UNICEF seeks to recruit a chief community development (Community Resilience), P4, Lilongwe, Malawi (Re-advertisement)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

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

And we never give up.

 

For every child, a safe home.

UNICEF Malawi Country Programme (2019-2023) is aligned with the Government of Malawi’s Growth and Development Strategy (MDGS III) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). The programme supports the Government of Malawi to meet its commitment to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights in line with international conventions and standards. The country programme is guided by the principles of children’s rights, equity, gender equality, inclusion and resilience, and supports evidence-based, integrative and innovative programming. The vision is that ‘all girls and boys in Malawi, especially the most disadvantaged and deprived, realize their rights’.  The programme focuses on: early childhood (parenting, high-impact social services, early stimulation and learning), middle childhood and adolescence (learning, multi-sectoral services, active citizenship), communities (decentralized services and systems, community ownership, social norms), programme effectiveness (monitoring, evaluation, HACT, Innovation, Social Protection and Social Policy and External Communication.  The programme is based on ‘leaving no child behind’, realizing ‘rights for all children in Malawi’.

  

How can you make a difference?

The principal supervisor for the Chief Community Development (Community Resilience) is the Deputy Representative. The Chief Community Development is responsible for direct management of integrated programmes – Decentralization, C4D, Emergency, Community based learning and is outcome lead for coordination on the delivery of results for the programmatic pillar outputs which will result in changes in capacities, attitudes and behaviours and promote the participation of communities to demand and claim their rights. The Chief will be responsible for the overall management and supervision of all stages of the programme from programme strategic planning and formulation to the delivery of the outcome and output results. The Chief is accountable for ensuring that the pillar outcome and output results are achieved according to plans, allocations, results based-management approaches and methodology, UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, standards of performance and accountability framework.

The Chief Community Development will provide the leadership to support families, communities and District authorities to have in place shock responsive social protection measures that will promote resilience and will have the child at the center of development where girls and boys grow up in child-friendly, inclusive and resilient communities.

Currently, the Malawi country office is operating under a matrix-management model, where individuals will have more than one reporting line. In addition to being the principal supervisor for various staff, the incumbent may also serve as the secondary supervisor for others. For the latter situation, they will provide input to the principal supervisor during performance reviews on the technical quality of a staff member’s work and his/her overall contribution to the output results that they have worked on together.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities :

1. Managerial leadership

• Establish the annual work plan, development priorities and performance measurements. Monitor work plan implementation, to ensure that pillar output results are achieved to schedule and performance standards. Report critical issues to the Deputy Representative and Representative for timely action ;
• Provide timely guidance to enable the Community Resilience section staff to perform their duties responsibly and efficiently ;
• Manage team building and motivation. Signal potential conflicts and take preventive action, in coordination with Human Resources staff.

2. Programme development and planning :

• Provide comprehensive and current data to inform UNICEF policy and programme development, planning, management and implementation ;
• Keep abreast of global, regional and national sector in resilience, emergencies and child friendly community development, for maximum efficiency and effectiveness in programme design, management and implementation ;
• Work collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss national priorities, resources, strategies and methodologies to ensure the most strategic use of the collective resources of external support agencies ;
• Lead the pillar outcome and output results of the country programme, along with related background, strategic analysis and delivery strategies, ensuring alignment with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, UNICEF’s global strategies and the country programme as well as government plans and priorities, and the role and programme delivery of other development partners ;
• Lead the development of output-related indicators, baselines, targets and means of verification ;
• Contribute to the overall resource mobilization strategy and ensure that pillar resource mobilization is integrated at the planning stages and aligned with output results in the country programme. Coordinate with technical staff of donor agencies during resource mobilization and implementation.

3. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results :

• Lead on the design and formulation of support to decentralized structures, cutting across all sectors and working with local Government authorities and other development partners in the design and coordination on approach ;
• Prepare documentation for programme reviews and analytical statements on progress and constraints of pillar outcome and output results ;
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes for the achievement of the output results. Ensure effective collaboration with other UNICEF sectors and pillar Outcome leads, where needed ;
• With other external support agencies, analyze national government resilience programmes and projects, with a focus on outcomes using bottleneck analysis tools available across all the sectors ;
• Coordinate internally and externally on the provision of real-time frontline data and its integration and use by national information management systems to ensure that local and national level decision-making are informed by timely data ;
• Ensure that programme support within the pillar reinforce the programmatic interventions supported under the pillars on Early Childhood and School-age Children and respond to the key priorities ;
• Ensure that programme support at household and community level include risk-informed programme design, preparedness, needs assessment and response ;
• Provide technical leadership on differentiated approaches for demand creation and linkages to the social services to ensure that sector specific needs are addressed, including in humanitarian settings ;
• Ensure that project lessons learned and best practices are captured, documented and periodically shared ;
• Support identification of new entry points for district and community based activities that contribute to social cohesion and community resilience ;
• Manage monitoring and evaluation of the UNICEF supported programme and its components, programme reviews and participate in annual sectoral reviews with government and other partners and lead the coordination and delivery of quantitative and qualitative data for the mid-year and end reporting in RAM (Results Management) and the COAR (UNICEF Annual Report) ;
• Monitor, report and certify the use of programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocations, organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity ;
• Ensure timely donor reporting, negotiate any changes required to agreements with donors in a timely manner. Ensure systems are in place for HACT compliance.

4. Advisory services and technical support :

• Participate in strategic discussions to influence national policies and strategies that affect the development and service delivery for women and children, including the reduction of inequalities, contributing to global sector learning ;
• Advise senior officials in government, NGOs, UN agencies and relevant sector donors on policies, strategies and best practices for the development of inclusive and resilient communities ;
• Lead the preparation of policy papers, briefing notes and other strategic materials for use by management, donors, UNICEF regional offices and headquarters ;
• Coordinate the use of technical experts from the Regional Office and HQ, as and where appropriate, through remote support and on-site visits.

5. Advocacy, networking and partnership building :

• Build and strengthen strategic partnerships with government counterparts, UN agencies, donor agencies, NGOs, research institutes and the private sector to stimulate coordination and collaboration ;
• Produce materials for pillar advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships and support resource mobilization ;
• Represent UNICEF in inter-agency discussions, ensuring that UNICEF’s position, interests and priorities are fully considered and integrated in planning and agenda setting ;
• Interact with global and regional initiatives and partnerships on child friendly communities, resilience and decentralization ;
• Promote networking and knowledge sharing with other colleagues in UNICEF and the UN System.

6. Humanitarian preparedness and response :

• Ensure the annual preparation/revision of UNICEF’s preparedness for emergency response ;
• Ensure the coordination arrangements for humanitarian response are in place across the sectors, for instant robust coordination in case of an emergency ;
• Ensure that all UNICEF programme staff are familiar with UNICEF’s procedures for responding in an emergency ;
• In case of an emergency, ensure that UNICEF meets its commitments across the sectors in the response and early recovery.

7. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building :

• Organize and lead the development, implementation, monitoring and documentation of related action research and innovation (technical or systems), ensuring rigorous monitoring and wide sharing of results ;
• Determine priorities for learning/knowledge products, covering innovative approaches and good practices, to support overall pillar development ;
• Systematically plan, support and monitor the professional development of staff under direct supervision to ensure our sector capacity remains up-to-date with latest developments ;
• Organize the systematic assessment of decentralized capacity gap analysis, in collaboration with other outcome leads, government and other stakeholders, and support the design of initiatives to strengthen capacities systematically ;
• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches ;
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms.

 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have

• An advanced university degree in Social Sciences, Rural Development and Management or a discipline relevant to Resilience and Disaster / Climate Risk Management, is required ;
• Additional relevant post-graduate courses that complement/supplement the main degree are required ;
• A minimum of eight years of professional experience is required in development, in the areas of policy coordination, programme management and post disaster recovery linked to a broader development context ;
• Proven ability to effectively lead a team to deliver results is required ;
• Experience in Disaster and Climate Risk management an advantage ;
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

 

 For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The functional competencies required for this post are :

• Formulating strategies and concepts (II)
• Analyzing (III)
• Applying technical expertise (III)
• Leading and supervising (II)
• Relating and networking (II)
• Deciding and Initiating action (III)

View our competency framework at : http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

“UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.”

 

Remarks :

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

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.