Organization: UN Children's Fund
Country: Lebanon
Closing date:
15 Jan 2017If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.
For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
Purpose of the Position
The Community Development Specialist reports to the Chief of Field Office for supervision and guidance. The Specialist supports the 2016-2020 Government of Lebanon/UNICEF governorate-based programmes in its fulfillment and monitoring of results within the equity agenda with a focus on the most disadvantaged children, provide technical support to the process of decentralization with equitable outcomes for children, and facilitate the development of local plans of action (LPA) for children in municipalities and assist in the implementation of existing LPAs. The CDS will provide technical and operational support to administer, implement, monitor and/or evaluate a variety of Community development initiatives and activities to advocate for child rights, promote community engagement and participation, and measureable behavioral and social change/mobilization. The CDS will actively engage communities in making sense of rights violations among the most disadvantaged communities, support communities in setting goals to address child rights violations through empowerment and active participation.
Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks
Summary of key functions/accountabilities:
1. Support to social inclusion program strategy development, planning and implementation
Contribute to the preparation/update of governorate-based situation analysis for the social inclusion program sector/s for development, design and management of social inclusion related programs/projects. Research and report on governorate-based development trends and (economic, social and community) data for use in governorate-based program development, management, monitoring, evaluation and delivery of results for disadvantaged childrenSupports the strategy development, project planning, management, oversight, monitoring and evaluation in the zone. Collects and analyzes data related to child rights violation. Prepares Programme plans, implementation, progress reports and evaluates plans of action. Reports on the outcomes of analyses and proposes corrective actions to address child rights violationsContribute to the development of social policy, social protection (including cash transfers) and community engagement local strategies and results-based planning through analysis and reporting of social inclusion and other related information for development planning and priority and goal setting.Contributes to the development and design of community mobilization and capacity building strategy for social inclusion, community engagement, community driven priorities and carrying out/facilitating research and compiling and analyzing relevant social policy data.Include rights perspective and advocacy at the community and family levels incorporated in policy analysis for establishing and elevating children's rights in national policy debates.Collaborate and/or consult with partners to provide operational and technical support to research, develop, and produce evidence-based strategies and test, produce and use quality C4D materials and/or organize events and activities to ensure community engagement and participation, and maximum outreach and impact on behavioral and social change.Assess and recommend potential contacts, networks, resources and multiple/social/digital media and tools to support maximum impact and outreach of community engagement initiatives.Prepare or provide quality assurance for social inclusion and C4D strategies to ensure optimum impact, scale and sustainability of achievements/results.2. Program management, monitoring and delivery of results.
Work closely and collaboratively with zonal and Beirut-based colleagues and local partners to discuss operational and implementation issues, provide solutions, recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decision. Keep record of reports and assessments and analysis for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, program reviews and annual reviews with government and other counterparts to assess governorate-based social inclusion programming. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results to the Chief of Field Office and the Chief Social Policy and/or Chief of Communication for DevelopmentConduct regular program field visits and surveys and/or exchange information with partners/stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support, take appropriate action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution.Monitor and report on the use of sectoral program resources (human, administrative, supply and other assets), verify compliance with approved allocation/goals, organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity. Report on critical issues/findings to ensure timely resolution by management/stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution.Draft regular zonal sectoral program reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of program progress.Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, CSO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes and best practices on social inclusion and related issues to support governorate-based program implementation, operations and delivery of results.3.Advocacy, networking and partnership building
Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with local government counterparts and local stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate program implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve and sustain results on social inclusion programs.Draft communication and information materials for governorate-based program advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support budget allocation for child-sensitive social policies, plans and actions.Build and maintain partnerships through networking and proactive collaboration with national and international civil society organisations, formal and informal community groups, leaders and other critical partners in the community and civil society to reinforce cooperation through engagement, empowerment and self-determination and to pursue opportunities for greater mobilization to promote action for child rights, social equity and inclusiveness.Collaborate with internal global/regional communication partners to harmonize, link and/or coordinate messaging to enhance C4D outreach and contribution to programmatic outcomes4. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building in child-sensitive social policy, social protection and community engagement interventions
Collaborate with partners to stimulate dialogue around macro-level policies that guide local frameworks and budgetary allocations affecting children and families.Include rights perspective and advocacy at the community and family levels incorporated in policy analysis for establishing and elevating children's rights in national policy debates.Collaborate and/or consult with partners to provide operational and technical support to research, develop, and produce evidence-based strategies and test, produce and use quality C4D materials and/or organize events and activities to ensure community engagement and participation, and maximum outreach and impact on behavioral and social change .Assess and recommend potential contacts, networks, resources and multiple/social/digital media and tools to support maximum impact and outreach of community engagement initiatives.Follow up and monitor the production of C4D materials to ensure technical quality, consistency and relevancy of communications materials that are developed, produced and disseminated to target audience (e.g. individuals, communities, government officials, partners, media, etc).Institutionalize/share best practices and knowledge learned/products with global/local partners and stakeholders to build capacity of practitioners/users, and disseminate products to key audiences including partners and donors.Support the organization, administration and implement capacity building initiatives, including partnerships with training and academic institutions, to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders/partners across programme sectors in planning, implementation and evaluation in support of programs/projects.Impact of Results
The efficiency and efficacy of support provided by the Officer to program preparation and planning and implementation of the governorate-based Social Inclusion programme, with actions by duty bearers and rights holders at the local level to reduce multi-dimensional child poverty. Success in social inclusion programming for disadvantaged children in turn contribute to maintaining/enhancing the credibility and ability of UNICEF to provide local program services for mothers and children that promotes greater social equality in Lebanon.
Competencies of Successful Candidate
Core Values
CommitmentDiversity and InclusionIntegrityCore competencies
CommunicationWorking with PeopleDrive for ResultsFunctional Competencies
Formulating Strategies and Concepts (II)Relating and networking (II)Persuading and influencing (II)Applying Technical Expertise (II)Entrepreneurial Thinking (II) Leading and Supervising (I)To view our competency framework, please click here.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.
Qualifications of Successful Candidate
Education:An advanced university degree in the social sciences (Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Social Policy) or any other related field with emphasis on strategic communication planning for behaviour development, social mobilization, participatory communication, and research.
A university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Experience:Minimum five years of progressively responsible professional work experience in the development, planning and management of social development programmes, with practical experience in the adaptation and application of social policy, communication planning and processes to specific programmes.
Experience in research, evaluation and synthesis of information with a rights based approach is desired
Knowledge of and skills in Social policy, networking, advocacy and negotiation.
Knowledge of current developments in the fields of: social policy, human rights, communication, adult learning, community organization and participation and strategic communication planning
Knowledge of inter-disciplinary approach in Programme development and implementation in Programme communication, social mobilization and behavioral change.
Language Requirements:Fluency in Arabic and English required. French would be an asset.
Important Note: Please note this is a re-advertisement. Applicants who have applied earlier, need not apply again.
How to apply:UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization. To apply, click on the following link http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=498946