UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.
UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.
Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.
For every child, the right to support.
UNICEF works across 14 Pacific Island countries and territories: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Together, these countries are home to approximately 2.3 million people, including 1.2 million children and youth, living across more than 660 islands and atolls spread over 17.2 million square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean—an area comparable in size to the combined landmass of the United States of America and Canada.
Among these countries, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu are classified as Fragile States under World Bank/OECD criteria. While all 14 Pacific Island countries and territories have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, only around one-third are currently on track in meeting their reporting obligations. Explore the different areas of our work here: UNICEF Pacific Islands.
Pacific families are characterized by strong kinship systems, shared caregiving responsibilities, and deep spiritual and cultural values. At the same time, many families face complex and interconnected challenges, including rapid social change and migration, intergenerational trauma, limited access to parenting support, low functional literacy, resource constraints, and tensions between traditional practices and modern systems. Parenting needs and access to support are further shaped by gender roles, caregiving expectations, and prevailing social norms.
Parenting support is inherently intersectoral, requiring a broad range of developmental knowledge and diverse skill sets to address caregiving practices and behaviors across the full life course of childhood (ages 0–18). This includes tailored approaches for specific stages—such as early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence—as well as inclusive strategies for children with disabilities, which require additional technical expertise, training, and accessible services. As a result, parenting initiatives often cut across multiple sectors and do not sit neatly within a single programme area of UNICEF’s structure.
Because parenting intersects with multiple outcomes, age groups, service delivery platforms, and existing programme models, there is a critical need for clear internal coordination, defined accountabilities, and structured mechanisms that support coherent planning, implementation, and monitoring. Families themselves experience intersectional challenges—linked to gender norms, socioeconomic status, remoteness, disability, migration, and cultural expectations—that shape their parenting realities and influence their ability to access and benefit from available support.
Within this context, UNICEF Pacific is strengthening its approach to parenting through Social and Behavior Change (SBC). SBC draws on social and behavioral sciences to understand community dynamics and promote sustained positive change. UNICEF’s SBC approach integrates community engagement, communication, behavioral insights, systems strengthening, and advocacy, and is embedded across programme design, implementation, and monitoring processes, including parenting initiatives. Positioning parenting within broader SBC efforts enables UNICEF to maximize impact and foster nurturing, supportive environments in which children across the Pacific can survive, grow, and thrive.
How can you make a difference?
Under the guidance of the SBC Manager, the SBC Specialist (Parenting) in the Multi-Country Office based in Suva, Fiji, will provide both technical and operational leadership in reviewing, adapting, designing, implementing, and scaling evidence-based parenting initiatives across diverse Pacific contexts. This role ensures that relevant and inclusive parenting initiatives are effectively designed, coordinated, delivered and monitored across a variety of settings and service delivery platforms, supporting UNICEF’s mandate to advance parenting across the life cycle and family well-being throughout the region grounded in positive cultural norms. The SBC Parenting Specialist collaborates closely with sector teams—including Health, Nutrition, WASH, Education, and Child Protection—as well as with gender and early childhood development (ECD) specialists to supporting parenting initiatives within sectors as well as cross sectoral ones. In addition, this role fosters cross-sectoral coordination and integrates evidence-based approaches to address the unique needs of families. It will also require coordination with sectors to effectively contribute to parenting-related advocacy within the Pacific regional architecture such as PRC4ECD.
Summary of Key Functions/Accountabilities:
- Leverage evidence and innovations: Identify and utilize the latest research, insights, and innovative practices from social and behavioral sciences, especially those related to parenting’ and with specific attention to evidence and experience from the Pacific to inform parenting programmes and the coordination, support, and integration of SBC strategies and activities that complement broader parenting programs, ensuring that positive parenting is promoted not only through SBC initiatives but also through comprehensive programming efforts..
- Strategy development and alignment: Create, execute, and monitor parenting-focused strategies and activities, ensuring their alignment with global standards, UNICEF priorities, and recognized best practices in parenting support and family strengthening, while prioritizing fit to context for each country in both content and delivery modality.
- Engagement platforms and integration: Select and employ effective SBC activities and platforms to engage parents and caregivers, integrating evidence-based approaches to achieve sectoral and multi-sectoral outcomes.
- Resource mobilization, planning and compliance: Plan, allocate, and contribute to resources mobilization through evidences-based approaches for parenting interventions, ensuring all activities adhere to UNICEF’s organizational guidelines and standards.
- Establish systems to promote and track uptake and use of parenting materials, embedded into programming partnerships, and ensure feedback loops are used to improve programming. Additionally, develop strategies and mechanisms to support the scale-up and long-term sustainability of these efforts, ensuring that scalability and sustainability are integrated throughout the planning and implementation process.
- Context adaptation: Apply specialized expertise to design, plan, implement, and monitor parenting and community engagement interventions in the Pacific
- Equity-focused: Ensure all strategies, programming and monitoring are equity-focused, gender-transformative, inclusion and ensure support for families experiencing stress or adversity.
- Coordination and planning: Take an active role in developing and coordinating comprehensive parenting-focused SBC strategies and activities. Ensure these are integrated with broader UNICEF priorities and facilitate collaboration among stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness of positive parenting initiatives across multiple contexts. Lead and facilitate coordination with SBC stakeholders and partners to align parenting-focused plans and activities, fostering synergies and shared learning opportunities.
- Sectoral integration and advocacy: Advocate for and recommend the inclusion of parenting and family engagement strategies within sector work plans such as Health, Nutrition, WASH, Education, and Child Protection to promote cross-sectoral collaboration.
- Evidence, documentation, advocacy and resource mobilization: Draw on evidence and experience to produce programme and advocacy briefs, funding proposals, reports and communication materials that specifically capture and showcase the impact of parenting programs through photos, videos, human interest stories, and social media content to highlight successes and promote positive parenting throughout the Pacific region.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum requirements:
Education:
- An advanced university degree (Masters) in one of the following fields: Sociology, education, anthropology, psychology, social and behavioral science or another relevant technical field is required.
Work Experience:
- A minimum of five years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas: Social development programme planning, Social and Behavior Change, education-ECD, child protection, or a related technical area.
- At least some of the relevant work experience must be at international levels and ideally include humanitarian contexts.
- Experience in development, management and/or coordination of parenting programmes is required.
- Previous work experience in the Pacific region and/or SIDS context is highly desirable.
- Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of a local language would be 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. 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 male and female candidates 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.
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.
In regard to higher educational qualifications, UNICEF only considers degrees obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/
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.
Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.
