Programme Specialist – POWER4Girls Initiative (P-4), FT, PG Gender Equality, New York # 00131024

UNICEF is seeking an Adolescent Girls’ Programme Specialist to play a pivotal role in advancing its Gender Action Plan and Adolescent Girls’ Programme Strategy. Reporting to the Senior Advisor, Gender Equality, this role is part of a global team leading efforts to empower adolescent girls through the POWER4Girls Initiative, supporting 46 country programmes.

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, … a champion

Gender equality is essential to realizing the mandate of UNICEF to uphold the rights of all children. The UNICEF Gender Action Plan (GAP), 2022–2025, operationalizes the UNICEF Gender Policy, 2021–2030, by specifying how UNICEF will promote gender equality across its programmes and workplaces. It affirms that promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is the responsibility of everyone, regardless of organizational role. The GAP elaborates the steps required to accelerate progress on gender equality across the five Goal Areas of the UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2022–2025, as well as within institutional systems and processes, with clear indicators and monitoring mechanisms to track change. Recognizing that gender discrimination has lifelong and intergenerational impacts, the GAP advances gender equality throughout the life course. At the same time, it promotes targeted actions to advance the leadership and well-being of adolescent girls, as girls are both disproportionately affected by gender inequality and have tremendous potential to be leaders for change. This dual-track approach goes beyond responding to the manifestations of gender inequality to tackle its underlying drivers, including by engaging boys and men as allies; advancing upstream financing and policy solutions; and supporting girls’ agency and voice. 

UNICEF has launched an Adolescent Girls’ Programme Strategy which aims to accelerate action against these commitments, and articulates a vision for moving forwards, with and for adolescent girls’, to deliver multi-faceted, girl-targeted programming, working in partnership with other partners, especially girl-led and girl-focused organisations. Girls' voice, agency and empowerment is at the core of the strategy.

Much progress has been made in implementing this new strategy, with millions of adolescent girls reached through under the pilot programmes under the POWER4Girls Initiative umbrella; a new Global Girl Leaders Advisory Group launched; a new Adolescent Girls’ Data Portal; new research programmes kickstarted, and more. But more is needed to spearhead and institutionalize focused work on adolescent girls rights in a holistic way.

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF is seeking an Adolescent Girls’ Programme Specialist to play a pivotal role in advancing its Gender Action Plan and Adolescent Girls’ Programme Strategy. Reporting to the Senior Advisor, Gender Equality, this role is part of a global team leading efforts to empower adolescent girls through the POWER4Girls Initiative, supporting 46 country programmes. Focused on enhancing girls’ wellbeing, leadership, and empowerment, this initiative uses multisectoral approaches in skills development, protection, and health. This position offers an incredible opportunity to make a tangible impact on girls’ lives by providing technical and programmatic expertise, while also contributing to policy, advocacy, and coordination efforts across UNICEF’s global network.

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

The Adolescent Girls’ Programme Specialist will provide crucial support for developing, implementing, and monitoring impactful programming, including leading the global POWER4Girls initiative. Responsibilities include meticulous budget and results monitoring, producing regular reports for diverse audiences, and managing contracts and partnerships. The Specialist will work collaboratively with cross-sectoral teams to define, measure, and report results for adolescent girls while promoting high-quality research, evidence generation, and evaluation. Coordination across sectors will ensure coherent and efficient resource use, maximizing synergies and delivering meaningful outcomes for adolescent girls.

This role involves providing technical guidance and operational support across all programming stages to advance gender equality and adolescent girls’ rights in line with UNICEF’s strategic priorities. Responsibilities include advising country offices, conducting gender analyses, designing gender-transformative programming, and advancing policies that prioritize girls’ financial inclusion, education, and health. The Specialist will also support policy efforts, contribute to advocacy and communication strategies, and share lessons learned from country-level programming. Additionally, the role emphasizes partnership building, maintaining alliances with key stakeholders, and strengthening networks to advocate for adolescent girls’ rights and well-being globally.

The following minimum requirements:

Education:

Advanced university degree (Masters or higher) in the social sciences (i.e. sociology, demography, psychology, political science, social policy or economics), public health, public policy, public administration, international development, or in an area relevant to UNICEF’s sectoral work (e.g. Health, Nutrition, WASH, Education, Child Protection, Social Inclusion, HIV/AIDs, etc.)

Work Experience:

• Minimum eight years of relevant professional experience and demonstrated track record of having undertaken and led substantive programming and research on gender/adolescent girls and development in key issue areas that are the focus of UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan.

Desirables/Assets

• Experience in designing, implementing, managing, and delivering results-based programmes on gender, adolescent and development or any other cross cutting programmes, especially at country/field level, experience in emergency response is an asset.
• Demonstrated ability to connect sectoral issues and programmatic approaches on gender; translate research into practicable programme design in complex environments
• Demonstrated excellence in writing and verbal communication; experience with proposal writing an asset
• UN/UNICEF experience is an asset

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is considered 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…

• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

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:

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

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.

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.