UNICEF recruits a Chief Social Policy, (P-5) – Beijing, China

 

Context :

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, an advocate :

China continues to grow economically and to expand its global role. With the world’s second largest child population, China had an estimated 271 million children in 2015, representing 20 per cent of the country’s total population and 13 per cent of the world’s children. In recent years, increasing commitment by the Government to equitable growth has generated tremendous progress in advancing the status of children. However, ongoing challenges exist, with the most vulnerable and impoverished children often unable to access quality public services and specialized programming.

The Social Policy team leads UNICEF’s work on child poverty, social protection, public financial management for children, and governance. It provides technical and policy development support to initiatives to ensure that children, particularly the most disadvantaged and excluded, benefit from equitable and inclusive poverty reduction and social protection systems. It supports the generation of evidence on multiple dimensions of child poverty and social exclusion, which will be developed for use in policy dialogue, advocacy and local planning in relevant sectors. The programme also contributes to the understanding of social sector budgets, providing evidence that will be used to advocate for increased investment in services that benefit children, and to promote effective, efficient and equitable finance for and governance of essential public services across all sectors.

The video below highlights some of UNICEF’s work in China today: here

 

How can you make a difference?

The Chief Social Policy is responsible for leading, managing and supervising all stages of social policy programming and related advocacy from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete and sustainable results. This includes developing with partners public policies to: reduce child poverty; increase social protection coverage and impact on children; enhance the transparency, adequacy, equity and efficiency of child-focused public investments and financial management; and, improve governance, decentralization and accountability measures to increase the quality, equity and coverage of social services. The incumbent leads a team of ten and is a member of the country management team. In particular, the incumbent will:

• Lead UNICEF China’s support to Government on Public Financial Management, including technical assistance to Ministries of Finance, planning commissions and social sector ministries to improve equitable allocations for children. Develop partnerships and publish costing and cost effectiveness analysis on priority interventions to help inform policy decisions on child-focused investments;
• Lead and publish research and analysis in the social policy sector. Develop a research portfolio that includes analysis and presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, the macroeconomic context and its impact on social development, and new and emerging issues in social policy in China ;
• Develop new partnerships and strengthen existing partnerships with the Government and the private sector, and other UN agencies to develop and influence social protection policies, and legislation and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, particularly the most disadvantaged ;
• Across the UNICEF China programme in health, education and child protection provide technical support for programmes on child poverty, social protection, public finance and governance ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented ;
• Provide managerial leadership to the social policy team, establish annual work plans, set priorities and targets and monitor work and budgets to ensure results are achieved according to schedule and performance standards.

 

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

• An advanced university degree in Development Studies, Social Policy, Social Sciences, Sociology, Economics or other relevant technical field ;
• More than 10 years of professional experience in social policy related areas such as public financial  management and research in child poverty, social protection, and financing ;
• A track record of publication of research and analysis in social policy ;
• A demonstrable level of experience in strategic planning and team leadership ;
• Strong management and coordination skills in a complex multi-organizational setting ;
• Strong advocacy and partnership engagement skills ;
• Experience and understanding of working in a UN agency or organization is considered an asset ;
• Experience working in China or Asia is considered a strong asset ;
• Background and/or familiarity with south-south or triangular cooperation is an asset ;
• Fluency in English, knowledge of other UN languages, particularly Mandarin is 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.

View our competency framework at here

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 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. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.