Country: United States of America
Closing date: 27 Jun 2016
Job Number: 494610
Location: Programme Division, UNICEF NYHQ
Work Type : Fixed Term Staff
If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.
For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
Purpose of the Position
UNICEF is seeking applicants for the position of Senior Child Protection Specialist (Coordinator for the Global Child Marriage Programme).
The incumbent will act as a focal point and liaison for all activities and ensure excellent programme management and the delivery of significant results related to the Global Joint Programme for Accelerating Action to End Child Marriage (hereafter, the Global Joint Programme) between UNFPA-UNICEF and other partners.
In line with the priority result areas of UNICEF's 2014-17 Strategic Plan, and facilitating progress toward the goals of UNICEF's Gender Action Plan, the incumbent will coordinate the overall activities of the Global Joint Programme, including strategic direction, management and the delivery of results. The incumbent will furthermore facilitate the overall growth and development of the initiative while maintaining its results orientation. The Global Joint Programme involves a number of programme sectors, and currently 12 lead countries across 3 regions, as well as UNFPA and multiple donors. The incumbent will work with a wide range of UN agencies and other partners to strengthen and develop the Global Joint Programme as a global platform that addresses the prevention and mitigation of child marriage at scale and advances vital advocacy, guidance, results, and evidence on the issue.
Key Accountabilities and Duties & Tasks
1.Strategic and Managerial leadership
-Shape the evolving strategic vision and results-oriented direction for the Global Programme.
-Translate and communicate the essential elements for realizing the strategic vision and programmatic results for key stakeholders/participants in the Global Programme, including governments, senior managers, programme staff, and other partners.
-Establish the annual workplan with the Core Joint Programme Coordination Unit and the Steering Committee. Set priorities, targets and performance measurements. Monitor workplan progress and ensure results are achieved according to schedule and performance standards.
-Supervise the members of the Core Joint Programme Coordination Unit by providing them with clear objectives and goals, direction and guidance to enable them to perform their duties responsibly, effectively and efficiently.
-Establish clear individual performance objectives, goals and timelines; and provide timely guidance to enable the Core Joint Programme Coordination Unit to perform its duties responsibly and efficiently. Plan and ensure timely performance management and assessment of the Core Joint Programme Coordination Unit.
2.Programme Development, planning, and implementation
-Convene meetings and serve as Secretary to the Steering Committee in order to establish the shared priorities, resource allocations, and time-frames for making progress on programmatic results.
-Ensure the effective roll-out of the planning and resource allocation processes. Identify and monitor agreed upon follow up actions with all participating agencies and donor countries.
-Manage refinement and development of the multi-country, multi-donor Global Joint Programme as it evolves in substance, scope, and resources.
-Liaise closely with the relevant Regional and Country Offices to ensure that the field perspective is fully reflected in and effectively supported through the global initiative.
-Work with UNFPA-UNICEF Senior Management as well as donor representatives to establish and operationalize cross-sectoral teams in the two agencies to support the development and implementation of the Global Joint Programme.
-Lead/support the planning and conduct/update of the situation analysis to ensure that comprehensive and evidence based data on Child Marriage issues are available to guide the Global Joint Programme strategic policy advocacy, intervention and development efforts.
-Keep abreast of and contribute to national/regional/international development priorities on child marriage and rights to leverage the Global Joint Programme position and competencies with donors, national governments, communities and constituents to advocate/promote Child Marriage interventions and policies to achieve the goals on Ending Child Marriage.
-Consult and collaborate with national/global colleagues/partners/allies to support the establishment of effective partnerships, expertise, resources/financing, for implementing Child Marriage programmes at scale.
-Ensure synergy, integration, coherence, and harmonization of the country, regional and global approaches and activities with the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Joint Programme results framework, donors' development strategies, national priorities/competencies and UN System development interventions/initiatives.
3.Monitoring and quality control of results
-Maintain, refine, communicate and implement a robust results framework with a clearly defined theory of change, linking specific activities to deliverables and outputs and their demonstrable linkage to results.
-Support the establishment of effective monitoring and evaluation plans, processes, indicators and data collection processes for programme elements to supply regular monitoring and reporting on the specified results for the Global Joint Programme.
-Monitor programme elements to assess progress, identify bottlenecks and potential problems and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to both implementing offices and senior management for timely resolution.
-Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual reviews with government and other counterparts to assess progress and to engage stakeholders to take required action/interventions to achieve results.
-Assess monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths/weaknesses in programme and management, identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals for the Global Joint Programme.
-Plan, approve, monitor and control the use of programme resources (financial, human, administrative and other assets) certifying/verifying compliance with organizational rules, regulations and procedures, donor commitments and standards of accountability and integrity. Ensure timely reporting and liquidation of resources.
