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 Health

How can you make a difference?

The UNICEF Maldives and Sri Lanka Country Offices is transitioning into a Multi-Country Office (MCO) structure effective 1 January 2027. The MCO will combine strengthened technical capacity with sustained national presence and relationships in Maldives, enabling more strategic upstream engagement, policy influence and systems strengthening for children.

A strategic shift of Maldives CPD is that Education is leveraged as a platform not only for learning but also for delivering key health interventions, including mental health, psychosocial support, and healthy lifestyles promotion.

UNICEF Maldives is looking for a Health Officer to help advance the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents through schools as a platform for integrated service delivery and health promotion. You will focus on improving adolescent health outcomes, including mental health and wellbeing, social and emotional learning, physical activity and sport, nutrition, and school health services. You will support efforts to create safe, inclusive, climate-resilient and health-promoting learning environments and strengthen collaboration between the education and health sectors to deliver better results for children and young people. The post provides technical, operational and administrative support across programme planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

Under the supervision and guidance of the Education Specialist, you will contribute to the effective implementation of UNICEF Maldives’ Health and Wellbeing of Learners agenda, with a particular focus on adolescent health and wellbeing, including mental health and social and emotional learning (SEL), physical education and sport for development (S4D), school health services, nutrition, healthy lifestyles, and climate-resilient learning environments.

The key responsibilities and tasks include:

1. Support to programme development and planning
2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results
3. Technical and operational support to programme implementation
4. Networking and partnership building
5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Job Description

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

Minimum requirements

• Education: Bachelor or equivalent (First Level University Degree) in Public Health, nutrition, psychology, family health, health research, global/international health, health policy and/or management, biostatistics, socio-medical, health education, epidemiology, or another relevant technical field. and any other related fields.
• Work Experience: At least 2 years of relevant work experience in Health, public health, nutrition planning, nutrition management, primary health care, mental health, adolescent health, or related field. Student Wellbeing Interventions and any other related fields.
• Skills: Experience in Education Sector engagement, Adolescent wellbeing programming, School Health programming, Partnership building, Evidence-Based programme design, and Cross-sectoral coordination.
• Language Requirements: Proficiency in English is required.

Desirables

• Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language
• Experience working on mental health and psychosocial support, especially with adolescents or young people, is a strong asset.
• Experience working in the Education system is a strong asset.
• Experience working on school health and nutrition programmes is an asset.
• Experience working in a developing country is considered as an asset.
• Experience supporting social and emotional learning is desirable Experience working in climate-resilience programming is added advantage.
• Experience supporting capacity building and facilitating is considered as an asset. Relevant experience in a UN system agency or international organization is as an asset.
• Experience working across sectors.
• 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
(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

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, discrimination, fraud, corruption and other forms of misconduct. 

UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference, safeguarding and background verification checks. These checks may include verification of academic credentials and employment history, screening against relevant United Nations misconduct databases, and requests for misconduct disclosures from current and former employers, professional associations, other relevant organizations and participating organizations under inter-agency safeguarding initiatives, including the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS), where applicable. Appointment, selection and continued engagement are subject to the satisfactory completion of all required checks. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information and consent to enable UNICEF to undertake these checks. 

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 are conditional on the selected candidates willingness to comply with current or future vaccination requirements, should UNICEF mandate it for personnel. Failure to comply with such requirements, where applicable and without a duly approved medical exemption from the relevant UN authority, will result in the cancellation of the selection or may lead to other administrative measures, including separation from service.

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.

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.

Visa residence requirements: i.e. UNICEF shall not facilitate the issuance of a visa and working authorization for candidates under consideration for positions at the national officer and general service category.

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.