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 voice.

South Africa is classified as an upper-middle-income country with one of the most diversified and financially integrated economies in Africa. With good infrastructure, South Africa is the second most-favored investment destination on the African continent. The country enjoys an important and vibrant presence of media, civil society, private sector, and academic institutions, many of which have an Africa or global footprint.

Despite being classified as an upper middle-income country, inequality in South Africa has long been recognized as one of the most salient features of society, as the country has consistently ranked as one of the most unequal countries in the world. Income inequality has been extremely high in South Africa and has remained so since 1993. From 1993 to most recent Living Conditions Survey in 2014/15, the Gini coefficient of household per capita income has been well above 0.6; in 2014, the Gini Index was 63 (up from 57.8 in 2000). This places South Africa in the ‘top five’ most unequal countries on a global scale.

South Africa has a large and growing youth population. Of its 62 million people, 20.8 million are children under the age of 18 years, and 5.8 million are children under the age of 5 years. Adolescents aged 10–19 years make up 16.7 per cent of the total population, and those aged 14–35 years, defined as youth in South Africa, account for 36 per cent of the total population. Unlike the rest of the continent, the window of opportunity for South Africa to maximize gains from a young population is predicted to close by 2029, creating an urgency to focus investments on children and adolescents.

How can you make a difference?

The Chief of Communication will lead the Communication and Partnerships section, which aims to create, and promote initiatives and alliances with a diverse range of public and private entities – government, development agencies, media, business actors, civil society, influential personalities, and individuals – to increase awareness of child deprivations, support child rights advocacy, leverage resources for children and manage corporate communications in support of UNICEF’s work in South Africa.

The Chief of Communication manages the section and provides strategic guidance to the three components: 1. Public Awareness and Advocacy; 2. Private Fundraising and Partnerships; and 3. the Volunteer programme to ensure synergy and complementarity.

The dual roles of UNICEF in South Africa as both a ‘programme’ as well as a ‘fundraising’ office requires a sophisticated and multi-dimensional communication framework to position UNICEF’s many facets carefully and properly among various audiences.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Communication strategy: The Country Office has a clear communication which includes communication for development, partnerships with private sector and fundraising strategies, and associated work plan to get children’s issues into the public domain, strengthen political will in support of UNICEF’s mission and objectives, and enhance the organization’s credibility and brand.
2. Media relations: The Country Office has a well-managed country communication team that maintains and continually develops a contact list of journalists and media outlets covering all media – print, TV, radio, web etc. – and a successful process of communicating and maintaining regular contact and close collaboration with the media to communicate the story of the situation of children in the country and UNICEF’s response to a wider audience. New ways are identified to increase positive exposure and leverage that prominence for new opportunities for UNICEF.
3. Networking and partnerships: The Country Office has a well-managed country communication team that maintains and continually develops a contact list of individuals, groups, and organizations across private sector, civil society, and academia, to engage on priority child rights issues at the core of advocacy and communication objectives of the communication strategy with a special focus on partnerships with private sector. Network of partners supporting child rights advocacy and fundraising is developed, strengthened, and maintained, alongside strong cooperation with the UN Country Team, UN communication counterparts and high-level counterparts in key partner organizations.
4. Celebrities and special events: The Country Office restructures its approach to engaging with national celebrities and potential ambassadors with the goal of supporting effective child rights advocacy and fundraising. Relationships developed are carefully screened to reduce any issues of risk reputation. Where relevant, nationally known personalities engage with and support UNICEF’s work through online engagement, special events and activities that support country programme goals. Among these high-profile individuals, where relevant support global work through close coordination with DGCA and the regional office to extend their impact and use beyond national borders.
5. Global priorities and campaigns: The Country Office has an effective process in place for integrating and taking action on select UNICEF’s global communications and advocacy priorities, campaigns, and partnerships, aligned to country level priorities, disseminating these elements in a locally appropriate way, as well as providing/enabling coverage of the work in the country for global use.
6. Resource mobilization support: Global and country level fund-raising activities are supported by effective advocacy and communication strategy and activities, including a focus on private sector fundraising. The Country Office has an updated Resource Mobilization Strategy that provides the direction to build a significantly stronger funding base to enable the office to mobilize and leverage domestic, public, and private resources for children in South Africa.
7. Volunteer programme: The Country Office builds a volunteer programme that supports advocacy, brand-awareness, programme implementation and fundraising.
8. Management: The human resources (the communication, advocacy, and partnership team) and financial resources (budget planning, management, and monitoring) for the communication, advocacy and partnership section of the Country Office are both effectively managed and optimally used.
9. Monitoring and evaluation: Communication baselines are established against which the objectives of the communication strategy are regularly evaluated; analysis is undertaken to continuously improve the effectiveness of communication strategy, approach, and activities; results and reports are prepared and shared on a timely basis. This includes identifying and reporting on country level results in global systems, such as the results assessment module (RAM).
10. Capacity building and support: The Representative and the country programme team are provided with expert advice on all aspects of external relations communication as required Opportunities for development among the country communication team and other colleagues are identified and addressed; opportunities to build communication capacity among media and other relevant partners are identified and addressed.
11. Advisory support and communication for strategic results: Develops communication approaches and guidelines, including those most effective for gender mainstreaming across all programmes.

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

Minimum requirements:

Advanced university degree in Communication, Journalism, Public Relations, or other related fields of disciplines.

1. Ten years of progressively responsible and relevant professional work experience.
2. International and national work experience in both developed and developing countries.
3. Professional experience in communication, print, broadcast, new media.
4. Background/familiarity with Emergency situations.
5. Fluency in English and another UN language.

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…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others

(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

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 measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, 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:

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.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates are encouraged to apply.

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.

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

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.