Education Expert

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children’s rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children.The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been present in Brazil since 1950, supporting the most important changes in the area of ​​childhood and adolescence in the country. UNICEF participated in major immunization and breastfeeding campaigns; the mobilization that resulted in the approval of article 227 of the Federal Constitution and the drafting of the Child and Adolescent Statute; the movement for universal access to education; programs to combat child labor; among other great advances in guaranteeing the rights of Brazilian girls and boys.In recent decades, Brazil has promoted a strong process of inclusion of children and adolescents in public policies. However, a significant portion of the population remains excluded. Therefore, in its cooperation program with the Brazilian government for the period 2017-2021, UNICEF focuses its efforts on the most vulnerable and excluded girls and boys, with a special focus on children and adolescents who are victims of extreme forms of violence .These children and adolescents in situations of greater vulnerability are spread throughout Brazil, but they are more concentrated in the Amazon, in the semiarid and in large urban centers. Through the UNICEF Seal, UNICEF promotes commitments to guarantee the rights of children and adolescents in the Semiarid and in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. In large cities, UNICEF works with a focus on reducing intra-municipal inequalities, through the Platform of Urban Centers (PCU).

Context

Brazil has not yet guaranteed to all children and adolescents the basic right to education. It is observed through available indicators the worsening of the situation of Brazilian public education in the last two years, due to the pandemic.
Considering that, UNICEF works in the country to ensure that (i) all children and adolescents are at schools, protected and learning at the right age; (ii) they develop all their skills, based on an integrated and protective approach; and (iii) every young people make a positive transition from school to work. In Rio de Janeiro, this work is done through Agenda Cidade UNICEF, which will have a new edition starting in 2025.
This assignment will support the implementation of the national and local education strategy in Rio de Janeiro as the focus, but also guiding the local strategy on education as an integral part of Education that Protects and of the Rio de Janeiro Framework focused on Violence Prevention and Response in contexts or armed violence.
The UN Volunteer is supposed to design, implement, and monitor education activities, in partnership with government and civil society, based on the strategies developed by Brasília’s Education Team and the Chief Field Office in Rio de Janeiro.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Chief of UNICEF Rio de Janeiro Field Office or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Education Officer will provide technical assistance to:
Advocacy activities
• Provide high quality information, data and critical analyses to support UNICEF advocacy strategies on education in Rio de Janeiro, in the context of the new office framework and in close coordination with local team.
• Identify strategic places where UNICEF should be present to influence public policies for education.
• Dialogue with high level public managers in the State and Municipal levels to ensure the advancement of inclusion, permanence and quality policies in schools.
• Represent UNICEF in public events.
School Active Search Initiative
• Contribute to the development of the national strategy, with inputs about the experience in Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo.
• Engage all necessary segments to implement the strategy, including managers from the Secretariats of Education, Health, Social Assistance, civil society, protection systems, the guardianship councils, Public Prosecutor’s Office, courts of auditors and other.
• Support local technical teams to feed the digital platform with relevant information on children out of school.
• Provide capacity building activities to managers and their teams engaged with the initiative.
• Support managers from the State Secretariats of Education, with the implement partner, to implement Successful School Pathways principles.
• Prepare donor proposals and reports.
Education that Protects
• Engage public managers and their teams to implement initiatives that ensure children are protected from all forms of violence in the schools.
• Train education managers to implement a system of protection, prevention, and response to violence.
• Address issues of violence and structural racism that impact learning and are usually not addressed, specially influencing the curricula of the engaged schools.
• Support Education Departments in the development of strategies to use digital resources and promote the development of digital skills.
• Prepare donor proposals and reports. Early child education.
• Provide technical assistance on the intersectoral initiatives for early childhood, with the lens of education.
• Engage public managers and their teams in the initiatives related to early child education.
• Prepare proposals and reports. One Million Opportunities (1 MiO).
• Work in close collaboration with the 1 MiO team in this initiative that brings together companies, social organizations, governments, and young people in a network to generate opportunities and defend decent work.
• Provide advice for the Education axle of 1 MiO in Rio de Janeiro.
Other duties
Monitor annual work plans designed for Rio de Janeiro, including budget implementation; Participate in internal discussions, meetings and external events as needed, duly liaising with other programmatic areas in the Field Office as well.