Chief Social Policy

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Description

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• Establish the section’s annual work plan with the social policy team. Set priorities and targets and monitor work progress to ensure results are achieved according to schedule and performance standards.
• Establish clear individual performance objectives, goals and timelines; and provide timely guidance to enable the team to perform their duties responsibly and efficiently. Plan and ensure timely performance management and assessment of the team.
• Supervise team members by providing them with clear objectives and goals, direction and guidance to enable them to perform their duties responsibly, effectively and efficiently.

• • Improving data on child poverty & vulnerability for increased use for policy and programme action.
• • Oversee the collection, analysis and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty where possible, including strengthening national capacity to collect routinely, report and use data for policy decision-making.
• • Provide timely, regular data-driven analysis for effective prioritization, planning, and development; facilitate results-based management for planning, adjusting, and scaling-up specific social policy initiatives to reduce child poverty. 

• Develop social protection policies, legislation and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention the most marginalized.  Identifies, generates and presents evidence to support this goal in collaboration with partners.
• Develop effective and efficient shock responsive social protection programmes to respond to the immediate needs of children affected by displacement and crisis, with ensuring strong linkages between the humanitarian and development components. 
• Promotes 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 disability.
• Undertake improved monitoring and research around social protection impact on child outcomes, and use of data and research findings for strengthening programme results.

• Analyze the macroeconomic context and its impact on social development, emerging issues and social policy concerns, as well as implications for children, and propose and promote 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.
• Undertake budget analysis to inform UNICEF’s advocacy and technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance, planning commissions and social sector ministries as relevant 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.
• Identify policy options for improved domestic financing of child-sensitive social protection interventions.
• Undertake and build the 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.

• Where the national decentralization processes are taking place, collaborates with central and local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation and accountability processes so that decisions are child-focused and service delivery more closely responds to the needs of local communities.
• Where relevant and possible, 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.

• Oversees the 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.

• Manages and coordinates 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 overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.
• Ensures effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the country programme. Ensures that the efforts enhance 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.

• An Advanced University degree (Master’s or higher) in Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field is required.

• A minimum of 10 (ten) years of relevant professional experience in the international context is required.
• Experience of managing mid or large sized programme teams is a requirement.
• Experience working in a developing country, especially in the Middle East Region, is considered as a strong asset.
• Experience in managing mid or large-scale multi-sector humanitarian programme is considered a strong asset.
• Background and/or familiarity with working on emergencies (in emergency duty stations) is considered an asset.

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