JOB at the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF – NGO, Bertoua, Cameroon

Program Specialist (Local Governance and Decentralization), NOC ,TA#125059, Bertoua, Cameroon, 364 days (For Cameroonian Nationals Only)

Job no: 563100
Contract type: Temporary Appointment
Duty Station: Bertoua
Level: NO-3
Location: Cameroon
Categories: Social Policy, Program Management
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a chance in life!

UNICEF has been working in Cameroon since 1975 in order to allow women and children to fully realize their rights to development without restriction, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF provides financials and technical support to Cameroon across seven areas in an effort to fully realize the rights of women and children. These areas include Health, HIV/AIDS, Water-sanitation-Hygiene, nutrition, education, child protection and social inclusion. UNICEF focuses mainly on children and the most vulnerable and excluded families. Cameroon 2020 population is estimated at 26,545,863 people according to UN data. The population is young and generates strong socioeconomic demand. In rural areas, limited access to basic social services and effects of climate changes lead to household impoverishment and severe child deprivations. The task is immense but not insurmountable; it requires the energy of all stakeholders in Cameroon and out of Cameroon: also, women, men, youth and children, government, technical and financial partners, donors, civil society, the private sector, parliamentarians, communities. Everyone is invited to take part in the struggle to meet the challenges that lie ahead. It is together that we will act for Cameroon, a country which summarizes the challenges and hopes of Africa.

How can you make a difference?

The Local Governance and Decentralization Specialist principal supervisor is the Chief Social Policy on the technical level and with day to day operational function to be supervised by the Chief of Field Office. The incumbent will operate in a matrix management model, where she/he will support strategic engagement in local governance and decentralization, which includes scaling up efforts on program integration across the program sectors (ie nutrition, child protection, education) guided by relevant Chief of Sections, managed by Chief of Social Policy and field level delivery of integrated program implementation and partnership building by the Chief of Field Office.He/She workplan and performance indicators will be collectively agreed upon and reviewed together with feedback provided by both supervisors.

Support to program development and planning

Lead efforts to increase and enhance access to reliable and affordable social services; policy adherence at the local level; promotion of community participation in local governance decision-making and support participatory and accountable local governance.
To provide leadership and technical expertise in local governance areas and work closely with the relevant regional and municipality authorities in local level planning and monitoring for results within the Commune Development Plans (CDPs).
Provides effective support to overall management of the local governance and decentralization program focusing on quality control from formulation to implementation.
Advise government institutions on the development of decentralization implementation policies, work plans, and systems.
Develop system and platform for inter-sectoral coordination at municipality level to improve capacity for integrated delivery of essential interventions.
Supervise and monitor community cohesion related work across and provide technical advice to ensure the achievement of quality results.
Support efforts towards government decentralization in social service sectors, while offering an opportunity to strengthen district level systems and promote local accountability.
Working across internal sectors and with municipality authorities, support the process for multi-sectoral approach to service delivery.
Local Planning and Budgeting and Fiscal Decentralization (Public Finance for Children)
Engage with districts on child sensitive public finance tracking and influencing fiscal decentralization to leverage resources at district.
Facilitate the strengthening of local governance structures to encourage joint and inclusive approaches for results for women and children at the local level.
Identify capacity needs of district partners and support the design and implementation of Commune Development Plan (CDP).
Program management, monitoring and delivery of results

Lead on the design and formulation of support to decentralized structures, cutting across all sectors, and working with local government authorities and other development partners in the design and coordination approach.
Networking, partnership building and coordination

Build and sustain close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate program implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve and sustain output results.
Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

Promotes partnership and collaboration with various stakeholders, including local governments, civil society, UN in order to get their adherence to collect and disseminate child-related data and knowledge on good practices and lessons learned and exchanges information on program implementation, with focus on excluded and marginalized children
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have

EDUCATION
An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) degree in one of the following fields is required political science, economics, public policy, governance, public administration management or related field.
WORK EXPERIENCE
A minimum of five years of professional experience providing policy advice and program support in the general area of ​​Local Governance, Local Development and Decentralization in different development contexts.
Demonstrated knowledge of the legal and regulatory frameworks for local governance.
Understanding of local governance structure, government policies, guidelines, legislation, and strategies
Understanding of Rights-based and Results-based approach and programming.
Understanding of UN mission and system; and International Code of Conduct.
Gender equality and diversity awareness.
Strong experience in providing technical assistance to local governments, including through participatory approaches
LANGUAGES
Fluency in both English and French is preferred.
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.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

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 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 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.

Remarks:

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

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government 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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Deadline: 30 Jun 2023 W. Central Africa Standard Time

All applications must be submitted ONLINE at:

  https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/filter/?search-keyword=&location=cameroon

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