Purpose for the job:

Under the general guidance of the Chief of the Zonal Office of the Central South Zone and technical supervision of the Social Policy Manager, the Social Policy officer is accountable for providing technical support and assistance in all stages of social policy programming and related advocacy from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete and sustainable results. This includes programmes aimed at improving (a) public policies to reduce child poverty; (b) social protection coverage and impact on children; (c) the transparency, adequacy, equity, and efficiency of child-focused public investments and financial management; and (d) governance, decentralization, and accountability measures to increase public participation and the quality, equity, and coverage of social services. This encompasses both direct programme work with government and civil society partners as well as linkages and support to teams working on education, health, child protection, water and sanitation, and HIV

Key functions, accountabilities, and related duties/tasks

Improving data on child poverty & vulnerability for increased use for policy and programme action

• Supports the collection, analysis, and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, including strengthening national capacity to collect routinely, report, and use data for policy decision-making.

• Provides timely, regular data-driven analysis for effective prioritization, planning, and development; facilitates results-based management for planning, adjusting, and scaling up specific social policy initiatives to reduce child poverty.
• Analyzes the macroeconomic context and its impact on social development, emerging issues, and social policy concerns, as well as implications for children, and proposes and promotes appropriate responses in respect of such issues and concerns, including government resource allocation policies and the effect of social welfare policies on the rights of children

Strengthening social protection coverage and impact for children

• Supports the development of social protection policies, legislation, and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention to the most marginalized.  Identifies, generates, and presents evidence to support this goal in collaboration with partners.
• 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.

• Supports improved monitoring and research around social protection impact on child outcomes, and use of data and research findings for strengthening programme results.

Improving use of public financial resources for children.

• Undertakes budget analysis to inform UNICEF’s advocacy and technical assistance to Ministries of Finance, planning commissions, and social sector ministries to improve equitable allocations for essential services for children.  Works with sector colleagues to build capacity to undertake costing and cost-effectiveness analysis on priority interventions to help inform policy decisions on child-focused investments.

• Supports the identification of policy options for improved domestic financing of child-sensitive social protection interventions.
• Undertakes and builds capacity of partners for improved monitoring and tracking of public expenditure to support transparency, accountability, and effective financial flows for essential service delivery, including through support to district-level planning, budgeting, and public financial management as well as facilitating community participation

Strengthening capacity of local governments to plan, budget, consult on and monitor child-focused social services.

• Where national decentralization processes are taking place, collaborate with central and local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation, and accountability processes so that decisions and child-focused service delivery more closely respond to the needs of local communities
• Collaborates with the central and local authorities to strengthen capacity on quality data collection, analysis for policy development, planning, implementation, coordination, and monitoring of essential social services, with emphasis on community participation and accountability.

Strengthened advocacy and partnerships for child-sensitive social policy

• Supports correct and compelling use of data and evidence on the situation of children and coverage and impact of child-focused services – in support of the social policy programme and the country programme overall.

• 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

UNICEF Programme Management.

• 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 the overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.

• 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.

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: 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.

• Work Experience: A minimum of two years of relevant professional experience is required.
• Language Requirements:  Fluency in English is required.  Knowledge of another official UN language or the local language of the duty station is considered as an asset

Desirables:

• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency.