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For every child, hope

UNICEF Ukraine

Join the Social Policy Team at UNICEF Ukraine! 

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Job organizational context:

Ukraine is facing escalating poverty and inequality due to the ongoing conflict and its severe socioeconomic impacts. Pre-existing demographic and structural challenges have been compounded by the war, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups such as women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). This has intensified the need for comprehensive social sector reforms to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Ukraine’s social protection system, strengthen its capacity to support vulnerable populations, and promote economic growth and social cohesion.

As well as continuing to engage in humanitarian response, the UNICEF Ukraine Country Office has a key role to play in supporting system strengthening and capacity building of public institutions to better reflect children rights and needs in public policies, plans and budgets. UNICEF uses its unique positioning to articulate advocacy, engagement and technical assistance, participatory processes and sustainable financing to the national, sectorial and local levels. In the specific context of Ukraine, PF4C will support a gradual transitioning of emergency response to government management, especially at subnational level, with enhanced alignment to local planning and budgeting.

Within UNICEF, Public Finance for Children (PF4C) outlines efforts to influence the transparency, equity, adequacy and effectiveness of public investments in children. UNICEF can advise, influence and contribute improving the impact of public policies to reduce equity gaps, addressing the needs of boys and girls, especially the poorest and most marginalized, by taking the best possible decisions on the allocation of public budgets, and public financial management. Key objectives of PF4C include, among others, understanding and monitoring levels of public investment in children at the national level, influencing public policy decisions on spending on social services for children and child-related priorities versus other areas, and reducing investment disparities between different geographic areas and population groups.

The Social Policy Specialist (Public Finance for Children) will be housed in the Ukraine Country Office’s Social Policy section and report to the Chief of Social Policy (P5). The incumbent will lead the Country Office’s work on the Public Finance for Children agenda, with a small team reporting to them.

Purpose for the job:

The Public Finance for Children agenda includes the following key pillars:

1. Strengthening public financial management (PFM) in social sectors, in line with the national PFM reforms, and including prioritisation of budget allocations to child-related programmes.
2. Contributing to the fulfilment of child rights, in line with the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) – improving the nation’s investment in children.

3. Supporting subnational government to strengthen the utilization of local data, participatory processes, child-sensitive planning and budgeting and service delivery.

In particular, with Public Finance for Children the Ukraine Country Office aims at strengthening the office-wide engagement with high-level budget decision makers, line ministries, regional and local governments in their endeavours to

1. Make the case for investing in children;
2. Generate evidence and advocate for social spending;
3. Support citizens’ engagement and participatory processes in budget decision making;
4. Strengthen capacities to improve public spending for children;
5. Contribute to resource mobilization;

Under the general guidance of the supervisor, the incumbent is responsible for providing technical support to the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all stages of social policy programing and related advocacy from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete and sustainable results. This includes programmes aimed at improving (a) public policies to reduce child poverty; (b) social protection coverage and impact on children; (c) the transparency, adequacy, equity and efficiency of child-focused public investments and financial management; and (d) governance, decentralization and accountability measures to increase public participation and the quality, equity and coverage of social services. This encompasses both direct programme work with government and civil society partners as well as linkages and support to teams working on education, health, child protection, water and sanitation, and HIV.

How can you make a difference? 

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Support data and evidence generation to advocate for greater and better public investment in children and inform sector reforms 

• Keep track of, and analyze the government's socio-economic policies, strategies, and programs with a bearing on PF4C to inform programming and advocacy by UNICEF and its partners.
• Collects, compiles and conducts budget analyses on child-related public spending, to support budget transparency and accountability, in coordination and cooperation with national authorities.
• Contributes to the definition of adequate budget allocations and resource mobilization in the development of legislation, strategies, policies and programmes related to children, with special attention to the most marginalized.
• Builds capacities and support analyses to inform policy decisions on child-focused policies, with investment cases, cost-of-inaction, cost-effectiveness (and more) studies.
• Identify, establish and maintain critical partnerships with the Government, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, civil society and local leaders, the private sector, and other UN agencies; promote awareness and build capacity, and actively facilitate effective collaboration within the UN family.
• Contributes to generating evidence and technically support the development and operationalization of an office-wide advocacy strategy on public finance for children

