Education Specialist (EiE), P3, Gaza, State of Palestine, Temporary Appointment, 364 days (post no. 131532)

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, education

UNICEF in the State of Palestine works to uphold the rights of children to access essential services and protection, from early childhood through adolescence. Our objective is to ensure that every child in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, irrespective of background or circumstance, has an equal chance to fulfil their potential. Following the escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, UNICEF is responding at scale with Education, WASH, Nutrition, Health, Child Protection and Multi-Purpose Cash, while preparing for return to learning for children across the State of Palestine to respond to the most precent and critical needs of children, while supporting the restoration of essential services.

The purpose of this assignment is to provide the field team in Gaza with additional support. Under the direction of the Education Manager, the Education Specialist will support in managing the EiE response plan for the Gaza Strip, contributing to programme development, knowledge-sharing, and innovation. The Specialist will provide expert technical guidance and operational support across all stages of programming to address two main objectives:

• Technical Support: Work with the team to develop the capacity of the implementing partners ensuring UNICEF’s obligations are met.
• Support programme management with a focus on supplies and logistics, budget management, monitoring and evaluation and reporting.

The ideal candidate will have a good technical understanding of teaching and learning, as well as a good knowledge of Education in Emergency response and be able to support the team to monitor and evaluate programming, including reporting. The role holder needs to be highly motivated, with the resilience to work in basic and often insecure conditions.

How can you make a difference? 

The selected candidate will improve the quality of education in emergency response by implementing partners leading to improved learning outcomes for children in Gaza by providing technical support, capacity building, advocacy, and partnership development.

Summary of Key Functions and Accountabilities

1. Management and Advisory Support

• Coordinate monitoring efforts to ensure implementing partners are able to deliver in a timely manner and with quality
• Provide technical assistance/advice to colleagues in the Section on all aspects of programming and implementation to ensure integrated programming with other sections and enable colleagues to achieve programme/performance objectives.
• Provide quality assurance for proposals, donor reports and management of strategic partnerships for the education programming.
• Contribute to ensuring staff in the Gaza field office are able to adequately support a range of teacher training programmes.

2. Program Development and Planning

• Participate in education section strategic programme discussion on the planning of EiE programmes/projects as required by the programming team. Formulate, design, and prepare programmes/projects proposals related to teaching and learning/EiE, ensuring alignment with UNICEF’s Strategic Plans and Country Program and coherence/integration with UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDF), regional strategies and national priorities, Gaza response plans, Education Cluster and competencies.
• Prepare required programme documents with implementing partners for programme review and approval.
• Work closely and collaboratively with internal and external colleagues and partners to discuss strategies and methodologies and to determine priorities/competencies to ensure the achievement of concrete planned results for the education programmes implemented in Gaza.

3. Program Management, Monitoring, and Quality Control of Results

• Collaborate with monitoring and evaluation teams to establish clear benchmarks and performance indicators to assess the effectiveness of the education programmes, focusing on both learning recovery and cross-sectoral service delivery.
• Contribute to the assessment, monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths/weaknesses in programme and management, identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals.
• Monitor programmes/projects to assess progress, identify bottlenecks and potential problems and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution.
• Plan, monitor and control the use of programme resources (financial, human, administrative and other assets) certifying/verifying compliance with organizational rules, regulations and procedures, donor commitments and standards of accountability and integrity. Ensure timely reporting and liquidation of resources.
• Submit/prepare programme/project reports related to education recovery to donors and other partners to keep them informed on programme progress and critical issues.

4. Advocacy, networking and partnership building

• Prepare communication strategies and implementation plans and activities for maximum communication impact and outreach to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances for sustainable results and support fund raising.

5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

• Contribute to the development of policies and procedures and introduce innovation and best practices to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programmes and projects.
• Organize/plan/implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders to promote sustainable results on education and related programmes/projects.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

An advanced university degree in social sciences, education, international development, social policy or another related field is required.

Work Experience:

A minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in education/EiE programme planning/implementation/advising and/or partnership management.

Practical experience in education programming in the Middle East and North Africa region is an asset.

Previous professional experience in the field of education as a teacher, trainer or similar in an asset

Previous experience in emergency context is an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English is required (written and spoken). Knowledge of Arabic is an asset. 

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.

This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is: a role with direct contact with children, works directly with children, or is a safeguarding response role. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) apply.

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 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.

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

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

This is required for all posts requiring a higher education degree. “UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

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

The VA is open to all (internal and external candidates)

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.

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.