Deadline: 30 September, 2021

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is seeking to fill the role of Social Policy Specialist.

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

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for the scaling up of UNICEF’s public finance for children (PF4C) work in line with the country programme document
• Develop and apply relevant PFM tools together with government counterparts and development partners
• Serve as the country focal point of technical expertise in the area of PF4C
• Monitor developments in technical area, as well as political and social developments, in member states
• Regularly disseminate federal and member state budget data as well as information on systems and socioeconomic trends and their implications for national and county programming
• Analyse the macroeconomic context and its impact on children and vulnerable families, and propose appropriate responses in terms of government resource allocation policies and social welfare policies
• Coordinate UNICEF’s advocacy and contribution to the formulation, review and monitoring of the medium-term plans (MTP), sector plans, etc. to ensure that child priorities are fully reflected
• Provide comprehensive yearly budget analysis using available national and county level budget information (budget briefs) and present, discuss and advocate that recommendations from evidence generation activities be adopted by the MoF and social sector ministries in their annual planning and budgeting processes
• Advocate and provide technical support to the MoF to introduce or revise key PFM reforms so that they reflect child-focused priorities and deliver on expected results, including the chart of accounts, programme- or performance-based budgeting, inter-governmental fiscal transfer formulas and the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF)
• Facilitate and coordinate national and subnational dialogue with key financial decision makers to raise awareness around child rights and make the case for investing in children
• Develop partnerships with the national parliament, Office of Control of Budget and the Office of the Auditor General and build their capacity to initiate child-sensitive legislation, approve the budget and provide effective oversight
• Present, discuss and advocate that recommendations from evidence generation activities be adopted by the MoF and social sector ministries
• Provide technical support to introduce or revise key PFM reforms so that they reflect child-focused priorities and deliver on expected results
• Facilitate dialogue with key financial decision makers at all levels of government to raise awareness around child rights and make the case for investing in children
• Convene development partners and potential lenders to facilitate the government’s access to new funding sources
• Build the capacity of parliamentarians to approve the budget and provide effective oversight

Requirements

• Advanced university degree in Economics or Public Finance
• Advanced university degree in Public Policy, Administration, or a related discipline will be considered
• Eight years, minimum, of progressive, professional work experience in national budgeting, public financial management and public sector financing
• Experience in budget analysis, costing and developing investment cases in key sectors for children will be a plus
• Excellent writing and communication skills
• Background and/or familiarity with emergency will be a plus
• Fluency in English
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language

To apply and for more information, click here.

Photo source: UNAMID