Social Protection Specialist, TA, P3 Dakar, Senegal Country Office

Job Number: 527242 | Vacancy Link

Locations: Africa: Senegal

Work Type : Temporary Appointment

CONTEXT & JUSTIFICATION

The Government of Senegal adopted in 2016 a new 20 years Social Protection Strategy (SNPS) covering the period (2016-2035). The SNPS reflects the State’s commitments for the Social Protection System and align with the country national development plan (PSE). It was developed through a life cycle approach, proposed a vision to develop a universal and inclusive social protection system, firmly anchored in the Senegalese culture and Laws.

Several instruments are put in place to address the specific needs of the poorest and vulnerable people and to ensure a minimum social guarantee. These include: (i) the National Cash Transfer Program (PNBSF); (ii) the Equal Opportunities Card (CEC) for people living with disabilities; (iii) the Universal Health Coverage scheme; (iv) the Yom kom kom project to strengthening the economic and entrepreneurial capacity of young people. All these programs are mainly funded by Government (USD 60 million from domestic resources for only the Cash Transfer) with some supports from World Bank, UNICEF, ILO and other bilateral partners. A Single Registry (RNU) has been established to ensure better governance of all these programs.

The Cash Transfer Program (PNBSF) is a flagship program, around which the other programs have been developed. The PNBSF had been informed by the pilot project funded by UNICEF 5 years ago and covering actually more than 320,000 poorest households in the country (20% of the households of the country). All the PNBSF’s beneficiaries are also covered by the health insurance and behavior change training sessions to adopt Key Family Practices. These beneficiaries are also all part of the RNU that currently has more than 450,000 ultra-poor and poor households and aims to reach 550,000 poor households by next year.

Despite all these efforts, some challenges remain for the Social Protection sector in Senegal:

Ensuring sustainable, predictable, adequate and sufficient funding for major programs. There is still a pressing need to evaluate all these programs, to assess their current and future costs and the burden over the national economy; define a social protection floor and filling the funding gap of the define floor with domestic resource through the innovative financing perspective;

Institutionalizing the key programs constituting the social protection floor through a law to avoid a questioning of the system by politics;

Strengthening the promotion of behavior change activities to ensure better human capital development;

Define and adopt an exit strategy for the beneficiaries of certain programs such as the PNBSF to avoid losing progress achieved over years;

Strengthening the connections between the various programs of the SNPS and the sector coordination for more synergy.

In response to these challenges, UNICEF is: (i) supporting the social protection system review along with other partners; (ii) strengthening the promotion of the Key Family Practices by integrating the new practices defined in the national guidelines and the densification of the training sessions; (iii) support to the definition of an exit strategy for the cash transfer beneficiaries; (iv) the sector coordination as well as the mobilization of additional financial resource for the implementation of the SNPS.

Under this context, Senegal Country Office is seeking a Social Protection Specialist (TA) who will support UNICEF engagement to strengthen national capacity to establish an effective, child and gender sensitive, shock-responsive and sustainable social protection system.

Purpose for the job

Under the general guidance of the Chief Equity, Governance & Social Policy, the Social Protection Specialist is accountable for providing technical support and assistance in all stages of social policy programing and related advocacy from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete and sustainable results. This includes programmes aimed at improving (a) public policies to reduce child poverty and vulnerability; (b) social protection coverage and impact on children; and (c) the transparency, adequacy, equity and efficiency of child-focused public investments in social protection. This encompasses both direct programme work with government and civil society partners as well as linkages and support to teams working on Education, Child survival, Child Protection, and Communication.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES, DUTIES AND TASKS

Under the supervision of Chief Equity, Governance & Social Policy, the Social Protection Specialist will be accountable for following duties and key end-results.

Strengthening partnerships

Establishes constructive dialogue and partnerships between international and local social protection stakeholders, to provide effective protective environment for the most vulnerable children, including progressive compliance of principal policy documents and legislation regarding all aspects of child rights;

Facilitate the sectoral dialogue and contribute to improve sector coordination mechanisms;

Identifies opportunities for south-south and triangular cooperation, and establishes networks with other countries (through UNICEF offices) to facilitate the exchange of experiences and the collaboration among countries;

Works with external prospects and partners to identify high potential opportunities for resource mobilization for social Protection;

Develops proposals, prepares progress and utilization reports for donors including background situation;

Supports programme monitoring to assure timely access to programme information for planning and management.

