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, innovate
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child at all times, focusing on equity and emphasizing the needs of the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism.
The Office of Innovation (OOI) helps co-create the discovery, iteration, and scale of bold solutions and technologies to deliver for children today and set a new pace of social impact for coming generations. We do this in a collective movement with innovative minds globally, across industries and generations, including our UNICEF network of innovators across 190 countries.
This role is part of OOI’s Strategic Planning and Innovation Nodes team. This P3 Planning Specialist (Post #OOI24043) reports to the P-5 Senior Advisor Innovation (Nodes & HQ) (Post #117610) and is an HQ divisional post based in Stockholm, Sweden. The incumbent has no supervisees but collaborates closely with M&E functions located in a different OOI business unit.
How can you make a difference?
Under the guidance of the supervisor, this position will focus on:
i)
Contributing to the strategic planning function of the entire OOI, including identifying trends, analysis of issues and synthesizing insights to inform OOI prioritization, and supporting the office overall and its 10 individual teams to formulate, articulate, assess and iterate strategies and plans to drive focus, accountability, and effective and efficient management of resources to achieve results.
ii)
Undertake programme planning, M&E, project management and coordination of collaboration agreement lifecycles for OOI Innovation Nodes, which are collaborations that illuminate, probe, reflect and generate novel ideas and research in new and unknown areas of potential innovation for children.
1. Strategic Planning
Under guidance of the supervisor, support environmental scanning, situation analysis and future-focused activities to inform the contextual knowledge within which OOI places its vision, mission and their implementation. This includes but is not limited to activities such as supporting strategic reflection workshops, scenarios and forecasts; research, data gathering and mapping of objectives, drivers and outcomes; undertaking quantitative and qualitative analysis; and applying strong writing skills to produce insights, findings and recommendations in multiple formats as required e.g. documents, presentations, graphics, conceptual frameworks, talking points etc.
Together with other OOI Strategic Planning & Nodes team members and OOI M&E colleagues, contribute to the development, management and quality assurance of quadrennial, biennial and annual planning processes and products for both the OOI office as a whole and by its component teams.
2. Guidance, Capacity Building & Communication
Interpret, translate and streamline planning guidance, requirements and processes in innovation-relevant and OOI-appropriate manner to support innovation programme effectiveness. Accompany this with guidance to OOI colleagues and effective communication, sharing and discoverability of information.
Create and/or curate resources and learning opportunities to build the capacity of OOI staff in programme planning, the effective and efficient management of resources to achieve results, and planning processes and tools. E.g. orientations, 1-1 support, resource guides.
Contribute to articulating a coherent OOI big picture across the 10 component OOI teams that effectively explains accelerated, innovation-enabled outcomes for children (informed by an OOI Theory of Change).
Effective communication and engagement for both UNICEF-wide and OOI-specific audiences, including making use of the OOI Digital Workplace Transformation tools e.g. Team Drive, SharePoint.
3. Node Programme Planning
Provide support to the Innovation Nodes initiative at all stages of programming processes and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support results-based planning (RBM), monitoring and evaluating results (capture data, prepare case studies etc.)
Undertake regular timely and quality work adaptive planning for Nodes across various time scales, capturing data on ongoing basis, and supporting timely internal and external reporting.
Implement and maintain collaboration lifecycle including sending outreach, tracking, preparing Node Collaboration Agreements, coordinating inputs from collaboration partners, maintaining records.
Developing and maintaining a Node engagement calendar and database for engagement activities and supporters; help coordinate engagement and amplification activities.
Identify opportunities, plan (calendar, database of supporters) and implement creative engagement activities to share knowledge products with broad range of audience through multiple channels to inspire action, inform decision making and amplify the value of Nodes, including help to maintain Node alumni network.
If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: 129000PlanningSpecialistP3.pdf
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum requirements:
Education: Advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in social sciences, Business, International Relations, Public Administration or other related field of study. Work Experience: A minimum of five years of relevant experience at the national and/or international levels in programme management, planning and monitoring, in a related field. Experience working in strategy, planning, programme management, and/or enterprise project management is desired. Previous work experience with UNICEF and/or an international organization is an advantage. Background/familiarity with global stakeholder coordination is an added value. Develop and implement groundbreaking planning methods that align with our innovation goals. Proven experience in planning within an innovative environment. Strong analytical skills and the ability to think creatively and disruptively. A proactive and forward-thinking mindset, eager to explore new possibilities and drive change. Contribute to an environment that encourages out-of-the-box thinking and experimentation. Language Requirements: Excellent written English skills are required, with high fluency in reading and oral skills. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.Desired skills:
Develop and implement planning strategies that align with our innovation goals. .Proven experience in strategic planning within an innovative environment. Strong analytical skills and the ability to think creatively and disruptively. A proactive and forward-thinking mindset, eager to explore new possibilities and drive change. Contribute to an environment that encourages out-of-the-box thinking and experimentation.Desirables:
Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency.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.
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 measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, 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:
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 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.
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
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.
In case of any questions, please feel free to contact swe-ooi-recruitments@unicef.org
This vacancy is archived.