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.
For every child, Commitment
Pakistan was the sixth country in the world to sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, less than one year after it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. However, children and adolescents living in Pakistan still face acute challenges.
UNICEF supports the Government of Pakistan to accelerate progress for children, work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help children realize their rights under the Convention on the Rights of Children. This will be made through, among other things, strong partnerships with provincial authorities, teachers and health professionals, frontline workers and social mobilisers, communities and families, and of course the children and adolescents themselves.
In particular, UNICEF will work so that:
- Every child survives and thrives — being in good health, immunized, protected from polio and accessing nutritious food.
- Every child learns.
- Every child is protected from violence and exploitation and registered at birth.
- Every child lives in a safe and clean environment, with access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
To learn more about UNICEF work in Pakistan, please visit the country website www.unicef.org/pakistan and videos on YouTube and Vimeo
Accountable for developing, managing, coordinating, networking, implementing and monitoring an advocacy and communication strategy and associated products and activities on on-going basis with public audiences, with the objective of promoting awareness, understanding, support and respect for children’s and women’s rights, and support for UNICEF’s mission, priorities and programmes in general and the polio eradication initiative in particular.
To make a difference, the incumbent shall be responsible for following key strategic functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks;
1. Managerial leadership
- Establish the annual work plan, determining priorities and performance measurements. Monitor workplan implementation, to ensure that WASH&CED output results are achieved to schedule and performance standards. Report critical issues to the Deputy and Representative for timely action.
- Establish the annual workplan outputs, activities and developmental priorities of the WASH&CED section staff. Provide timely guidance to enable the WASH section staff to perform their duties responsibly and efficiently.
- Manage WASH&CED team building and motivation. Signal potential conflicts and take preventive action, in coordination with Human Resources staff.
2. Programme development and planning
- Oversee the preparation of the WASH inputs for the situation analysis. Ensure that comprehensive and current data is used to inform WASH policy and programme development, planning, management and implementation. Keep abreast of global, regional and national WASH sector developments, for maximum efficiency and effectiveness in WASH programme design, management and implementation.
- Collaborate with colleagues and partners to discuss national WASH priorities, resources, strategies and methodologies to ensure the most strategic use of the collective resources of external support agencies.
- Lead the development of the WASH outcome and output results of the country programme (or CCPD), along with related background, strategic analysis and delivery strategies, ensuring alignment with the UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, UNICEF’s global WASH strategy and the country programme as well as government plans and priorities, and the role of other WASH external support agencies. Lead the development of output-related indicators, baselines, targets and means of verification. Lead the development of the WASH content of the CPAP. All in line with strategic approaches related to scaling up, interlink humanitarian-development cooperation, upstream/downstream work and programme approach.
- Ensure the development and management of a fund-raising strategy for WASH&CED, aligned with the WASH&CED output results in the country programme, and lead interactions with senior staff of donor agencies.
- Coordinate the implementation of UNICEF Pakistan Climate Change, Environment and DRR strategy and represent UNICEF in the climate change outcome group in UNSDCF
- Establish partnerships with relevant UN Agencies, IMF and Civil Society Partners for joint resource mobilization for implementation of UNICEF Pakistan sustainability and climate change action plan.
3. Programme management, monitoring and quality control of results
- Prepare documentation for programme reviews and analytical statements on progress and constraints of WASH&CED outcome and output results.
- Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes for the achievement of the WASH&CED output results. Ensure effective collaboration with other UNICEF sectors, where needed.
- With other external support agencies, analyze national government WASH sector programmes and projects, with a focus on WASH outcomes (behaviors), using bottleneck analysis tools available in the sector (WASH-BAT, CSOs, SDAs).
- Manage monitoring and evaluation of the WASH&CED programme and its components, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with government and other partners and prepare reports for CO management and WASH and climate change sector coordination bodies.
- Monitor, report and certify the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verify compliance with approved allocations, organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity.
- Ensure timely donor reporting, negotiate any changes required to agreements with donor in a timely manner. Ensure systems are in place for HACT compliance.
4. Advisory services and technical support
- Participate in strategic discussions to influence national WASH and climate change policies and strategies, including the reduction of inequalities, contributing to global sector learning.
- Advise senior officials in government, NGOs, UN agencies and WASH sector donors on WASH policies, strategies and best practices.
- Lead the preparation of policy papers, reports, briefing notes and other strategic materials for use by management, donors, UNICEF regional offices and headquarters.
- Coordinate the use of technical experts from the Regional Office and HQ, as and where appropriate in the WASH&CED programme, through remote support and on-site visits.
