Social Policy Officer

Mission and objectivesThe fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that every child has the right to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give every child the opportunity to fulfil their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so critical. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of every child, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

ContextNorth Macedonia is home to over 372,000 children, an estimated 120,000 of whom are at risk of being left behind due to poverty or exclusion. The new UNICEF Country Programme Document 2026-2030 aims to ensure every child and adolescent, particularly the most vulnerable and marginalised reaches their full potential and realizes their rights. This is achieved by driving systemic change to ensure that policies, budgets, services and measures advance children’s rights and benefit children living in poverty, Roma children and children with disabilities. The National UNV Specials will provide technical, administrative and operational support to the development, implementation, monitoring and reporting of social policy and social protection programmes, focusing on public finance for children with a strong focus on equity, the optimization of delivery of social services, particularly to reach most vulnerable and marginalized children, and efforts to address child poverty. By focusing on public finance, the reorganization of social services, and the sustainable implementation of targeted inclusion measures this role helps to create sustainable changes in the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of social services and the reduction of child poverty and exclusion.

Task DescriptionThe UNV post will be under the direct supervision of the Social Policy Specialist, a senior position in the office. The key function of this position is to support evidence generation and analysis, technical assistance and advocacy efforts in social policy areas, with specific focus on public finance for children and social protection, and addressing child poverty and exclusion through targeted measures/services. More specifically, the UNV Social Policy Officer will undertake the following tasks: - Support the collection, analysis, and clear presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty for use in policymaking. - Prepare timely, regular, data-driven analysis to inform prioritization, and development of results-based management for initiatives to address child poverty and exclusion. - Provide inputs for the adjustment of social protection policies, legislation, and programmes to increase coverage and impact on children, with a focus the most marginalized. - Support planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of integrated social protection including the design and improvement of cash transfers, child grants, and linkages to other interventions and essential services. - Contribute to budget analysis and the development of advocacy briefs to ensure equitable allocations for children and support costing and cost-effectiveness analysis on child-focused investments. - Contribute to advocacy and strengthening partnerships for child-sensitive social policy, and collaborations with government, donors, civil society, and other UN agencies to advance children’s rights and global agendas. - Support the management and coordination of UNICEF programmes on child poverty, social protection, public finance, embedding risk management and effective planning, monitoring, evaluation and programme results reporting. - Support other relevant tasks as requested by the supervisor

Competencies and valuesCore Values • Care • Respect • Integrity • Trust • Accountability • Sustainability Core competencies • Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1) • Works Collaboratively with others (1) • Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1) • Innovates and Embraces Change (1) • Thinks and Acts Strategically (1) • Drives to achieve impactful results (1) • Manages ambiguity and complexity (1) Functional Competencies • Persuading and influencing (1) • Applying technical expertise (1) • Learning and researching (2) • Planning and organizing (2)

Living conditions and remarksNorth Macedonia is a landlocked country, geographically located on the Balkan Peninsula, south-eastern Europe with around 1.8 million inhabitants. It is an upper-middle-income country, candidate for EU membership and NATO member. The capital city is Skopje with around 600,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city of North Macedonia, the country's political, cultural, economic centre. There is a wide range of hotels, restaurants, education institutions, access roads, public transport (buses, taxis, trains), public services and places for recreation, airports. UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for UN Volunteers with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process and afterwards in your assignment. Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements In addition to duty station specific vaccine requirements, appointments are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the appointment. It does not apply to UN Volunteers who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their contracts.