-Submit programme/project reports to donors and other partners to keep them informed on programme progress and critical issues.
-Prepare workplans, funding allocations, reports and other documentation to contribute to the personnel and financial management and planning and reporting functions of the Child Protection Section and perform any other work as assigned.
4.Advisory services and technical support
-Provide technical advice to key government officials, NGO, UN system and other country office partners on strategies and best practices to influence approaches/policies and to support social/economic/political/legal development planning, implementation and delivery of results on ending Child Marriage.
-Coordinate/ensure the availability of technical experts with UNFPA-UNICEF Regional/CO Offices to ensure timely support throughout all stages of programming/project processes.
-Develop and roll-out guidance and tools to enhance the programmatic coherence, quality and delivery of results for the Global Programme.
-◾Undertake field missions and organize tailored technical support on quality programming, monitoring, and reporting.
5.Advocacy, networking and partnership building
-Maintain and expand partnerships that contribute to the achievement of the Global Joint Programme, including UNICEF's role as Secretariat of the Joint Programme Steering Committee and partnership with academic institutions, global advocacy partners and field implementing partners.
-Serve as main focal point to the Public Partnerships Division (PPD) and the Private Fundraising nad Partnerships Division (PFP) for the management of the relationships with current and prospective donors to the Global Joint Programme.
-In collaboration with UNFPA and other major UN agencies especially UN Women, WHO and World Bank, develop and strengthen the effort to address Child Marriage.
-Build donor rapport to pull together resources for a global movement to end child marriage in line with the Sustainable Development Goals related to Child Marriage (i.e target 5.3).
-Build and strengthen strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with member states, UN agencies, donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, research institutes and the private sector to reinforce cooperation and/or pursue opportunities to promote goals and achieve sustainable and broad results on ending Child Marriage.
-Develop communication strategies and implementation plans and activities for maximum communication impact and outreach to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances for sustainable results and support fund raising for the Global Joint Programme and ending Child Marriage.
6.Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
-Liaise with monitoring and evaluation (M&E) colleagues in both UNFPA and UNICEF to facilitate mutual learning in the development of the M&E framework for addressing Child Marriage.
-Promote critical thinking and innovative approaches and good practices for Child Marriage programming initiatives through advocacy and technical advisory services.
-Keep abreast, research, benchmark, introduce and implement best and cutting edge practices on ending Child Marriage. Institutionalize and disseminate best practices and knowledge learned.
-Lead/plan/implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders to promote sustainable results on Child Marriage and related programmes/projects.
Qualifications of a Successful Candidate
-An Advanced University Degree (Master's) in any of the following: Social Sciences, Public Administration, International Relations, Anthropology, Public Health, Education, Gender or other fields related to the work of UNICEF.Current expert knowledge of the latest developments and issues related to Child Marriage.
-Experience with monitoring and evaluation, or public administration required.
-A minimum of ten (10) years of relevant professional experience, at the national and international levels, in development planning and management in child marriage and gender and/or other related areas.
-Programmatic implementation and management experience at the field level is required.
-Background in adolescent girls' issues and intersection with education and/or reproductive health is highly desirable.
-Relevant experience in child protection and related areas are desirable.
-Programme/project development and management in a UN system agency or organization are an asset.
-Experience in both development and humanitarian contexts are an added advantage.
-Highly self-motivated individual with strong initiative, organizational, time management, and multi-tasking abilities.
-Demonstrated experience in synthesizing disparate points of information and concepts into succinct, crisp, tailored and effective communication for senior management and stakeholders.
-Demonstrated ability to interpret monitoring and technical data and analysis.
-Strong diplomatic and relationship management skills, and ability to bring disparate interests and expertise together.
-Excellent communication, presentation and writing skills in English with evidence of published analytical products.
-Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) is considered an asset.
Competencies of Successful Candidate
Core Values
-Commitment
-Diversity and Inclusion
-Integrity
Core competencies
-Communication - (Level III)
-Working with People - (Level III)
-Drive for Results - (Level III)
Functional Competencies
-Leading and supervising - (Level III)
-Formulating strategies/concepts - (Level III)
-Analyzing - (Level III)
-Relating and networking - (Level III)
-Deciding and Initiating Action - (Level III)
-Persuading and Influencing - (Level III)
To view our competency framework:http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
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.
How to apply:
Link to apply: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=494610
This is an extension of the application deadline in order to expand the candidate pool. Previous applicants need not reapply as their original application will be duly considered.
This post has a fixed-term duration of one (1) year.
Opening Date 13 Jun 2016 Eastern Standard Time
Closing Date 27 Jun 2016 Eastern Standard Time