2. Lead the engagement and support with high-level budget decision makers, including the Ministry of Finance 

• Engage and support the conceptualization and roll-out of national public financial management reforms, especially in regard to their implementation in social sectors
• Provide support to sustained and proactive commitment to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Sustainable Development Goals and other UN agenda.
• Provide technical support to substantiate the Parliamentary discussions on the impact of public policy decisions on children

3. Engage in the budget process to influence allocation decisions and improve public spending performance.

• 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, at all levels
• Contribute to articulating the budgetary implications of child-related programmes over the mid-term, including support to strategic planning, and the development of strategic frameworks, especially at central and sectorial levels
• Support prioritization and costing exercises, for strategies, policies, action plans in social sectors, to ensure an adequate reflection of funding needs in budget allocations
• Provide operational and technical support in areas related to public financial management aspects, especially on sectorial aspects related to equity, efficiency and effectiveness of sectors’ spending.
• Supports the identification of traditional and alternative financing options for child-sensitive interventions.
• Contributes to other PFM workstreams in the area of budget execution and monitoring, to the extent required

4. Strengthening child-focused planning, budgeting and monitoring at subnational level, with capacity building and coordination with local authorities 

• Collaborates with central, regional and local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultations and accountability processes, so that decisions and child-focused service delivery respond to the needs of local communities.
• Collaborates with central, regional and local levels 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.
• Supports UNICEF Field Offices and the other Country Office Programme sections in their engagement with local authorities in relevant Provinces, Districts and Municipalities to foster programmatic coherence and improve coordination.
• Contribute to support local governments’ initiative to empower citizens, including children and adolescents, communities and civil society organizations to track spending and participate in subnational prioritization and budgeting processes.

5. UNICEF Programme Management

• Support office-wide capacity building on public finance for children, including with management, programmes and field offices. In particular, support capacity strengthening at FO level, to contribute to a more coordinated approach with local authorities.
• Manages and coordinates technical support around public finance and local governance ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion so as to adequately support scale-up and delivery. Ensures risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.
• Supports and contributes to effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the country programme. Ensures that the social planning project enhances policy dialogue, planning, supervision, technical advice, management, training, research and support; and that the monitoring and evaluation component strengthens monitoring and evaluation of the social sectors and provides support to sectoral and decentralized information systems.

6. Supports the Chief of Social Policy in the design and implementation of the Country Office PF4C Strategy and workplan at national and local level, particularly through the Programme Specialists in the Field Offices.

Impact of Results

The strategic and effective advocacy, planning and formulation of social policy programs/projects and the achievement of sustainable results, contributes to achievement of goals and objectives to create a protective environment for children and thus ensure their survival, development and well-being in society. Achievements in social policy programs and projects in turn contribute to maintaining/enhancing the credibility and ability of UNICEF to provide program services for mothers and children that promotes greater social equality in the country.

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

Minimum requirements:

Education:

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field.

Work Experience: 

• A minimum of five years of relevant professional work experience is required.

Language Requirements: 

• Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

• Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.
• Experience working in a developing country is considered as a strong asset.
• Background and/or familiarity with emergency is considered as a strong asset.
• Knowledge of another official UN language or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions 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. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF’s Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Eligible staff members on fixed-term, continuing or permanent contracts applying to IP TA positions in a duty station designated as L2/L3, may be able to retain a lien and their fixed-term entitlements, subject to approval by their Head of Office. The conditions of the temporary assignment will vary depending on the status of their post and relocation entitlements may be limited as per the relevant policies.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

This position is based in Kyiv and the incumbent will be expected be work on-site. However, depending on the security conditions and advisory, s/he will be required to relocate within Ukraine.