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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. 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 personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, Hope

The conflict in Sudan which erupted on 15 April 2023 has become a deepening children’s crisis. Almost 14 million children in Sudan require urgent humanitarian assistance. Millions of these children continue to face multiple protection risks, including grave violations, disease outbreaks and a lack of basic services. Over 4.4 million people have been internally displaced and an additional 1.2 million people have fled across borders since 15 April 2023. Large displacements continue, with nearly 350,000 people displaced within Sudan and over 104,000 fleeing to neighboring countries in September alone. Epidemics continue to affect the country, including cholera, measles, and malaria. Reports of increased violence, abuse and exploitation of women and children from hotspot areas are highly worrying, with killing and maiming, child recruitment and sexual violence among the highest cases reported. Schools remain closed across Sudan despite usual beginning of the new academic year. More than 7 million children were already out of school before the conflict and now another 12 million children (of whom 5 million children remain in conflict states) are waiting for schools to reopen, but there is no sign that the schools will reopen while the war continues.

Social and Behaviour Change and Community Engagement (SBC-CE) in UNICEF is a cross-cutting programme strategy that analyses and addresses the cognitive, social and structural determinants of individual practices and societal changes in both development and humanitarian contexts.

To deliver on SBC-CE as a change strategy under the current UNICEF Strategic Plan, the SBC-CE team in UNICEF SCO is positioned to provide cross-cutting technical support to the entirety of the country office programme. Under the 2024 Crisis Response Plan (as captured in the Annual Work Plans), this includes specific cross-cutting strategies that apply across all results areas (e.g. community engagement, SBCC campaigns, and SBC-CE capacity building), in addition to focused priority areas per results area (e.g. immunization and outbreak response for Health; hygiene promotion and ODF for WASH including in cholera response; prevention of malnutrition for Nutrition; etc.).

For community engagement specifically, in the current context grassroots community structures and actors across Sudan have stepped up and shown remarkable resilience, creativity and effectiveness in responding to the growing humanitarian and development needs. To deliver on UNICEF’s response strategy in Sudan, SBC-CE must provide technical leadership for all of UNICEF Sudan to effectively partner with, empower, support, and integrate feedback from these local actors.

How can you make a difference? 

You will lead the SCO and SBC-CE technical portfolio on community engagement, including setting strategic direction, rolling out technical approaches for engagement, empowerment, resilience and social cohesion of local, community and grassroots structures, supporting you with components of CE training and capacity building, as well as document and disseminate lessons learned and best practices from grassroots frontline responders.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

1. Design, plan and support cross-sectoral integration and implementation of community engagement activities that are backed by social and behavioural evidence to strengthen engagement and participation mechanisms with a humanitarian-development-peace nexus (HDPN) lens:

• In collaboration with UNICEF sectoral and cross-sectoral specialists, relevant government officers and other UN/NGO partners, develop, support implementation of and monitor evidence-based community engagement strategies and approaches, in line with global standards and UNICEF priorities and approaches.
• In collaboration with UNICEF sectoral and cross-sectoral colleagues and implementing partners, select appropriate community engagement activities and platforms, ensuring quality and integration of the latest evidence and science-backed approaches. In this process, oversee coordination with stakeholders and partners to align plans and activities.
• Identify, propose and support implementation of evidence-based programme recommendations from current data, evidence and trends for priority community engagement issues and ensure integration of the latest innovative CE approaches and tools in programming and advocate for their adoption among internal and external stakeholders.
• Apply the above skills of designing, planning, supporting implementation and monitoring of community engagement interventions with an HDPN lens, ensuring interventions are tailored to the specific context and combine life-saving speed with longer-term systems strengthening.
• Make viable recommendations on inclusion of community engagement across all sectoral work plans and strategies. Advocate and quality assure the inclusion of community engagement activities in sectoral workplans based on active participation in sectoral programme planning and reviews and viable recommendations for the integration of CE.

2. Support operationalization of CE by advocating, mobilizing resources, coordinating across stakeholders, sectors and teams, and building partnerships:

• Collaborate with national, regional and/or global partners to link and coordinate CE approaches.
• Lead SBC-CE technical contributions to existing multiyear and –partner programming and projects around social cohesion and community resilience.
• Cultivate resource mobilization opportunities and contribute to (cross-)sectoral proposals, reports and other materials to support resource mobilization. Contribute to mobilizing human resources for CE, including staff, consultants and external vendors.
• Contribute to financial planning, budget planning and tracking and financial management for CE.
• Identify, disseminate, and adopt best practices and innovative approaches and technology in CE, support their integration in programme approaches and support sectoral teams in implementing them.
• Advocate internally and externally for integration of SBC-CE in national systems, in the country programme, and in sectoral plans.
• Coordinate with stakeholders and partners for the implementation of community engagement and SBC-CE in humanitarian actions.

3. Generate and utilize research, data, and evidence to inform the design, measurement, and monitoring of CE activities and approaches:

• In collaboration with sectoral and cross-sectoral specialists, relevant government officers and other UN/NGO partners, design and conduct CE situation analyses and formative research that map grassroots networks, structures, and their capacities;
• Establish community feedback mechanisms and use feedback to inform community engagement for disaster preparedness, response, recovery and resilience.
• Develop terms of reference, research tools, frameworks and protocols for generating evidence to inform CE initiatives and apply tools, methodologies and frameworks for data collection, tracking, monitoring and reporting and disseminating SBC-CE results.
• Conduct and/or participate in country programme monitoring and evaluation exercises and make recommendations on workplan revisions based on the results.
• Develop and manage relationships with external partners, vendors and consultants for research and evidence generation and support of CE.

4. Serve as focal point for SBC to vertical programme sections and/or cross-cutting thematic areas:

• In close coordination with the other (3) SBC technical officers in the national team and as assigned by the Chief of SBC, ensure strong support to focal point portfolios covering vertical programme sections (Health, Nutrition, WASH, Child Protection, Learning & Skills Development, Social Policy) and/or cross-cutting thematic areas e.g. PME, PSEA, AAP, Gender, MRM
• Interact with relevant focal point counterparts in sections, Area teams and cross-cutting thematic areas to set priorities and objectives for the year.
• Provide regular reports to the Chief of SBC and relevant focal point counterparts.
• Coordinate with SBC national colleagues for information sharing, capacity building, and reporting per the focal point portfolio requirements

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

• Education: Advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields is required: social and behavioral science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, or another relevant technical field.
• Experience: A minimum of five years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: social and behaviour change, communication for development, risk communication and community engagement, accountability to affected populations, or another related area.

Experience working in emergency context.

• Language Requirements: Fluency in English and Arabic language is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

The following desirables:

• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered an asset.
• Relevant experience in emergency and/or humanitarian settings is considered an asset.

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 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is: a role with direct contact with children, works directly with children, or is a safeguarding response role. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) apply.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will 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.

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:

The VA is open to all (internal and external candidates).

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.

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’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

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.

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.

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.

This is required for all posts requiring a higher education degree. “UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.