Programme Specialist

In alignment with UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan and UNICEF’s new Adolescent Girls’ Programme Strategy, UNICEF’s Gender Equality section is seeking an Adolescent Girls’ Programme Specialist, with supervision from the Senior Advisor, Gender Equality, focused on adolescent girls. The role is primarily technical and programmatic, with the policy, advocacy and coordination roles serving a secondary function. The team currently oversees or supports a live portfolio of 46 country programmes working to promote adolescent girls’ wellbeing, empowerment and leadership through multisectoral models, particularly on skills, protection and health. Whilst some of these programmes are well-established under UNICEF’s Skills4Girls programme, many of the programmes have just started in 2023, offering a fantastic opportunity in this role to get to grips with and support a new and growing portfolio and make a real difference in girls’ lives. Advocacy, learning and building the evidence base for this agenda are also key components of the strategy described above. This role will play a critical role in supporting the delivery of this agenda, with the programme management portfolio focused on leading programme management on Skills4Girls and active support to the HPV+ portfolio.

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

• High quality programme management of a large portfolio of programmes to progress adolescent girls’ rights, wellbeing and leadership.
• Support for the development, implementation, and monitoring of high-quality programming, including leading programme management of the global Skills4Girls programme and support to the POWER4Girls programme, including responsibility for excellent and detail-oriented monitoring of budget and results, and regular reports for different audiences. This requires close attention to detail, excellent organisational skills and ability to deliver at pace, as well as strong writing skills;
• Support and work with programme colleagues and management so that gender results are effectively defined, measured, and reported, and high-quality assessment, research, evidence generation and evaluation on gender programming is undertaken and utilized;
• Support for cross-sectional collaboration and coordination on key programmatic results on gender, ensuring coherence, maximization of synergies and efficiency in utilization of resources and delivery of results

Advisory services and technical support on adolescent girls

• Technical guidance/operational support throughout all stages of programming to facilitate the management and delivery of results contributing to gender equality in alignment with the Gender Action Plan. This includes:
• Actively participate in or support others in efforts to provide technical support as demanded by country offices, including triaging support demands proactively, or researching and responding to requests depending on thematic area;
• As requested, provide gender analysis and review of programme proposals so that technical components are designed to (as a minimum) respond to girls’ and women’s needs, and ideally address the root causes of gender inequality, and so that the overall programme is aligned with the strategic shifts outlined in the Adolescent Girls’ Programme Strategy
• Work with sectoral counterparts and senior management to incorporate sound gender indicators and measures in programme/project and policy initiatives, proposals, and advocacy efforts and assist in developing gender-sensitive theories of change models for sector and cross-sectoral programming – aligned with the Strategy’s overall M&E Framework and Theory of Change.

Support policy efforts to further adolescent girls’ rights, wellbeing and leadership, with a special focus on the HPV+ initaitve

• Support programme and sector colleagues in health and immunization to advance the HPV+ agenda with support from the Senior Gender Adviser, with a focus on holistic adolescent girls’ health services (including for example guidance, learning and policy work to address teenage pregnancy, HIV and advance sexual and reproductive health rights), to be further defined depending on the successful candidate’s background.
• Provide briefing for key advocacy and communications moments for adolescent girls. This includes:
• Support documentation and sharing of the country-level experience in gender programming and lessons learned, which will be shared with internal network and external partners
• Bring best practices in gender programming and measurement to the attention of senior management and sectoral colleagues, as well as Regional Gender Advisor and gender section staff at HQ
• Provide briefing for senior staff based on the programme portfolio and priority GAP area the Programme Specialist is engaged on.

Advocacy, networking and partnership building

• Support implementation of a policy and advocacy strategy with key messages on working with and for adolescent girls, building from existing work
• Support building and maintenance of internal and external partnerships and networks as relevant for the portfolio of programmes
• Support building and maintenance of strategic alliances for gender equality with various partners, including institutional links with UN agency teams focused on adolescent girls, and other relevant entities.
• Support mapping of potential new partnerships and input into programme proposals to accelerate GAP implementation with and for adolescent girls globally as required
• Provide support to the Global Girl Leaders Advisory Group, supporting this group to execute their vision and meaningfully participate in shaping UNICEF’s programmes with and for adolescent girls.

The following minimum requirements:

• Advanced university degree (Masters or higher) in the social sciences (i.e. sociology, demography, psychology, political science, social policy or economics), public health, public policy, public administration, international development, or in an area relevant to UNICEF’s sectoral work (e.g. Health, Nutrition, WASH, Education, Child Protection, Social Protection, Inclusion, HIV/AIDs, etc.) is required.
• Academic credentials in gender are a strong asset.
• Minimum five years of progressively responsible professional experience and demonstrated track record of having undertaken and led substantive programming on gender and development in key issue areas that are the focus of UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan is required.
• Experience in managing programmes/projects is essential, including budget and knowledge management
• Excellent written communication skills are essential
• Experience  at country/field level is an asset..
• Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is considered an asset.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/572742