Temporary Appointment Social Policy Specialist (Shock Responsive Social Protection), (P-3), Bridgetown, Barbados, #116668

Under the overall guidance of the Social Policy Manager, the incumbent is responsible for supporting and providing technical support to the social protection programming component of the UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Area Office.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a childhood

BACKGROUND:

UNICEF promotes the rights and welfare of all children and adolescents in everything we do. Together with our allies, we work in 190 countries and territories to transform this commitment into practical actions that benefit all children, especially focusing our efforts on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded, worldwide.

The UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Regional Office is based in Barbados and cover 12 countries/ territories in the Eastern Caribbean.

UNICEF works to put the rights and well-being of the most disadvantaged children at the heart of the social, political, and economic agenda, in line with our equity focus, working across our organization and with our partners in government, civil society and the private sector to support shifts in public policy, fuel social engagement, and increase investment for children.

• Support the development of social protection policies, legislation and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children and their families, with special attention the most marginalized. Identifies, generates and presents evidence to support this goal in collaboration with partners;
• Facilitate enabling policy, legal and framework for social protection to support the needs of children in times of crisis;
•  Support coordination strengthening across authorities and stakeholders for efficient and effective
  response in time of crisis;
• Promote strengthening of integrated social protection systems, providing technical support to
  partners to improve the design of cash transfers;
• Undertake improved monitoring and research around social protection and use of data and research findings for strengthening programme results.

Providing effective technical support on social protection in emergencies

• Support assessments of social protection systems, including their shock-responsive capacity, to inform the social protection systems strengthening agenda;
• Support social protection routine programme delivery strengthening to enable continuity of service delivery and the potential for flexing and scaling in response to shocks;
• Support the design, implementation and monitoring of humanitarian cash transfers in a way they leverage on (aspects of) social protection systems and contribute to inform their strengthening;
• Provide support to strengthen integrated emergency responses including social protection, with improved linkages with other sectoral responses (water and sanitation, child protection, education, etc.)

• Support the development of tools for countries and territories to strengthen the shock responsiveness of their social protection systems;
• Support research around shock responsive social protection impacts on child outcomes and promote uptake of data and research findings for strengthening programme design and delivery.
• Ensure adequate dissemination of research findings, including through the development of policy briefs, and keep abreast of latest developments in the field of (shock responsive) social protection for sharing with key stakeholders in the subregion in view of strengthening social protection advocacy and programming.
• Develop capacity building material/ facilitating (online) events on shock-responsive social protection, jointly with other UN agencies when possible;
• In partnership with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and potential other partnerships to be explored, assist UNICEF ECA’s Social Inclusion section in improving knowledge management in the area of social protection between countries/territories;
• Support the management of the Eastern Caribbean Community of Practice on Shock Responsive Social Protection, co-facilitated with the World Food Programme;
• Assist in documenting key experiences in the area of social protection in the sub-region; Support the development of advocacy material for the inclusion of migrants in national social protection systems.

• Maintain strong substantive work relations with UN partners, notably WFP, bilateral development partners, and multilateral partners such as CDB and the World Bank;
• Lead on the provision of technical inputs for the development of joint proposals on shock responsive social protection;
• Provide technical support and promote the convening role of UNICEF vis-à-vis regional intergovernmental institutions such as CDEMA and the OECS on shock responsive social protection. This includes collaboration to strengthen exchange of evidence and relevant social protection programming information, advocacy, and support to implementing regional and sub-regional programmes and activities.

• Manage and coordinate technical support around shock responsive social protection, ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion so as to adequately support scale-up and delivery.
• Support the planning, budgeting, and monitoring of the social protection component of the Social Policy work plan for the multi-country office. Initiate activities to mobilize financial resources for(shock responsive) social protection/emergency response in the region and develop proposals.
• Ensure risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.
• Support and contribute to effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the country programme.
• Ensure that the social planning project enhances policy dialogue, planning, supervision, technical advice, management, training, research and support; and that the monitoring and evaluation component strengthens monitoring and evaluation of the social sectors and provides support to sectoral and decentralized information systems.

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

• An advanced university degree or equivalent in public policy, economics, international development or other relevant discipline
• A minimum of five years of professional experience in the area of social protection/ cash-based transfer programming
• Proven experience of social protection in emergency
• Experience working with Governments on issues related to social protection and/or humanitarian issues
• Proven knowledge in the area of shock-responsive social protection, including global policy trends and discussions;
• Proven knowledge in the area of humanitarian cash transfers is an asset;
• Previous experience in working with UNICEF or other UN system agency or organizations is an asset;
• Experience working in the Caribbean or a similar context (country
  prone to shocks) is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese, or
  another official UN language is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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.

Remarks:

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

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF reserves the right to make additional assessment of the pre-selected candidates, if needed.