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 educate
UNICEF Gulf Area Office (GAO) supports the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its line ministries and authorities to advance the rights of children under the framework of a Gulf Area Programme (2019-20253). Through this framework, UNICEF GAO signed AWP with its key partner in the UAE, the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood (SCMC) and works with different entities for their implementation.
Key priorities for the year 2025 include child protection related issues such as child online safety, mental health and psychosocial support, social work force strengthening and overall strengthening of child protection systems (UAE Workplan 2.1.3). To advance work in this stream of work, the SCMC organized a forum on mental health in October 2024. UNICEF supported the council in organizing capacity building initiatives as run up to the forum, which included Psychological Frist Aid (PFA) and I Support My Friends, a programme focused on promoting peer support among young people. The existing package on PFA and ISMF were adapted to the UAE context, and several partners including the Emirates Foundation, Ministry of Interior and some 50 private schools were trained on these resources.
The focus this year will be on creating a proof of concept for peer-support in schools, by integrating ISMF programme to the public school system. It complements the anti-bullying initiative, implemented by the MOE, in partnership with SCMC and UNICEF, already being scaled up in the schools in the UAE. For ISMF, in the pilot phase, some 60 schools would be covered by the programme, across all the emirates. Once the initial training is complete and schools starts implementing the programme, an interim assessment of the project would be undertaken by involved partners.
After the pilot of the project within the public school system, and after a Proof of Concept is developed, a full-fledged scale up plan could be developed enabling the MOE to roll out of the programme within the public schools, which includes creating a cadre of Master Trainers.
To support the piloting of the ISMF within the school system, UNICEF is seeking qualified trainers on ISMF, who are Arabic speaking. A team of four consultants will be selected for this consultancy, with at least two of them, with direct training experience on ISMF. Two of the consultants would also be engaged for monitoring and follow up support.
How can you make a difference?
The consultancy seeks to provide the training and monitoring support to mainstream I Support My Friends (ISMF) within the school system, piloting it in 60 schools across the country.
The consultants will be responsible for the following tasks:
1.Conduct six trainings reaching 60 schools, with 2.5 days per training.
2. Adapt and prepare training resources already available - (Making further adjustments to the package, based on inputs from MOE, trainees).
3. Training reports with observations, analysis and recommendations for follow up.
4. Monitoring and follow up support (for two consultants, ideally recruited locally)
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum requirements:
- Education: A minimum of a master’s degree in social work, psychology, related fields
- Experience: Demonstrable at least 5 years’ experience in the field of menta health
- Experience as a trainer/Master trainer for I Support My Friends/familiarity with similar programmes.
- Pervious experiences and exposure to the Arab/Gulf region context
- Language: Fluent in Arabic and English (written and spoken).
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
The 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
[add the 8th competency (Nurtures, leads and manages people) for a supervisory role].
Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.
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.