Senior Adviser - Coordination, Development & Strategic Planning (Field Support), P-5, Education Cannot Wait Fund, New York HQ, #99923

Participants of the Oslo Summit for Education Development, held in July 2015, agreed that a dedicated fund or new modality would be established to address the disruption of education and learning in emergencies and protracted crises. Following this, Education Cannot Wait – a Fund for Education in Emergencies (“the Fund”) was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016. Hosted and administered within UNICEF, the interim Secretariat is responsible for implementing the day to day work of the Fund under the direction of the High Level Steering Group.

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential – to the benefit of a better world. To learn more about UNICEF, visit www.unicef.org.

For every child, an education

Participants of the Oslo Summit for Education Development, held in July 2015, agreed that a dedicated fund or new modality would be established to address the disruption of education and learning in emergencies and protracted crises. Following this, Education Cannot Wait – a Fund for Education in Emergencies (“the Fund”) was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016. Hosted and administered within UNICEF, the interim Secretariat is responsible for implementing the day to day work of the Fund under the direction of the High Level Steering Group. 

How can you make a difference?

You will provide critical support in the establishment of strategic co-operative relationships through existing in-country coordination mechanisms covering the United Nations, NGOs and the Host-Government, and related funding mechanisms and play a lead role in supporting the Director in leading coordination, strategic planning and strategy development to develop, plan and implement interventions and leverage on UN system-wide and partners’ resources in support of the ECW goals.  You will also ensure that planning processes are aligned with the overall ECW global strategic plan and UN-wide programmatic entry points (education in emergencies, livelihoods, forced displacement, governance).

Specifically, you will engage with the UN system and key humanitarian partners to reinforce their commitment to support the ECW Global goals as a common strategy that bridges the relief-development gap, encourages government cost-sharing, attracts humanitarian and development funding and is embraced by all partners, to effectively address educational deficits from a holistic, sequencing and multidimensional perspective, leveraging on partners’ knowledge resources and building on the ability of the system to share knowledge and programmatic and operational assets, as a critical condition to significantly advance overall programme outreach, boost global partners support, awareness, effectiveness, coherence and results.

Some of the key functions involve as follows:

Foster United Nations system and multi partners’ coordination and engagement to optimize funding and results: 

• Enhance the coordination of ECW goals related programming with host-governments, among UN agencies, NGOs and civil society, and ensure adherence to international humanitarian and development principles and values
• Facilitate the review of existing practices and mapping of initiatives and efforts susceptible of being of support in advancing the ECW goals on funding and results
• Promote and facilitate coordination and complementarity with UN joint programmes and initiatives
• Foster coordination and partnership building and strategic interaction with UN coordination systems, national partners, donor aid agencies, civil society and the private sector
• Through appropriate coordination and strategy development, ensure the ECW goals address the multiple determinants of education deficits, thus strengthening a system wide approach, strategy and engagement

Advance ECW UN system and multi partners’ planning, strategy development and encourage its implementation and impact:

• Foster collaboration around ECW planning, strategy development and implementation.
• Ensure joined integration of development and humanitarian actors’ planning, with a focus on the rights of the most vulnerable and excluded children and adolescents affected by conflict or natural disasters, emphasizing continued access to education, systems strengthening and humanitarian assistance as well as equity based approaches to planning
• Ensure integration and/or linkages of ECW with humanitarian and development national and UN planning processes (National Policies, HNO, CCA/UNDAF) and the humanitarian planning processes (CAP appeal, HRP, etc.)

Advance ECW UN system and multi partners’ harmonization on ECW goals attainment: 

• Enhance harmonization of ECW goals related programming among UN agencies and NGOs and beyond, and ensure adherence to ECW principles and values
• Ensure the programme design is informed by recommendations from stakeholders, programme evaluations and studies and builds on ongoing successes and lessons learned
• Review of existing practices and lessons learned in advancing ECW related goals, multi partners and UN system-wide engagement and participation at the national level and provide guidance to HCTs, UNCTs and regional bodies, as needed

To qualify as a champion, for every child you will have… 

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in economics, statistics, finance, education, social sciences, public administration, or a directly-related technical field(s) is required.
• A minimum of (10) ten years of relevant professional experience at the national and international levels, in coordination, planning, management and results reporting/M&E, humanitarian and development action is required.
• Prior experience in developing countries and crisis affected contexts is required.
• Prior relevant experience in development and humanitarian level programming and management and humanitarian response in a UN system agency or organization will be an asset.
• Prior experience working with diverse stakeholder groups or multi-stakeholder partnerships is highly desirable.
• Prior knowledge of UNICEF systems and processes would be an asset.
• Fluency in English (written & verbal) is required. Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is considered an asset.

Our core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. To view our competency framework, please click here. 

This new initiative will be hosted at UNICEF Headquarters in New York for its first year. Accordingly, this assignment will be for an initial one year duration with the possibility of extension, A process to identify and transfer Education Cannot Wait to a permanent host will be undertaken after the first year and any transfer of the position holder to a permanent host will be subject to negotiation with the position holder and permanent host. 

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization.