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 Hope

Organizational Context

This Partnerships Officer position is part of the Partnerships, Communications and Advocacy team (PAC) within the UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa in Dakar, Senegal and reports to the Partnerships Specialist (Private Sector). 

The position’s purpose is to support Partnership Specialists and senior management at the Regional Office and across the 24 different Country Offices.  At the end of 2023, the Regional Office established the first-ever fundraising webpage, accepting African multi-currencies to attract and recruit African individual partners to support UNICEF programs across West and Central Africa. This position will play an active role in coordinating and delivering the supporter recognition and development strategy to grow individual donors from the region, retain and create a more flexible funding source for our programs. The postholder will build a unique supporter cultivation journey with individual donors. The key result is to ensure income grows, our pool of partners increases, and a greater visibility for UNICEF in support of its mission in West development and Central Africa. He/She will have excellent verbal and written communication and relationship skills. 

How can you make a difference? 

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

 Regional Individual Giving Delivery C coordination:  

• Support the strategic orientation and implementation of the Regional Individual Giving (IG) approach under the guidance of the Partnerships Specialist. 

• Act as the regional technical/ delivery focal point for Individual Giving, ensuring day-to-day coordination across the West and Central Africa Office (WCARO), Private Fundraising and Partnerships Country Office Development and Support (PFP CODAS), and Country Offices. 

• Coordinate with PFP, Communications, Finance, and ICT teams to support effective IG implementation. 

• Leads and supports the development of the annual Individual Giving workplan and budget. 

Digital fundraising campaign management (Regional Level): 

• Manage the design, execution, and optimization of regional digital fundraising campaigns, including emergency appeals and global moments. 

• Support the testing and optimization of paid digital fundraising campaigns at regional level. 

• Provide technical guidance and quality assurance to Country Offices implementing organic digital fundraising activities. 

Donor acquisition, stewardship & retention (Regional Level): 

• Support donor acquisition, onboarding, stewardship and retention activities for Individual Giving at regional level. 

• Identify opportunities and lead structured testing to assess the viability and scalability of new and emerging Individual Giving channels, using performance data to inform optimization and investment decisions. 

• Support and operationalize regional donor journeys, ensuring consistency, relevance and mobile-first donor experiences. 

• Analyse donors and campaign data to inform ongoing optimization and recommendations. 

• Coordinate and drive value maximization and extra cash strategies across Country Offices, maximizing donor lifetime value and sustainable net income. 

Enabling environment C systems support:  

• Support the strengthening of the digital fundraising enabling environment, including Payment Service Provider (PSP) integration processes and compliance requirements. 

• Contribute to the development and application of an operational enabling environment, SOPs and guidance tools for Individual Giving. 

• Flag technical, financial and operational risks and bottlenecks as well as potential solutions to the Partnerships Specialist and relevant stakeholders. 

 Communications, partnerships support & capacity building: 

• Support in identifying, engaging, and retaining potential partners to support the results. 

• Support the integration of communications, media, and influencer approaches into Individual Giving activities, in collaboration with Communications teams. 

• Build Country Office capacity to deliver organic fundraising, through workshops, clinics, guidance notes and hands-on technical support. 

•  Document on the Individual Giving SharePoint and disseminate lessons learned and best practices across the region. 

Monitoring, reporting C learning: 

• Supports the compilation of market, donor, and audience information to inform planning, ensuring alignment with agreed KPIs, income targets, and strategic priorities. 

• Supports the preparation of draft inputs for the annual workplan and budget, consolidating inputs from relevant stakeholders. 

• Monitor and analyse regional Individual Giving performance, including paid media results, donor acquisition, and retention. 

• Prepare concise operational reports and insights for the Partnerships Specialist, senior management, Country Offices and relevant stakeholders. 

The results of this role contribute to: 

• Effective operational delivery of Individual Giving across the region under a centralized model, raising flexible funding for the region. 

• Improved performance of regional paid fundraising campaigns through systematic testing and optimization. 

• Stronger donor stewardship and retention, driven by consistent regional donor management. 

• Enhanced Country Office capacity to implement organic fundraising with appropriate technical support. 

• Increased efficiency, compliance, and readiness for emergency fundraising activations. 

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

Minimum requirements:

Education: 

• A bachelor’s degree in marketing, Communications, Business Administration, International Development, Social Sciences, or a related field is required.
  
  

Work Experience:

• • A minimum of two (2) years of relevant professional experience in partnerships, fundraising, digital marketing, communications, or related areas is required.

Language Requirements:

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

Desirables:

• Practical knowledge of Individual Giving and digital fundraising, including donor acquisition, stewardship and retention.
• Experience supporting digital fundraising and/or marketing campaigns, including paid media testing and organic social media fundraising.
• Ability to support and operationalize donor journeys and mobile-first supporter experiences.
• Capacity to compile, analyse and interpret fundraising data and translate insights into operational recommendations.
• Demonstrated ability to adjust to unexpected challenges and propose countermeasures accordingly.
• Strong coordination, diplomatic negotiation, influencing, and networking skills to establish and maintain trusted partnerships and to develop close and effective working relationships with diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to contribute to capacity building, knowledge sharing and documentation of best practices.
• Excellent communications skills, verbal and written.
• Experience in an international organization, NGO or UN agency is an asset.
• Relevant marketing experience will be considered contributing to this work experience.

 

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…

Core values Care Respect Integrity Trust Accountability

Core competencies Nurtures, Leads and Manages People Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness Works Collaboratively with Others Builds and Maintains Partnerships Innovates and Embraces Change Thinks and Acts Strategically Drives to Achieve Impactful Results Manages Ambiguity and Complexity

 

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.

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.

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.