Adolescent Development Specialist (Skills and Employability)

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.
In all of its work, UNICEF takes a life-cycle based approach, recognizing the particular importance of early childhood development and adolescence. UNICEF programmes focus on the most disadvantaged children, including those living in fragile contexts, those with disabilities, those who are affected by rapid urbanization and those affected by environmental degradation.
UNICEF was created with a distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.
We promote girls’ education – ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum – because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children. We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished: no child should suffer or die from a preventable illness. We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity.
We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Context

South Asia has the largest population of young people in the world; 48 per cent of its population is below the age of 24. This demographic dividend holds tremendous potential to drive economic and social development in the region. However, South Asia faces the most skilling and employment challenges caused by insufficient resources and investments, poor quality, high drop-out rates in education, changing demographics, conflict and disaster, rapid urbanization and new technology that alters labor markets. Across ROSA, our programs for adolescents and youth have been known for two things: 1) supporting the learning to earning transition for vulnerable youth; and 2) systematizing young people’s engagement to become more active in their communities through meaningful civic engagement and participation, with a focus on the most vulnerable. The Adolescent Development Specialist is to be used in a Regional Office (RO) where adolescent programming is a major/key component, where adolescent skills and employability specifically are key priorities across the region and eight country offices. The Officer will support delivery of results for adolescent boys and girls, through alternate pathways, and an overall focus on developing skills (foundational, transferable, digital, and where relevant, job-specific skills). The post holder will support the regional office to design evidence-based programs, strengthen data, and measure results of interventions across the region.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Regional Advisor, Adolescent Participation, Skills and Employability, or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Adolescent Development Specialist (Skills and Employability) will provide:
Technical leadership on adolescent skills and employability
– Provide technical guidance to eight country offices on the preparation, design, and updating of adolescent and youth skills development and employability programmes to ensure that current and comprehensive data on relevant issues is available to guide UNICEF’s strategic policy, advocacy, and interventions. This includes leading adolescent and youth skills and employability strategies in various contexts: formal and non-formal education settings, entrepreneurship, and targeting NEET through multiple pathways.
– Coordinate regional analysis and research about adolescent and youth skills development and employment, support sector-specific analysis of data, support the evaluation of existing programmes to determine their effectiveness, and recommend alternative solutions that work best in the different contexts of the countries of the region, including emergency contexts.
– Provide quality technical contributions in strategic programme discussions on the planning of relevant programmes: support country offices to formulate, design, and prepare programme proposals for the sector, ensuring alignment with UNICEF’s Global Strategic Plan. Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes and ensure integration, coherence, and harmonization of programmes/projects with other UNICEF sectors and achieve results as planned and allocated.
– Co-create strategies to support the integration of 21st-century skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration in formal and non-formal education, including in emergency contexts, to prepare young people for 21st-century jobs. This will include green skills, green entrepreneurship, and green jobs.
– Share best practices and available knowledge on skills integration and skills packages for multiple pathways of training, non-formal approaches, community-based or emergency settings, and support evaluations of existing programmes when they occur.
– Engage with the Generation Unlimited Secretariat (Gen-U) at both RO and HQ levels to guide and support the operationalization of Gen-U in countries, as well as develop strategies for engagement in other countries in the region.
– Identify potential entry points for UNICEF to collaborate with technical agencies in the region to equip marginalized young people with skills to succeed in life, livelihoods, and work (e.g., ILO and UNDP on alternative pathways, accelerated learning, innovative approaches, and blended learning) and cross sectoral links with adolescent needs in other sectors.
– Contribute as an active member of relevant working groups in the regional office ensuring the adolescent skills agenda is well reflected and integrated. Advocacy, networking, and partnerships – Build and strengthen strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy across the region with local/national governments, UN system agencies, partners, donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, funding organizations, research institutes, and private sector to reinforce cooperation and/or pursue opportunities to promote goals and achieve sustainable and broad results on skills development and employability in the region.
– Contribute to convene, leverage partnerships, engage various stakeholders including private partners and young people to co-create and scale up innovative or proven solutions related to skills building in the region and position UNICEF strategically in this newer area of work.
– Work with UNICEF colleagues both at the regional and country levels from various sections including education, social inclusion, child protection, climate, gender, and adolescent development to design and improve programming on skills development and adolescent development to identify proposed strategies and interventions.
– Support partners to hardwire a focus on skills through co-creation of solutions and development and implementation of country investment agendas which integrate a focus on skills and employability. Gender and Skilling of Young People.
– Support the acceleration of progress on gender equality in skills development and employability within the region and provide support to COs in strengthening gender-responsive and transformative programming, through ensuring the attention to gender within relevant Skills Training and Employability Sector Plans.
– Support organizing and participating in advocacy events through mobilizing multi-sectoral partnerships and capacity development at regional and country levels with a special focus on equity, gender, and inclusion and promoting research, evidence building, and good practices in these areas.
– Work with the Gender focal points in ROSA to accelerate progress on Girls’ Education and gender in education within the region, including strengthening partnerships with governments, UN agencies, and other organizations working in the field of gender in education, in particular UN agencies, regional Asian bodies, key bilateral agencies, and civil society organizations. Coordination, Monitoring and Results for Young People
– Plan and collaborate with internal colleagues at RO and COs to establish monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators, and other UNICEF/UN system indicators to assess/strengthen performance accountability coherence and delivery of concrete and sustainable results for adolescents.
– Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews, and annual reviews to assess progress and determine required action/interventions to achieve results.
– Prepare and assess monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths, and weaknesses in programme management.
– Identify lessons learned and use the knowledge gained for planning adjustments and timely interventions to achieve goals.
Innovation and Capacity Building
– Apply/introduce innovative approaches and gender-responsive/transformative practices on adolescent and youth skills to build the capacity of partners and stakeholders and to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.
– Explore non-traditional channels such as T4D to deliver skills and employability training and broker partnerships with the private sector to design, test, evaluate and scale up innovations.
– Keep abreast of research, benchmark, and implement best practices on skills development and employability. – Assess, institutionalize, and share best practices and knowledge learned.
– Contribute to the development and implementation of policies and procedures to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programmes and projects.
– Organize and implement capacity-building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders to promote sustainable results on related programmes/projects. Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.
As an active UNICEF team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly, and high-quality support rendered to UNICEF and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including: – The technical support and contributions provided by the incumbent strengthens the advocacy, planning and formulation of young people skills, employability, and participation. – The achievement of concrete and sustainable results from these programmes contribute to achievement of UNICEF goals in the region to promote to promote learning and skills for young people and the full and active participation of young people in determining their essential needs, promoting their rights to a safe environment, and protecting their rights to survival, development, and well-being in society. – This in turn contributes to maintaining/enhancing the credibility and ability of UNICEF to provide programme services for young people that promotes greater social equality and inclusion in the region. The work of the incumbent will also contribute to the goals of Generation Unlimited in South Asia.