Social Policy Officer (Senior Expert)

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children.The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has been present in Brazil since 1950, supporting the most important changes in the area of ​​childhood and adolescence in the country. UNICEF participated in major immunization and breastfeeding campaigns; the mobilization that resulted in the approval of article 227 of the Federal Constitution and the drafting of the Child and Adolescent Statute; the movement for universal access to education; programs to combat child labor; among other great advances in guaranteeing the rights of Brazilian girls and boys.In recent decades, Brazil has promoted a strong process of inclusion of children and adolescents in public policies. However, a significant portion of the population remains excluded. Therefore, in its cooperation program with the Brazilian government for the period 2017-2021, UNICEF focuses its efforts on the most vulnerable and excluded girls and boys, with a special focus on children and adolescents who are victims of extreme forms of violence .These children and adolescents in situations of greater vulnerability are spread throughout Brazil, but they are more concentrated in the Amazon, in the semiarid and in large urban centers. Through the UNICEF Seal, UNICEF promotes commitments to guarantee the rights of children and adolescents in the Semiarid and in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. In large cities, UNICEF works with a focus on reducing intra-municipal inequalities, through the Platform of Urban Centers (PCU).

Context

Brazil has made important progress in tackling child poverty over the last decades, nevertheless, there are still important challenges. More than 20.3 million children and adolescents lived in monetary poverty and 5.8 lived in extreme monetary poverty in 2021. Furthermore, approximately 32 million children live in multidimensional poverty, with deprivation on sanitation, information, housing, education, water and exposure to child labor. The Social Protection system (SUAS), although well-established, still stumbles in achieving the necessary coverage and adequacy for the fundamental services to tackle multidimensional poverty, such as the Assistance-Family Service (PAIF). At municipal level, social assistance surveillance is fragile with less than one-third of municipalities with a formal structure in place , weakening the capacity to inform social protection initiatives. On top of that, the entry point to access social protection and the main municipal social assistance structure, the Social Assistance Reference Centers (CRAS), face challenges to meet the increased demand after subsequential budget cuts and structural dismantling. To address this complex situation and improve conditions for children it is crucial to strengthen institutions to better plan, design and implement public policies, especially those in close contact with the population as the CRAS. In this sense, UNICEF has been working in partnership with sub-national governments to strengthen SUAS, focusing on the municipal systems in the Amazon and Semiarid regions. One of the main implementation strategies at the subnational level is the UNICEF Seal, which is implemented in Brazilian municipalities across the Semiarid and Amazon regions, over four years, focusing on social protection, early childhood development, education, health, etc. Currently, UNICEF Seal has a dedicated outcome to Social Protection (RS7), focused on strengthening SUAS at the municipal level, reinforcing the intersectoral approach with education, health and special social protection and expanding the coverage of Family Care services (PAIF). As a complementary strategy to strengthen social protection, UNICEF will implement a pilot intervention in Presidente Figueiredo (AM), a vulnerable municipality located about 107 Km from Manaus in the Amazon Territory. The municipality has more than 37,000 inhabitants of which one-third are children and adolescents. The municipality counts on one Social Assistance Reference Centers (CRAS) and one Social Assistance Specialized Reference Centers (CREAS), managed by the Social Assistance and Culture Municipal Secretariat (SEMASC). The vulnerable population represents more than 25% of the population and the only CRAS in the municipality has not been able to meet the increasing demand . In this sense, the pilot intervention Acompanhamento Familiar will provide support to SEMASC and the CRAS through the provision of additional human resources, training and technical support on family care services, information and process management. The main goal is to expand the coverage of Family Care services (PAIF coverage). Insofar the reduction of deprivations relies also on other public services, not only on those provided by the social assistance, the Acompanhamento Familiar initiative will be implemented in close alignment with Selo UNICEF and its planned systematic outcomes in Health, Education, WASH, Child Protection, among others.

Task description

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Social Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation and the guidance of the Chief of the Amazon Territory (TAM) and the Chief Field Office in Manaus (AM), the selected UN Volunteer will contribute to UNICEF’s work undertaking the following tasks: Coordinate the Acompanhamento Familiar initiative • Provide technical support on Social Protection to refine the design of the initiative; • Develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for the initiative; • Liaise with internal and external partners of the initiative, including implementing partners, donors and municipal counterparts; • Provide regular and timely reporting on the initiative; • Assure close alignment between the initiative and other UNICEF initiatives in the TAM territory, especially SELO UNICEF. Support the Social Policy agenda in the Amazon Territory (TAM) • Provide technical support and advice on UNICEF’s strategic engagement with state and municipal social protection counterparts; • Provide technical support to advance UNICEF Social Policy and Social Protection agendas in TAM; • Provide technical support in social protection for the Selo UNICEF strategy, including technical support to its implementing partners; • Constantly map out opportunities to foster Social Policy and Social Protection agenda in TAM; • Report regularly and timely the ongoing initiatives and results achieved in TAM. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities. • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible. Results/expected outputs: • Sound implementation of the Acompanhamento Familiar initiative; • Adequate support provided to the Social Policy team and other programme sections as required; • Quality material and knowledge products for internal and external audiences produced in a timely fashion; • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.