UNDP Regional Coordinator, Safeguard Young People Programme and Youth Team Lead Jobs in South Africa

UNDP Regional Coordinator, Safeguard Young People Programme and Youth Team Lead Jobs in South Africa

The Position

The Youth Team Lead and Regional Coordinator, Safeguard Young People (SYP) Programme is located at the UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) and works under the overall direction of the Regional Director.

The Youth Team Lead and Regional Coordinator, SYP programme will provide leadership and technical guidance for policy and strategy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes related to adolescents and youth in the region.

The position will ensure synergies across regional initiatives on advancing adolescent and youth potentials and outcomes through evidence-based youth policies, enabling laws, access to youth-friendly services within responsive health systems, scaling up comprehensive sexuality education, menstrual health, as well as actions to end child marriage and other harmful practices.

Job Purpose

Adolescents and youth policy underpinned by enabling laws, youth participation, leadership and accountability are at the core of UNFPA’s mandate and the three transformative results. Sexual and reproductive health and rights is an integral part of adolescent and young people’s transition into adulthood. Decisions about these are closely tied to their education, employment, sustainable livelihood and participation in decision-making processes.

UNFPA is one of the pioneering agencies in working with young people and has contributed to shaping the youth space within the UN system. As such, UNFPA’s work on youth leadership and participation provides a crucial backbone for its mandate.

Through its Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and the UNFPA’s Strategy on Youth, known as My Body, My Life, My World, UNFPA supports global, regional and national youth networks and organizations in advancing youth development issues, human rights, humanitarian action and peacebuilding efforts.

Responsibilities

You would be responsible for

Strategic Technical Leadership, Monitoring and Oversight

Undertake substantive environmental scanning at sub-regional and regional levels, to identify opportunities and gaps to facilitate timely interventions in adolescents and youth programming for UNFPA and partners;

Contribute to country offices’ mobilization of social and political actions for national policies and programmes; promote data for development approaches for policy-making, programming and programme assessment activities; and identify key entry points, partners and approaches for mainstreaming Adolescent and Youth issues;

Contribute to the identification and synthesis of substantive trends in order to produce innovative and cutting edge knowledge and evidence to make the case for increased investment in adolescent and youth programmes;

Contribute to the promotion of technical knowledge, programme evidence, lessons learned and success stories for use as appropriate; and liaise with the communication team for any support as required;

Provide required thought leadership, as part of the regional office engagement, to various regional and country initiatives – i.e. adolescent responsive health systems and youth friendly SRH services, Comprehensive Sexuality Education; Menstrual Health; Youth leadership, participation and accountability.

Collaborate on the development of proposals for innovative UNFPA interventions for youth programming in development and emergency preparedness, humanitarian assistance, recovery and transition and relief efforts;

Provide inputs reflecting ICPD PoA and SDGs as related to adolescents and youth into sub-regional, regional strategic planning and policy documents of assistance to intergovernmental organizations, as part of the strategy to spotlight UNFPA’s relevant mandate and issues at the country level;

Collaborate closely on an intra- and inter-thematic unit basis, to communicate and exchange information and situational analysis on adolescents and youth with concerned parties and stakeholders, as follow-up and operational response;

Quality Technical Support and Capacity Development

Provide inputs on adolescent and youth programmes , as required, into the preparation of regional and national development frameworks, country action plans and other related

documents, including providing guidance on the involvement of national experts and institutions;

Provide analytical tools to guide evidence-based inclusion of adolescent and youth programmes into global, regional and country policies, plans and programmes.

Guided by evidence and data, anticipate technical, policy and programmatic needs requiring technical assistance and capacity building on adolescents and youth issues;

Ensure familiarization with relevant UNFPA adolescent and youth strategy, documents and guidelines, and ensure integration into country programmes and regional frameworks;

Prepare thematic documents including but not limited to briefing materials, documentation of best practices, lessons learned and success stories to inform policy dialogues and advocacy at sub regional, regional and global levels;

Contribute to promotion of technical knowledge, innovation, programme evidence, lessons learned and success stories for use in improving country programmes;

Collaborate with country offices and regional entities on the preparation of country-level proposals and resource mobilization strategies to ensure youth-centered design and tailored approaches are adopted at regional level and within multi-country programmes on adolescents and young people;

Evidence and Knowledge Management

Collaborate with global, regional and country-level teams on the co-creation of evidence-based solutions and approaches to address intractable problems affecting adolescents and youth;

Contribute to the generation of technical knowledge, promotion of innovative approaches, as well as documentation of lessons learned and success stories on adolescents and youth for use in improving programmes. This will include collaborating with the Innovation team to maintain accessible databases on best and promising practices.

Contribute to South-South and Triangular Cooperation to advance learning and knowledge exchange of evidence-based best practices and lessons learned on adolescents and youth programming from the region

Technical Representation, Networking and Strategic Positioning

Contribute to sustaining partnerships with relevant networks of sub regional and regional experts and institutions working on adolescents and youth, as part of the larger objective of capacity-building and transfer of skills and programme ownership to beneficiaries;

Strengthen partnerships with development partners, civil society organizations, private sector and youth-led organisations, to ensure inclusion of adolescent and youth issues in regional policy and programming processes;

Support the country offices to ensure convening and facilitation of youth leadership and participation related activities across the humanitarian, development and peace continuum.

Qualifications and Experience

Education

Advanced university degree in Public Health, Medicine, Social Sciences, Sociology, Demography, Gender, Economics, International Relations, International Development, Public Administration, Management, Communications or other related fields.

Knowledge and Experience

7 years of increasingly responsible professional experience in management and/or programme development related to Adolescent and Youth, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, of which at least three at the international level;

Hands-on experience in participating or leading a youth-led organization or network is an asset

Substantive knowledge and practical experience in population and development, sexual and reproductive health, and gender;

Experience in programme and/or technical assistance within the UN System;

Field experience is required.

Languages

Fluency in English is required; French and/or Portuguese are desirable.

How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; UNDP Regional Coordinator, Safeguard Young People Programme and Youth Team Lead Jobs in South Africa

Find daily jobs in South Africa. Jobs - South Africa jobs. Search our career portal & find the latest South African job positions, career opportunities & jobs in South Africa.

Jobs in South Africa - banking jobs, IT jobs, accounting jobs, NGO jobs, business administration, ICT, UN jobs, procurement jobs, education jobs, hospital jobs, human resources jobs, engineering, teaching jobs, and other careers in South Africa.

Find your dream job from 1000s of vacancies in South Africa posted and updated daily - click here!