Deadline: 18 December 2019
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is currently seeking applications from eligible applicants for the post Public Partnership Specialist in Brussels, Belgium.
Public Partnership Specialist will be responsible to influence the EU development policies and assist country offices’ capacity to mobilize European Union ODA, to manage the risks and to review contracts with the European Union are in line with Financial and Administrative Framework Agreement provisions and UNICEF rules and regulations.
UNICEF works for a world in which every child has a fair chance in life.
Key Jobs Responsibilities
The Public Partnership Specialist will perform the following functions:
- Review contracts with the EU and ensure that they are in line with FAFA provisions, contractual agreement and annexes, as well as UNICEF mandate, rules and regulations.
- Work closely with the Division of Administration and Finance, the Division of Public Partnership and the Office of the Legal Advisor for the drafting and continuous update of guidance notes to country offices and regional offices to ensure effective and efficiency in disbursement and management of EU resources, adjusting them to the new contracting and engagement modalities.
- Support in analyzing the risks (programmatic and financial) related to the negotiations and agreements signed with the EU. That includes revising all new programmatic and contractual requirements received from the EU and may require contacting the different legal and financial units at each DG.
- Support the negotiations and coordinate with PPD, other sections and other UN Agencies in relation to new contractual conditionalities received or under negotiation with the EU institutions.
- Guide and support country offices when negotiating specific agreements and Verifications or similar exercises with special complexity are taking place.
- Represent UNICEF, together with DFAM, in the FAFA Working Group and related working groups: Residual Error Rates/Verifications Working Group and the Budgeting and reporting per results group.
- Identify and Analyse new financial instruments (specially Trust Funds) and their special requirements and support country and regional offices in their discussions and contract development with EU Delegations on these instruments.
- Provide quality assurance to the Development Contribution Management Team on high risks contribution agreements. The specific agreements/countries will be agreed with the supervisor.
- Consider and analyse the contractual specificities of other potential sources of funding with different DGs and instruments, for example with DG Justice, DG HOME, DG Research, DG Health, DG Employment.
- Provide technical legal assistance when analyzing legal texts and regulations related to child rights.
- Provide remote and on-site support to priority regions and countries, particularly but not exclusively in Middle East and North Africa.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must have:
- An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields: law, international relations, political science, international development, or another relevant technical field is required.
- Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience, preferably in the field of EU legal affairs, international development and humanitarian aid.
- Very good knowledge of the European Union, especially the European regulatory frameworks and financial instruments is a strong asset.
- Effective interpersonal and communication skills, especially the ability to working a multicultural environment is desirable.
- Experience in supporting and coordinating activities across a large organisation and with multiple international partner organisations is an asset.
- Ability to “work under pressure”, “work in a team/collaboration”, and have “experience in partnerships”.
- Demonstrated professional experience in designing and implementing capacity building initiatives for personnel working in International Organisations is an asset.
- Knowledge of the UN or UNICEF desirable.
- Fluency in English is required.
- Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.
How to Apply
Applicants must submit their applications through online process.
For more information, please visit UNICEF.
