If 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 Assignment:
To provide day-to-day strategic guidance, coordination, and programme management for UNICEF’s contributions to the UN Joint Programme on Local Governance and Decentralized Service Delivery.
Assignment Tasks:
Coordination and Implementation Support
- Provide technical leadership, management and coordination of UNICEF inputs into the JPLG programme in the three zones of Somalia. This will include coordination of staff and partners in the zones with key service delivery ministries, and advocating for and reinforcing government commitment towards improving social service delivery at local level.
- Contribute to general policy dialogue with local institutions and key stakeholders for the implementation of decentralization policy and institutionalizing and sustaining decentralized service delivery through the design and support of institutional capacity development and system strengthening for service delivery at central and local level
- Design and support implementation of programme initiatives aiming at enhancing local participation, transparency and accountabilities of local governments in planning, management and delivery of social services at local level. These include contributing to capacity strengthening of central and local government to implement civic education programmes, ensuring sustainability of service delivery models, enhancing local level stability and peace building efforts.
- Participate in main joint programme meetings, review meetings and evaluation exercises in consultation with Social Welfare Specialist, other UN agencies and government partners.
Strategy
- Provide inputs to the design of JPLG III, in line with the resources, strategy, and service delivery focus of UNICEF.
- Support UNICEF JPLG zonal teams to identify strategic gaps, linkages, and opportunities to improve and expand service delivery models, civic education programmes, and community score cards, including through incorporating a communication for development perspective.
- In consultation with UNICEF section chiefs and senior management, lead development and drafting within the first three months of the assignment of the UNICEF Somalia Emerging States Strategy, which will define the modalities, objectives, and strategies for engagement across all UNICEF programme sectors with Federal Member States in Central South Somalia.
- Support UNICEF programme sectors to align with a decentralized service delivery approach, particularly in documents such as sector strategies.
- Ensure that JPLG activities align with UNICEF’s gender strategies and policies.
Programme Management
- Manage contracts with implementing partners, ensuring timely and accurate financial and technical reporting.
- Ensure regular oversight and monitoring of JPLG interventions in the three zones.
- Provide regular reporting on progress and budget, tracking progress as per deliverables in the partner agreements and joint work plans, undertaking regular field visits to review jointly with local partners; documenting achievements as well as constraints and recommending possible steps for addressing bottlenecks in implementation.
- In collaboration with respective UN-Agencies, line ministries, contribute to the development of joint rolling work plans and budgets for the three zones of Somalia. This will include participating in all Technical Work Group Meetings, steering committee meetings, management and coordination meetings for JPLG, ensuring that responsibilities assigned to UNICEF under the joint programme work plan correspond to UNICEF’s mandate and values and are within the ability of its resources (human and financial).
Expected Deliverables:
Ongoing project support and coordination.
Monthly report against activities.
Qualifications of Successful Candidate:
- Demonstrated experience managing complex programmes with multiple partners, including experience with coordination, donor relations, planning, monitoring, and budget management and oversight;
- Proven ability to work with partners, manage staff and consultants, and write proposals and sound evidence-based reports in clear and simple language
- Understanding of the socio-political context of Somalia would be an advantage.
- Good understanding of government systems, procedures and processes at all levels (especially district) is desirable;
- Strong communication skills, including an ability to build rapport with individuals and groups and maintain an effective network of individuals across organizational departments;
- Training in community mobilization and community development, behavior analysis, formative research, and evaluation of development interventions would be an advantage
- Fluency in English. Knowledge of Somali will be a strong asset.
Education
Advanced university degree in Public Administration, Governance, Social Sciences, Development Planning, Programme Management, or related fields;
Years of relevant experience:
At least six years’ professional experience, at least two of which should be at a professional level working with government in the areas of good governance, public administration reform, or community development, preferably in a development and fragile context;
General Conditions:
- Under the consultancy agreements, a month is defined as 21 working days, and fees are prorated accordingly. Consultants are not paid for weekends or public holidays.
- Flights to and from Somalia for work purposes will be paid separately from the consultancy fee.
- Consultants are not entitled to payment of overtime. All remuneration must be within the contract agreement.
- No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both UNICEF and the consultant or Contractor
- For international consultants outside the duty station, signed contracts must be sent by fax or e-mail. Signed contract copy or written agreement must be received by the office before Travel Authorization is issued.
- No consultant may travel without a signed travel authorization prior to the commencement of the journey to the duty station.
- Unless authorized, UNICEF will buy the tickets of the consultant. In exceptional cases, the consultant may be authorized to buy their travel tickets and shall be reimbursed at the most economical and direct route, but this must be agreed to beforehand.
- Consultants will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority on UNICEF budget.Exit and penalty provision:The organization and UNICEF may agree to reschedule deadlines if unforeseen circumstances arise. In the event that such rescheduling has not been agreed in advance by exchange of letters, and submission of scheduled drafts should not occur within the deadlines indicated within these ToR and the implementation framework, a fine of two percent of the total value of the contract may be deducted. In the event UNICEF are unhappy with the work produced by the organization, they may opt to terminate the contract or mutually agreeable terms. Likewise, if the organization is unhappy with new conditions given by its client it may opt to withdraw on mutually agreeable terms.
Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable). Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.
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.
HOW TO APPLY:
