Social Policy Specialist

The Social Policy Specialist supports UNICEF Eswatini in improving child poverty data, strengthening social protection coverage and impact for children, improving public financial resource use for children, and strengthening local government capacity for child-focused social services planning and monitoring. The role contributes to creating a protective environment for children and ensuring their survival, development, and well-being.

Responsibilities

• Supports the collection, analysis and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, including strengthening national capacity to collect routinely, report and use data for policy decision-making.
• Supports the development of social protection policies, legislation and programmes with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention the most marginalized.
• Identifies, generates and presents evidence to support social protection goals in collaboration with partners.
• Undertakes budget analysis to inform UNICEF’s advocacy and technical assistance to Ministries of Finance, planning commissions and social sector ministries to improve equitable allocations for essential services for children.
• Works with sector colleagues to build capacity to undertake costing and cost effectiveness analysis on priority interventions to help inform policy decisions on child-focused investments.
• Collaborates with central and local authorities to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation and accountability processes so that decisions and child-focused service delivery more closely respond to the needs of local communities.

Requirements

• Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Economics, Social Science, Political Science, International Public Policy, Social Policy, International Relations or any other related fields.
• A minimum of five years of relevant work experience in social policy, child poverty, social protection, public finance, social services, policy development, data analysis, or any other related field is required.
• Experience in policy development, risk analysis, risk mitigation, social policy, social protection, or finance advocacy is required.
• Proficiency in English and Siswati is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
• Experience in developing country contexts, emergency settings, fiscal governance, or public finance is considered an asset.
• Relevant country-level experience, particularly in development, fragile settings, or humanitarian contexts is considered an asset.

Skills

• Social Policy Development
• Child Poverty Analysis
• Social Protection Policies
• Public Finance
• Policy Development
• Data Analysis
• Risk Analysis
• Risk Mitigation
• Finance Advocacy
• Social Services Planning
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Fiscal Governance
• Emergency Settings Experience
• Development Context Experience
• Humanitarian Experience

Languages

English, Siswati