UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, … a health for all,

Humanitarian crises and fragile settings place a greater number of children at risk to of their life and well-being. In too many cases, we see gains in child mortality reduction quickly lost. These crises underline the need for urgent measures to be collectively and institutionally taken for both acute response and building a more resilient and better prepared health system capable to manage these situations protecting and promoting child health. For UNICEF, these crises have highlighted the need for the organization to strengthen its capacity as a reliable partner in prevention, preparedness, response and recovery efforts.

Globally, UNICEF is responding to the health consequences of humanitarian crises globally and influencing global policy in coordination with the IASC Global Health Cluster and UNICEF’s Core Commitments to Children in Humanitarian Action (CCC). UNICEF focuses on providing quality and accessible health care to women, children, adolescents and newborns in countries affected by crises including fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings. Natural disasters provide ongoing threats including the effects of climate change. UNICEF works with partners to provide community based and primary health care, building capacity of national staff and procuring and providing critical supplies through UNICEF’s Supply Division. UNICEF strength is working on complex challenges such as service delivery strategies in humanitarian situations, climate change, forced displacement and migration while prioritizing and promoting the latest evidence and products in many of the most challenging environments. UNICEF health interventions in humanitarian and fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings link closely with relevant cross-sectoral areas and as part of the wider humanitarian programme response across sectors in Programme Division and in close collaboration with Emergency Programmes.

How can you make a difference?

Under the overall direction of the Senior Advisor, Health (in Emergencies), provides program support to strengthen UNICEF’s response to humanitarian and fragile, conflict-affected, and vulnerable settings with a strong focus on community Primary Health Care, including maternal, child, adolescent and newborn health, immunization, and health system strengthening interventions. The position will focus mainly on technical support to develop tools and guidance and capacity building programs while promoting evidence and knowledge products to inspire better action. The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong analytical and data skills applicable for fragile settings. In addition, the position will support, including short deployments, to regions and countries experiencing crisis and emergencies. Under the supervision of the Senior Advisor, the position will work in close interaction critical partners to liaise with key focal points regarding priority initiatives. The position is also part of the wider health emergency preparedness and response section, working closely with colleagues on Public Health Emergencies (predominantly infectious disease outbreaks such as Ebola and COVID-19) and those seeking to influence the wider global health architecture for health emergency preparedness and response more broadly.

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

Support health emergencies team within UNICEF

• Provide input into UNICEF policy and strategy development and operational research in relation to health in emergencies, resilience and outbreaks, with a focus on high­ risk/fragile states;
• Provide technical input into UNICEF’s health in emergencies programming including taking a cross sectoral lens across the unit
• Provide technical input to global thematic issues with child health emergency implications, including climate change, migration, early childhood development as well as cross-cutting themes such as the nexus, humanitarian cash, disability, and gender equality.
• Support the health emergency preparedness and response section in response to acute and chronic emergencies by collecting background information from internal and external sources and preparing relevant briefing notes as requested;
• Prepare proposals, briefing notes, PowerPoint presentations, and other materials for the health emergency preparedness and response section team;
• Participate in the preparation of all programme/project status reports required for management, donors, budget review, programme analysis, annual reports, etc.;
• Contribute to resource mobilization efforts including preparing funding appeals for UNICEF and health sector mechanisms.
• Attend, contribute to and document internal meetings with various sectors and divisions within UNICEF (EMOPS, cross-cutting issues, WASH, Nutrition).
• Support health emergency preparedness and response section with wider planning, monitoring and evaluation function as required.

Regional/Country support

• Review and provide input for UNICEF’s contribution to health into project proposals for emergency assistance, including HRPs, Flash appeals, HACs, and other related documentation;
• Provide support as required to ROs and COs to enhance UNICEF’s response in health in humanitarian and fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings and to increase capacity to reduce risk and prepare for emergencies;
• Provide support in risk analysis and prioritization of preparedness actions.
• Prepare technical summaries of health issues in humanitarian and fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings for COs and ROs;
• Work across the agency to identify internal and external health candidates to be deployed to emergencies.

Production and dissemination of technical guidance and tools

• Provide input to the cross-sectoral (Health, WASH, Nutrition, Protection, Social Mobilization/, Disabilities, Supply) and Divisional programming technical notes and training materials as needed.
• Contribute to the development of relevant standards, protocols, guidelines and training materials for health issues in humanitarian and fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings;
• Support the development of capacity building packages including Health Emergencies training, IPC and other guidance for Risk-Informed Programmes contributing to the UNICEF Resilience agenda.

Support the emergency health team with external partners

• Attend, contribute to and document meetings in external fora (health and across sectors) to support the health emergency preparedness and response section among partner agencies.
• Under the guidance of the Senior Advisor for Health in Emergencies, participate in teleconferences of the Global Health Cluster and its working groups and other networks of technical experts for health emergencies.

The following minimum requirements:

• An advanced university degree in public health (e.g. MD, PhD, MPH, MSc) or related field is required. Medical degree in is an advantage,
• A minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible experience in planning and implementing health programmes with the UN, and/or NGO, including demonstrated competency in context and data analysis is required.
• Experience in humanitarian, fragile settings preferred.
• Cross-sectoral experience (behavioral communication, water & sanitation, protection) preferred.
• Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is considered a strong advantage.

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

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

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 does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children.

All selected candidates will 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

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

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions 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.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

The post location, Nairobi, is subject to confirmation.