5. Advocacy, networking and partnership building
- Build and strengthen strategic partnerships with government counterparts, UN agencies, donor agencies, WASH institutions, NGOs, research institutes and the private sector to stimulate coordination and collaboration.
- Oversee the analysis of national budgets for WASH, cost analysis and value-for-money studies, to advocate for improvements in sector efficiency.
- Produce materials for WASH&CED programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships and support fund-raising.
- Represent UNICEF in inter-agency discussions, ensuring that UNICEF’s position, interests and priorities are fully considered and integrated in planning and agenda setting.
- Interact with global and regional initiatives and partnerships for WASH, climate change and environment.
6. Humanitarian WASH preparedness and response
- Ensure the annual preparation/revision of UNICEF’s preparedness for WASH in emergencies.
- Ensure the coordination arrangements for humanitarian WASH are in place, for instant robust coordination in case of an emergency.
- Ensure that all UNICEF WASH&CED staff are familiar with UNICEF’s procedures for responding in an emergency.
- In case of an emergency, ensure that UNICEF meets its commitments for WASH in the response and early recovery.
- Support government to strengthen WASH emergency preparedness.
7. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
- Organize and lead the development, implementation, monitoring and documentation of WASH action research and innovation (technical or systems), ensuring rigorous monitoring and wide sharing of results.
- Determine priorities for learning/knowledge products, covering innovative approaches and good practices, to support overall WASH sector development.
- Systematically plan, support and monitor the professional development of UNICEF WASH&CED staff, to ensure our sector capacity remains up-to-date with latest developments.
- Organize the systematic assessment of WASH sector capacity gap analysis, in collaboration with government and other stakeholders, and support the design of initiatives to strengthen capacities systematically.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health, social sciences, behavior change communication, sanitary engineering, or another relevant technical field.
- Additional relevant post-graduate courses that complement/supplement the main degree are required.
- DEVELOPMENTAL: a minimum of ten years of professional experience in WASH-related programmes for developing countries is required. One year of deployment in a developing country is required. Proven ability to effectively lead a team to deliver results is required.
- HUMANITARIAN: At least one year of work in humanitarian situations, including one three-month mission deployment is required (with UN-Govt-INGO)
- Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
Technical requirements
Basic to expert knowledge of all components
1. Rural water supply for low- and middle-income countries – including water safety and sustainability.
2. Rural sanitation for low- and middle-income countries, including sustainability; applying CATS principles.
3. Urban sanitation for low- and middle-income countries, including sustainability.
4. Handwashing with soap.
5. WASH-in-Schools and Health Centres.
6. Menstrual hygiene management.
7. National government WASH policies, plans, and strategies.
8. Analysis of national budgets and expenditures for basic WASH and related advocacy.
9. Scale up of WASH project/pilots.
10. Interlinkage of Humanitarian and Development WASH cooperation.
11. Upstream work for WASH.
In-depth knowledge of both components
1. Humanitarian WASH – preparedness.
2. Humanitarian WASH – response and recovery.
In-depth knowledge of concepts and UNICEF role
1. Humanitarian WASH – coordination of the response.
Expert knowledge of two components and basic knowledge of the other two components
1. Programme/project management.
2. Capacity development.
3. Knowledge management.
4. Monitoring and evaluation
In-depth knowledge
1. Human rights and WASH
2. Gender equality and WASH
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues
The UNICEF competencies required for this post are Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2), Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2), Works Collaboratively with others (2), Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2), Innovates and Embraces Change (2), Thinks and Acts Strategically (2), Drive to achieve impactful results (2), Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)
During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.
Life at UNICEF
Working at UNICEF is highly rewarding. With attractive remuneration package encompassing competitive pay and benefits, a culture that helps staff thrive and diverse opportunities for personal and professional development, we aim to help you maintain a fulfilling life both at and outside the office.
We make sure you and your loved ones receive the resources and care that you need to thrive. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. Our contracts, wellbeing policies and initiatives ensure that you are well equipped to effectively deliver for children such as;
- Tax exemption, family allowances, hardship benefits, 10 UN holidays and annual leave allowance, maternity, paternity, adoption leave, medical and dental insurance, pension etc.
- Career support, staff wellbeing programme, breastfeeding policy, flexible work arrangements, childcare room, family support, policies & initiatives, security etc.
- UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
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.
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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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.
Remarks: This is a re-advertisement in order to expand the candidate pool. Previous applicants need not reapply as their original application is still on file.
- This post is open to both internal and external applicants.
- Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
- Verified educational certificates are a pre-requisite for employment at UNICEF.
- Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
- 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 will be prioritized.
- UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID). Government employees who 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.