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 a Future

How can you make a difference?

Risk management in the context of the Public Partnerships Division’s (PPD) mission is an organizational and strategic function that enables the division to anticipate, identify and mitigate risks associated with public sector funding to UNICEF, which amounted to over $6 billion in 2023. This includes providing partnerships advice around the global negotiation of framework agreements and contracts that may be valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars; supporting the division and country offices on meeting transparency obligations and best practices with public sector partners, developing partnerships policy, and coordinating crisis management response around reputational risk events.

The UNICEF Legal Team in the Office of the Executive Director has exclusive accountability to provide legal advice and guidance to all business units of the organization, including PPD; the Legal Team works closely with the Stewardship and Oversight Pillar of PPD in the negotiation of, and in advising on, partnerships with the public sector and agreements setting out such partnerships.

Purpose of the job:

Positioned within the Stewardship and Oversight Pillar of PPD and under the supervision of the Risk Manager, the Public Partnerships Specialist (Governance, Risk and Compliance), P3 will be responsible for supporting the negotiation of UNICEF’s contribution agreements with public sector partners in line with established policy. This includes maintaining a pipeline of negotiations and catalogue of donor conditionalities and supporting the escalation of material risk cases to appropriate decision-makers. This role will interact regularly with the Legal Office and will also support initiatives related to overall partnerships risk management. Successful completion of these deliverables will result in strong and harmonized arrangements across public sector partners which will secure significant income to UNICEF in line with relevant policy. 

Main tasks:

Contracting and negotiations support

• Provide timely advise on required templates and tools to PPD teams and country offices.
• Where templates do not exist, support PPD teams and country offices in negotiations with public sector donors and in escalating internally to relevant Legal focal point and other relevant internal stakeholders (e.g. HQ divisions, regional offices)
• Review business terms and agreements to identify risks and areas for escalation to senior management colleagues, including those requiring guidance from the UNICEF General Counsel’s Office. Refer all legal terms and issues re same to the UNICEF General Counsel’s Office.
• Lead on PPD’s implementation of UNICEF’s Delegation of Authority Policy.

Coordination and escalation of material risks related to negotiations

• Proactively flag emerging risks to supervisor and PPD management, including suggestions on how to mitigate.
• Develop and provide background materials for Donor Conditions Advisory Group (chaired by PPD Director) and regular meetings between PPD and Legal Office.

Capacity building and knowledge management regarding contracts

• Monitor and track donor conditionalities across public sector donor portfolios and advise PPD teams and other internal stakeholders on how to respond to specific donor conditionalities in line with UNICEF policy and practice.
• Monitor the pipeline of agreements, identifying any challenges with timeline and ensuring that priorities are clear, and deadlines met.
• Support capacity of PPD teams to engage in contract review and negotiations with partners through development of guidance, webinars, information sheets, etc.
• Provide inputs to General Counsel’s Office on development of templates, training and guidance.

Support Risk Management Activities

• Support in the maintenance of PPD’s regulatory content, including updates of the Resource Mobilization policy and Donor Conditions guidance.
• Manage PPD consultation and input process for organizational policy drafts that are circulated by other Divisions for PPD comment
• Coordinate PPD’s inputs and responses to external UN Board of Auditors exercises.
• Other support to the team as necessary, including backstop of other functions.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  TOR for P3 TA - Partnerships Specialist (Governance Risk and Compliance)_signed.pdf

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Law, or a related legal discipline.
• Work Experience: At least 5 years of relevant work experience in agreement negotiation and management, specifically related to public sector donor agreements. Experience negotiating global level funding agreements/frameworks with multiple public sector partners is required, including experience evaluating and negotiating conditionalities.
• Skills: Agreement Negotiation & Management. Attention to detail and ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously. Demonstrated skills in reviewing and analyzing partnership agreements between the UN system and legal parameters.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

• Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
• Multilingualism, UN System Knowledge, Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, Excellent communication, Interpersonal Skills
• Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts. 

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

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

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.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. 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 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.

In this role, you will collaborate with colleagues across multiple locations. For effective collaboration, we encourage flexible working hours that accommodate different time zones while prioritizing staff wellbeing.

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

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.

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.