Social Policy Manager

UNICEF supports the Government of Pakistan to accelerate progress for children, work to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and help children realize their rights under the Convention on the Rights of Children. This will be made through, among others things, strong partnerships with provincial authorities, teachers and health professionals, frontline workers and social mobilizers, communities and families, and of course, the children and adolescents themselves. 

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.
• Guide the office and partners to identify priority areas for evidence generation and evaluation, including topics in accordance with the coverage guidelines of the UNICEF Evaluation Policy, UNICEF’s Strategic Plan and UNICEF Pakistan Country Programme Document.
• Establish and facilitate the process of quality assurance for research conducted at UNICEF Pakistan in accordance with the UNICEF Policy on Research. Ensure that the Standard Operating Procedures, checklists and other tools are available. Lead the internal UNICEF Pakistan Research Steering Committee and external high-level discussions with Government counterparts.
• Supervise and support team members by providing guidance on individual workplans and ensuring collaborative teamwork.

Improving data on child poverty and vulnerability:

• Oversees the collection, analysis and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, including strengthening national capacity to collect routinely, report and use data for policy decision-making.
• Provides timely, regular data-driven analysis for effective prioritization/de-prioritization. This includes facilitating results-based management for planning, monitoring, adjusting and scaling-up social policy initiatives to reduce child poverty.
• Analyses the macro political, economic, social and environmental contexts and their impact on social development for children. This includes emerging issues relating to child poverty and vulnerability, especially through the gender and equity lenses.
• Proposes and promotes appropriate responses in respect of the emerging issues and concerns, including government resource allocation policies and the effect of social welfare policies on the rights of children.

Strengthening social protection coverage for children:

• Develops social protection policies, legislation and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of children. Applies the equity lenses with special attention paid to the most marginalized and deprived children.
• Identifies, generates and presents evidence to support this social protection for children in collaboration with other UNICEF sections, government and civil society partners.
• Promotes strengthening of integrated social protection systems by providing technical support to partners to improve the design of cash transfers and child grants. 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, and child protection.
• Undertakes improved monitoring, reporting and research around social protection impact on child outcomes; use data and research findings for strengthening programme results.

 Improving use of public financial resources for children:

• Undertakes budget analysis to inform UNICEF’s advocacy and technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance, Planning Commissions and social sector Ministries to improve equitable allocations for essential services for children.
• Works with sectoral colleagues to build capacity of undertaking costing and cost effectiveness analysis on priority interventions to help inform policy decisions on child-focused investments.
• Identifies policy options for improved domestic financing of child-sensitive social policy and protection interventions.
• Undertakes and builds 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.

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 federal and local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation and accountability processes so that decisions are child-focused and service delivery more closely respond to the needs of local communities.
• Collaborates with the federal and local authorities to strengthen capacity on quality data collection, analysis for policy development, planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring of essential social services, with emphasis on community participation and accountability.

Improving evidence and knowledge on child-related SDGs in Pakistan:

• Oversees collection, analysis and use of evidence and knowledge on child related SDGs and SDG indicators that UNICES is a custodian/co-custodian.
• Set priority areas to closely monitor the trends; strengthen national capacity to collect, report and use data and evidence for policy decision-making.
• Together with the Data Team, develop a monitoring framework for child-related SDGs, with a strong focus on equity. Identifies, generates and presents evidence to support reaching the SDG targets in collaboration with partners.
• Strengthen integrated evidence building for cross sectoral programme.

Social policy and protection programme management:

• Manage and coordinate programme around child poverty, social protection, public finance, cash transfers and governance; ensure they are well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion.
• Ensures risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into overall programme planning and implementation.
• Working in close collaboration with UNICEF programme sections, partners, and governments on cross-cutting issues.

Enhancing data use, advocacy and partnerships for child-sensitive programming:

• Oversee ethical, effective and creative use of data and evidence to raise awareness of the situations of children and advocate for child rights and wellbeing.
• Strengthen partnerships with the Government, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, civil society organizations, 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.
• Identify new partners, promotes awareness and builds capacity of partners, and actively facilitates effective collaboration within the UN family.

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

Minimum requirements for Eduaction and Work experience:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field.
• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) with a minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience is required. A first University Degree (bachelor’s) in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/573716