Social Policy Officer (NO-2) Temporary Appointment, Lusaka, Zambia # 123519
Job no: 558526
Contract type: Temporary Appointment
Duty Station: Lusaka
Level: NO-2
Location: Zambia
Categories: Social Policy
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, Equality
The UNICEF Programme of Cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) is designed to address and mitigate the threat of poverty the country’s children face, while responding to the needs with interventions addressing the multiple causative factors.
To find out more about UNICEF’s work in Zambia, please visit unicef.sharepoint.com/sites/ZMB/SitePages/About-us(1).aspx
Job Context
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, nutrition, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital.
Purpose of the Position
Under the supervision of the Social Policy Specialist, the incumbent will provide capacity building support towards UNICEF’s work with the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services and sub-national level Technical Assistance (TA) support and assistance. By way of paternity cover for the social policy officer, the incumbent will focus on the strengthening of M&E systems, data systems and shock-responsiveness of the Social Cash Transfer programme. In addition, the incumbent will provide support to accelerate the implementation of activities around of social protection and social cash transfer policy frameworks and identification of graduation pathways. The position will therefore have a primary focus on activities that will lead to accelerated strengthening of the ministry’s policy framework and programming guidelines, coming from a situation of considerable backlog.
Key Accountabilities
Establishes effective partnerships with the Government, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, civil society and local leaders, the private sector, and other UN agencies to support sustained and proactive commitment to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and to achieve global UN agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
Identifies other critical partners, promotes awareness and builds capacity of partners, and actively facilitates effective collaboration within the UN family.
Helps manage and coordinate technical support around child poverty, social protection, public finance and governance ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion so as to adequately support scale-up and delivery. Ensures risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.
Supports the development of social protection policies, legislation and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention the most marginalized. Identifies, generates and presents evidence to support this goal in collaboration with partners. Specifically:
Support finalisation of revised Social Cash Transfer guidelines and their operationalisation
Support finalisation of revised Public Welfare Assistance Scheme guidelines and their operationalisation
Support finalisation of revised National Social Protection Policy and its operationalisation
Support the finalisation of the SCT graduation protocol
Support the scoping of graduation pathways for SCT beneficiaries
Support the finalisation of the Cash Plus Guidelines
Supports strengthening of integrated social protection systems, providing technical support to partners to improve the design of cash transfers and child grants and improve linkages with other social protection interventions such as health insurance, public works and social care services as well as complementary services and intervention related to nutrition, health, education, water and sanitation, child protection and HIV. Specifically
Supports the strengthening of the SCT M&E system including the population of indicators in the system and the piloting of the performance monitoring in selected districts
Supports the shock-responsiveness agenda of the SCT in the humanitarian-development nexus, including the finalisation of the relevant SOPs
Supports the implementation of the Africa Risk Capacity funded Emergency Cash Transfers, including the support to third party monitoring, MIS module finalisation and communication
Supports the finalisation and implementation of the Evaluation Management Response to the ECT evaluation
Supports and contributes to effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the country programme. Ensures 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. Specifically:
Assists the Social Policy Specialist with technical inputs to donor proposals, programme management, coordination, reporting and supervision activities.
Supports internal M&E needs of the section
Supports internal integration platforms such as adolescent programming.
Detailed Terms of Reference can be viewed here: Download File TOR Social Policy Officer NO2 Temporary Appointment.pdf
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
A university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field.
A minimum of two years of relevant professional experience
Knowledge and experience with diverse social protection programmes, particularly cash transfers
Basic understanding of both humanitarian and development programming
Demonstrated understanding of monitoring and evaluation methodologies
Familiarity with the Zambian Social Protection Landscape
Experience of working with government partners at national and sub-national levels.
Fluency in English
Knowledge of the local working language of the duty station is an asset
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…
Builds and maintains partnerships (1), Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (1), Drive to achieve results for impact (1), Innovates and embraces change (1), Manages ambiguity and complexity (1), Thinks and acts strategically (1) and Works collaboratively with others (1).
During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
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 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.
Remarks:
UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates, including those with disability are encouraged to apply.
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 appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government 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.
Advertised: 18 Jan 2023 South Africa Standard Time
Deadline: 01 Feb 2023 South Africa Standard Time
Submit your CV and Application on Company Website : Click Here
Closing Date : 25th January, 2023.