Contributes to assuring quality on writing of the country office mid-year and annual reports (COAR, RAM, SMQ, Social Protection Thematic Group reports, UNDAF reports…) and quality of different management documents;

Supports preparation of background information materials for visits of social protection donors and other special interest groups;

Support the implementation of child-focused cash transfer program and Universal Health Coverage

Support the promotion of Key Family Practices in the context of the main social protection programs implementation;

Support the definition and the implementation of a national exit strategy for the cash transfer program;

Support the design, financing, monitoring and implementation of the national cash transfer program  (PNBSF), linking cash transfers to development outcomes such as improved schooling, violence against children, immunization, health insurance coverage, nutrition and Early Childhood Development (cash plus);

Regularly collect, summarize, disaggregate and report upon core social protection data (coverage, impact, exclusion, etc.);

Financing for social protection programmes

Support the development and the implementation of the EU-BIT-UNICEF fund related to the financing in social protection system;

Supports the Country Office to monitoring the public expenditure and budget advocacy for the Social Protection sector;

Support evidence generation work to guide the social protection system governance: sector review, impact evaluation, const effectiveness and efficiency analysis, costing and fiscal space analysis;

 Building effective and child and gender-sensitive social protection systems

Contribute in the definition of the national social protection floor and ensure it is child and gender sensitive;

Support the social protection system review, contribute to define a social protection floor and a fiscal space analysis;

Support the institutionalization of the major social protection programs;

Support the development of the gender review of the social protection system;

Provide technical support to generate evidence on efficiency and effectiveness of the Universal Health Coverage scheme and support the national dialogue to implement required reforms for more sustainability and effectiveness;

Provides technical assistance to the national stakeholders for the development and application of child-sensitive, equitable and shock-responsive core social protection instruments (such as a management information system, targeting mechanisms, single registry, communication plan, monitoring and evaluation system, etc.);

Actively participate in the social protection working group to ensure better harmonization and alignment of interventions and mechanisms;

Strengthens national and decentralized coordination mechanisms for social protection;

Supports national capacity development at national as well as decentralized level (training of stakeholders, South-south exchanges, meetings of the Community of Practice, etc.) that ensures equal participation of men and women;

Supports the implementation of other child-sensitive social protection programmes (e.g.: free care policy coupled with the performance-based financing system, insurance scheme, free fees school policy).

Assessment and selection will be based on the following required knowledge/skills/competencies:

An Advanced University Degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Political Science, International Relations or related disciplines.

At least five years of progressively responsible experience in the design, coordination, implementation, management, and monitoring of Social Protection programs.

Work Experience in Developing country (for IP) or field work experience (for NO);

Fluency in English and French (written & verbal) is required.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

Creates a sense of team spirit by encouraging harmony, co-operation and communication.

Anticipates the information needs of the intended audience and tailors the amount, content and style of communication to deliver maximum clarity.

Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups and establishes good working relationships.

Makes logical and well-reasoned judgments from an analysis of the information available.

Analyzes and integrates potentially conflicting numerical, verbal and other data from a number of sources.

Sets realistic timescales for the overall completion of major projects, ensuring that any deadlines set by others in connection with a project fit into the overall timescales.

Creates measures and criteria to monitor progress of overall projects against key organizational objectives, maintaining constant vigilance regarding all issues that may impact upon project completion.

Demonstrates, applies and shares expert technical knowledge across the organization

Core Values

Commitment

Diversity and Inclusion

Integrity

Core competencies

Communication – Level II

Working with People – Level II

Drive for Results – Level II

Functional Competencies

Leading and Supervising – Level II

Formulating Strategies and Concepts – Level II

Analyzing – Level III

Relating and Networking – Level II

Persuading and Influencing – Level II

Planning and Organizing – Level III

Impact of Results:

The Social Protection Specialist will work under the overall supervision of the Chief Social Policy. He/She will work closely with Equity Governance & Social Policy team and other programs.

APPLICATIONS

 Candidates are asked to attach with their applications:

A cover letter

A curriculum Vitae

A P11 form completed and signed (P11 Form will be uploaded from

Copy of diploma and certificates

Internal candidates should provide their two last Performance Evaluation Reports.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization.

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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Closing Date Sat Nov 09 2019 00:55:00 GMT+0100 (Afr. centrale Ouest)