Social Protection Specialist

UNICEF BTN organization mission TBD

UNICEF Bhutan is a small to medium-sized Country Office (CO), supporting the Royal Government of Bhutan in advancing the well-being of children’s education, health, water, sanitation and hygiene, child protection, social protection, adolescent development and participation and communication for development. The Social Policy Section is responsible for managing and supervising all stages of social policy programming and related advocacy from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete and sustainable results. This includes programmes aimed at improving (a) public policies to reduce child poverty; (b) social protection coverage and impact on children; (c) transparency, adequacy, equity, and efficiency of child-focused public investments and financial management; and (d) governance, decentralization, and accountability measures to increase public participation and the quality, equity, and coverage of social services. This encompasses both direct programme work with government and civil society partners as well as linkages and support to teams working on education, health, child protection, water and sanitation, and social protection.

The Social Protection Specialist is responsible for the following functions:

1. Strengthen Shock Responsive Social Protection System
• Provide technical support for the development and enhancement of national social protection programme delivery systems, including targeting mechanisms, implementation modalities, and operational capacities.
• Facilitate national dialogue and provide technical inputs for the implementation of the national social protection strategy and its action plan.
• Support the development of an integrated social protection registry system.
• Provide technical assistance in the design and implementation of disability-inclusive and child-sensitive social protection schemes, including costing, beneficiary identification, financing, and payment mechanisms while ensuring the use of data and evidence for programme design and delivery.
• Conduct advocacy and policy analysis on financing options, system diagnostics, and linkages between social protection and sectoral systems (e.g., health, education, nutrition, child protection, WASH).
• Promote innovative approaches and share global best practices to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of social protection interventions.

2. Support Resource Mobilization
• Identify innovative financing mechanisms and prepare proposals to seek funding.
• Contribute to donor and organizational reporting requirements.

3. Coordination and Operational support for Programming
• Represent the organization in inter-agency and national social protection fora, fostering joint programming, information sharing, and strategic partnerships.
• Coordinate with internal teams and external partners to support the development and implementation of joint initiatives.
• Manage the international consultant for the development of investment cases and project proposal development.
• Prepare internal technical documents, ToRs, and progress updates.