Chief Social Policy, P-5, FT, Damascus, Syria CO – MENA #56400

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

UNICEF promotes the rights and welfare of all children and adolescents in everything we do. Together with our allies, we work in 190 countries and territories to transform this commitment into practical actions that benefit all children, especially focusing our efforts on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded, worldwide.

For every child, peace  

UNICEF Syria was established in 1970 and has been working with partners to help empower children to fully claim and enjoy their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UNICEF works with partners across Syria to deliver supplies, services, and expertise in areas of Child Protection, Education, Health, Nutrition, Water, Hygiene and Sanitation for every child. UNICEF also provides humanitarian assistance when needed.

Syria continues to face one of the most complex emergencies in the world. Unprecedented humanitarian needs are compounded by displacement inside the country and across its borders, extensive destruction of civilian and social services infrastructure, devastating impacts on the economy, and most importantly, the breakdown of the social fabric that stitched the country together for decades.

Today, 90% of people in Syria live in poverty, most are unable to make ends meet or bring food to the table. Families have had their resources depleted, with limited employment opportunities, skyrocketing prices, and shortage of basic supplies. For most people, the current socio-economic challenges represent some of the harshest and most challenging circumstances they have faced since the beginning of the crisis in 2011.

For information of the work of our organization, please visit our website: UNICEF Syria  

How can you make a difference?

The Chief of Social Policy reports to the Deputy Representative (Programme) for general guidance and direction, and is responsible for leading, managing and supervising 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) Monitoring child poverty and vulnerability; (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; and (e) generation of knowledge and strategic think pieces to inform socio-economic polices for children. This encompasses both direct programme work with government and civil society partners as well as linkages and support to teams working on education, health and nutrition, child protection, water and sanitation with key linkages made to SBC, ADAP, AAP/PSEA, gender and disability.

The Chief of Social Policy provides technical and intellectual leadership, expert advice, technical assistance, and support to UNICEF’s work on child poverty, public finance for children, and child-sensitive social protection systems across all settings (humanitarian and systems strengthening, where relevant).

Key functions/accountabilities:

1. Managerial leadership

• 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.

2. Public policies to reduce child poverty

• 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. 

3. Strengthening social protection coverage and impact for children

• 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.

4. Improving use of public financial resources for children

• 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.

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

• 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.

6.  Strengthened advocacy and partnerships for child-sensitive social policy

• 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.

7.  UNICEF Programme Management

• 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.

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

1. 1. Education:

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.

2. 2. Work Experience:

– 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.

3. 3. Desired Skills:

– Demonstrated track record in generating quality evidence and knowledge to inform and influence socio-economic policies.

– Proven interpersonal communication and conflict resolution skills

 

4. 4. Language Proficiency:

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge in Arabic is an asset.

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

 UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2),

Builds and maintains partnerships (2),

Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (2),

Drive to achieve results for impact (2),

Innovates and embraces change (2),

Manages ambiguity and complexity (2),

Thinks and acts strategically (2),

Works collaboratively with others (2).

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: UNICEF Competency Framework.

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 benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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 promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

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

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

This is required for all posts requiring a higher education degree. “UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”  

The VA is open to all (internal and external candidates)

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also 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 cancelled.

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.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government 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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Syria in a non-family duty station with E hardship classification.