Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.
In all of its work, UNICEF takes a life-cycle based approach, recognizing the particular importance of early childhood development and adolescence. UNICEF programmes focus on the most disadvantaged children, including those living in fragile contexts, those with disabilities, those who are affected by rapid urbanization and those affected by environmental degradation.
UNICEF was created with a distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.
We promote girls’ education – ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum – because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children. We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished: no child should suffer or die from a preventable illness. We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity.
We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Context

South Asia has the largest population of young people in the world; 48 per cent of its population is below the age of 24. At the same time, the regional estimates also suggest that 64.4 million children (aged 0 to 17 years) in South Asia have one or more functional difficulties. In other words, 1 in 11 children in this region have a disability.
Across ROSA, our programs for adolescents and youth have been known for two things: 1) supporting the learning to earning transition for vulnerable youth; and 2) systematizing young people’s engagement to become more active in their communities through meaningful civic engagement and participation, with a focus on the most vulnerable.
Our evidence indicates that there is a growing importance of an enabling environment for the participation and rights fulfilment of those with disabilities rather than a focus on the disabilities themselves. It requires a focused (participation) approach on children/adolescents with disabilities and more efforts to improve their capacity to promote their agency and participation.
As part of a team, this National UN Volunteer will support the Regional Office for South Asia in mainstreaming adolescent and youth engagement from perspectives of global mandates on disability inclusion agenda in the programmes across sections at the regional and country offices. The position is a cross-sectoral role, which requires working closely with the Adolescent Participation, Skills and Employability section and Education section, and is accountable for supporting the implementation of UNICEF’s Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy (DIPAS) 2022-2030 and the regional action plan, focusing on promoting the inclusion and participation agenda of young people with disabilities and inclusive education as one of the priorities identified in the action plan.

Task description

The National UN Volunteer will support to strengthening meaningful youth and adolescent engagement, participation, skills, inclusive education, and employability related priorities of persons with disabilities in the South Asia Region.
Summary of key functions/accountabilities:
1. Technical and capacity building support
• Participate in cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination on key programmatic results on disability inclusion, young people’s participation, skills, and inclusive education.
• Provide technical support and guidance on aspects of young people’s participation, skills, disability inclusion and inclusive education related programming and to ensure incorporation of relevant indicators and measures in programmes/projects, policy initiatives, proposals, and M&E systems.
• Provide technical support and assistance in implementing UNICEF’s Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy (DIPAS) 2022-2030 and the South Asia Regional Action Plan, providing support to COs with capacity development and monitoring.
2. Support to programme development and planning
• Participate and support in evidence-based programme/project planning, including development of project proposals on disability inclusion, young people’s participation, skills, and inclusive education.
• Provide technical support on integration of inclusion into programme component strategy notes and institutional strengthening components related to disability and young people’s participation, skills, and inclusive education.
• In collaboration with sectors at the regional and country offices, identify the areas of focus for disability inclusion, skills, and inclusive education related programming/projects with the greatest potential for impact and scale.
3. Advocacy and partnership building
• Liaise and consult with sections to support convergence and develop and reinforce partnerships in disability inclusion and engagement programming.
• Support building and maintenance of strategic alliances for gender equality and disability inclusion with various partners, including institutional links with UN agencies and other relevant entities.
• Support mapping of potential new partnerships and leverage existing partnerships to accelerate relevant results at the country level in determined priority areas.
• Build the internal capacity of the Adolescent team (ROSA and COs) and partners in promoting the participation of young people with disabilities in their collectives, clubs, and organisations and in promoting their voices and issues.
4. Innovation and knowledge management
• Improved digital accessibility to ensure improved participation and conscious efforts to improve representation of young people with disabilities in the Young People’s Action Team (YPAT), country consultative groups etc.
• Support documentation and sharing of the country-level experience in disability inclusion and engagement programming and lessons learned, which will be shared with internal network and external partners.
• Bring best practices in disability programming and measurement to the attention of senior management and sectoral colleagues.
• Improved data and evidence e.g., investment cases for disability rights and increased opportunities to document and share the model cases on inclusive skills building programme.
• Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day).
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
• Provide annual and end of assignment self- reports on UN Volunteer actions, results, and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers.
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.