Decentralization and Local Governance Officer

UNICEF helps build a world where the rights of every child are fully realized. It is our conviction that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress. UNICEF was created in 1946 to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. It has global authority to influence decision-makers, and a wide variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and Governments.

This UNV assignment is part of UNICEF Zambia Country Office 2023-2027 Country Programme Outcome five aims to ensure that by 2027, more children and adolescents live in an increasingly protective environment and benefit from improved child protection services, including birth registration. To achieve this, UNICEF recognizes the important contribution that a functional child protection system that prioritizes the prevention of violence from happening and ensuring children that experience violence and any form of abuse and harm access age-appropriate services is essential in achieving the desired child protection outcomes. UNICEF is providing technical support to the Government and partners to strengthen capacity in prevention of violence against children and promote birth registration. This support includes the development of a Social Behavior Change Plan that articulates the priority S&BC activities to address gender norms and other behavioral practices that drive violence against children. Implementation of the S&BC Plan will be a priority action in further strengthening government, partners and the community capacity to prevent violence on children.

In addition to duty station specific vaccine requirements, appointments are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the appointment. It does not apply to UN Volunteers who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their contracts.

Under the overall supervision of the Social Policy Specialist, Public Finance, the UN National Specialist Volunteer will be responsible for:

• Support the training of local government officials on public financial management practices, ensuring they have the skills to develop and manage budgets effectively;
• Facilitate participatory budgeting processes that engage community members in identifying priorities and allocating resources based on local needs;
• Contribute to the formulation of policies that promote local governance, ensuring alignment with national strategies and frameworks;
• Assist in gathering and analyzing data on local financial management and public service de-livery to inform decision making and policy recommendations;
• Provide technical support to local governments in developing plans, budgets, and strategies for resource mobilization;
• Contribute to producing local authority budget briefs;
• Engage with local communities, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to pro-mote transparency and accountability in local governance and financial management;
• Advocate for increased funding and resources for local governments, emphasizing the im-portance of decentralized governance in addressing local needs;
• Collaborate with national government bodies and international organizations to align local governance practices with broader public financial management goals;
• Assist in building the capacity of communities and citizens to understand and track public fund usage, working with local governments to establish robust accountability mechanisms.