Social Policy Specialist (Shock Responsive Social Protection), P-3 at UNICEF

How can you make a difference?

Shock responsive social protection

• Advises and supports the country office on minimum preparedness requirements. Conducts needs assessment to inform the design of programmes addressing barriers to meet humanitarian needs.
• Promotes the strengthening of a shock-responsive social protection system by applying evidence and appropriate advocacy messaging across the entire spectrum of social protection from a risk perspective, including inter alia: evidence and analysis; contingency planning; strengthening horizontal and vertical coordination between social protection, emergency response; and humanitarian principles, commitments and links between social protection and Humanitarian Cash Transfers.
• Supports dialogue, convenes, and coordinates with different parts of the government at national and subnational level, with other sectors, with other actors e.g., civil society organizations and with the international organizations (UN and beyond). This includes, where applicable, cluster coordination activities.
• Designs CSSP programme, including inter alia setting benefit levels, eligibility / targeting criteria, transfer values, administration and delivery systems. Ensures operational linkages and referral between the programme and relevant social sectors.
• Oversees the implementation of CSSP programme. Ensures that a sound, efficient and timely monitoring takes place through MIS to collects data, carry out analysis and provide reporting. This specifically relates to registration, payment, verification, complaints and other indicators to enable identification of bottlenecks and execution of improvements including in the design of the programme or through capacity building or technical support in its implementation.

Delivery of Humanitarian Cash Transfers – operational aspects of HCT (programme design/implementation/monitoring)

• Identifies or sets up reliable and digitalized payment systems to increase the efficiency, accountability and transparency of HCTs, while reaching more and the most vulnerable children in fragile humanitarian contexts.
• Helps build infrastructure and capacity that enables linkages of cash transfer programmes with other social protection interventions. Works to ensure sustainability and to avoid fragmentation through – where possible – the subsequent integration of cash transfer programmes into existing systems.
• Conducts operational analysis of cash transfer programmes, including registration, payment, verification exercises, etc., to identify areas of poor performance, bottlenecks, and identify solutions.
• Coordinates and supports payment verification and other elements of the HCTs programmes’ monitoring according to the established monitoring frameworks and schedules.

Cross-cutting social policy areas

• Assesses how specific vulnerabilities are tied to multifaceted aspects of poverty and the contribution social protection has on reducing exclusion, to mainstream inclusion, particularly as it relates to gender, disability and migration. Works towards gender-responsive-transformative, disability-inclusive and migrant-inclusive systems by integrating the inclusion lens into social protection systems, policies and programmes.
• Develops approaches to identify social and behavioural change needs and undertakes interventions for the meaningful accountability to affected populations and community engagement.
• .Monitors current technological trends, new modalities of working applicable to social protection versus current and emerging needs to assess their role and match their potential applicability to social protection for enhanced outcomes for children.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant field.
• A minimum of five years of professional work experience in strategic and operational aspects of social protection systems is required.
• Experience in programme design and management and policy advocacy is required.
• Experience in cash transfer programme design and management and policy advocacy is considered a strong asset.
• Experience working in developing countries / contexts is considered as a strong asset.
• Background and/or familiarity with emergencies and humanitarian contexts is considered as a strong asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Deadline: 07 Nov 2022