UNICEF teams and partners, supporting humanitarian negotiations and coordination, and ensuring that critical decisions are informed by timely and reliable access analysis. Your expertise will help create the conditions for more timely, coordinated and equitable delivery of assistance and protection to children in crisis.

Join UNICEF Sudan’s Emergency team to provide strategic leadership and technical expertise to strengthen humanitarian access and civil-military coordination, enabling UNICEF and its partners to reach children and communities in need, including in hard-to-reach areas and contexts where humanitarian space is severely constrained.

In this role, you will provide expert advice to Country and Area Offices, support the development and implementation of humanitarian access strategies and action plans, strengthen staff and partner capacity, and contribute to informed and principled operational decision-making. You will also engage with government and non-State actors, UN agencies, humanitarian partners and other stakeholders to help address access constraints and create enabling conditions for the delivery of assistance and protection.

Key accountabilities include Coordination and Capacity Building; Analysis and Information Management; and Advocacy, Engagement and Networking.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Download File JD Humanitarian Affairs Specialist P4.pdf

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

Minimum requirements

  • Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in international relations, social sciences, public administration, humanitarian studies, peace and conflict studies, political science, law, international development, emergency management and any other related fields.
    A Bachelor or equivalent (First Level University Degree) in a relevant area combined with 2 additional years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
  • Work Experience: At least 8 years of relevant work experience at the international level in humanitarian action, emergency response, protection, humanitarian access, or related fields is required, including at least five (5) years of substantive, field-based experience in humanitarian access as a core area of responsibility in complex emergencies, armed conflict environments characterized by significant humanitarian access constraints. This should include progressively increasing responsibilities for the analysis, development, implementation, and oversight of humanitarian access strategies. Demonstrated first-hand experience in humanitarian access negotiations is required, including direct engagement with State authorities, de facto authorities, non-State armed actors, communities, and other relevant stakeholders to secure, maintain, or restore principled humanitarian access and enable programme delivery. Demonstrated expertise is required in:
    Humanitarian access analysis, planning, strategy development, implementation, and monitoring;
    Conflict analysis, actor mapping, and analysis of access constraints and operational risks;
    Humanitarian negotiation, civil-military coordination, humanitarian diplomacy, and advocacy in politically sensitive environments;
    Development and implementation of access-related policies, procedures, and risk mitigation measures;
    Provision of strategic and operational advice to senior management on access options, risks, trade-offs, and principled decision-making; 
    Capacity building of staff and partners on humanitarian access and negotiation; and 
    Access monitoring, reporting, and learning, including translating analysis into operational recommendations. Strong understanding and demonstrated application of international humanitarian law (IHL), humanitarian and protection principles, children's rights, and the UN humanitarian architecture is required.
  • Skills: Negotiation, Conflict Analysis, International Humanitarian Law, Capacity Building, Strategy Development, Emergency Procedures.
  • Language Requirements: Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

Desirables

  • Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language,
  • Experience in cluster coordination, security risk management, humanitarian logistics, emergency preparedness, policy development,
  • Experience representing an international humanitarian organization in inter-agency access coordination and contributing to collective access strategies and principled operational decision-making,
  • Prior field experience with UNICEF, another UN agency, ICRC/IFRC, or an international humanitarian organization with significant access responsibilities,
  • Additional expertise in emergency response, programme delivery in hard-to-reach areas, emergency operations management, and/or inter-agency coordination,
  • 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
(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

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 may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

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 female 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.

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.

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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.