Overview
The Social Policy Officer (Public Finance for Children) will provide technical support and assistance in social policy programming and related advocacy, from strategic planning to results delivery. This includes programmes aimed at improving public policies to reduce child poverty, social protection, child-focused public investments, and governance for social services.
Key Responsibilities
- Improving data on child poverty & vulnerability for increased use for policy and programme action.
- Analyzes the macroeconomic context and its impact on social development, emerging issues and social policy concerns, as well as implications for children, and proposes and promotes appropriate responses in respect of such issues and concerns, including government resource allocation policies and the effect of social welfare policies on the rights of children.
- Improving use of public financial resources for children.
- Conducts budget analysis and supports capacity building for effective costing, monitoring, and tracking of public expenditure, ensuring equitable and efficient financial allocations for child-focused services and interventions.
- Advises on policy options and facilitates community participation to enhance transparency, accountability, and domestic financing of child-sensitive social protection programs.
- Strengthening capacity of local governments to plan, budget, consult on and monitor child-focused social services.
- 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.
- Collaborates with the central and local authorities to strengthen capacity on quality data collection, analysis for policy development, planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring of essential social services, with emphasis on community participation and accountability.
- Strengthening advocacy and partnerships for child-sensitive social policy.
- Supports correct and compelling use of data and evidence about children and coverage and impact of child focused services – in support of the social policy programme and the country programme overall.
- Establishes effective partnerships with the Government, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, civil society and local leaders, the private sector, and other UN agencies to support sustained and proactive commitment to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and to achieve global UN agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Identifies other critical partners, promotes awareness and builds capacity of partners, and UNICEF Programme Management.
- Helps manage and coordinate technical support around public finance and governance ensuring it is well planned, monitored, and implemented in a timely fashion to adequately support scale-up and delivery.
- Ensuring risk analysis and risk mitigation are embedded into overall management of the support, in close consultation with UNICEF programme sections, Cooperating Partners, and governments.
- Supports and contributes to effective and efficient planning, management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the country programme.
- Ensures that the social planning project enhances policy dialogue, planning, supervision, technical advice, management, training, research and support; and that the monitoring and evaluation component strengthens monitoring and evaluation of the social sectors and provides support to sectoral and decentralized information systems.
Required Experience
- A minimum of two years of relevant professional experience working on public finance, budget analysis, statistics and/or macroeconomic analysis is required.
- Prior experience with socioeconomic analysis and public finance analysis is required.
- Relevant experience in public finance management is an asset.
- Prior experience in leading advocacy efforts to influence policy dialogue on public finance related issues is an asset.
- Demonstrated experience in the public sector in Brazil, especially in areas related to finance, planning or budget, is considered as a strong asset.
- Background and/or familiarity with emergencies are considered as a strong asset.
- Background and familiarity with Brazilian economy, fiscal policies, public budget at national, state or municipal levels is an asset.
Qualifications
University degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Finance Management, Public Policy and/or Administration, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field.
