Social Policy Specialist (Policy and Finance) - Jamaica and Guyana

About the role

The UNICEF Caribbean Multi-Country Office (MCO) is recruiting two Social Policy Specialists (Policy and Finance) under a fixed-term appointment: one based in Jamaica and one in Guyana. Both posts support all 12 MCO countries at regional and national level, advising on social policies, legislation and programmes that reduce child poverty and expand inclusive social protection, and strengthening public finance for children.

The posts sit under the supervision of the Assistant Representative for Child Poverty Reduction and Resilience Strengthening in Barbados and provide technical leadership and support across the 12-country MCO for the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of social policy and social protection.

Key responsibilities

• Provide policy advice and technical assistance to strengthen evidence-based, child-sensitive social policies, legislation, strategies and programmes
• Support social and economic situation analysis of children, offer policy options and translate evidence into policies
• Strengthen public finance for children, helping governments mobilize, allocate and monitor resources for child rights and essential social services
• Promote child-sensitive, climate- and shock-responsive budgeting through macro-fiscal and fiscal-space analysis, budget and expenditure analysis, programme costing and financing strategies, and budget classification, tagging and tracking
• Strengthen transparency, accountability and participation, including the meaningful engagement of children and adolescents
• Link national development plans, medium-term fiscal and expenditure frameworks, sector plans and annual budgets
• Jamaica-based: emphasize regional policy influence, public finance advocacy and engagement with CARICOM institutions, IFIs, development partners and the private sector
• Guyana-based: draw on Guyana's social protection and public investment reforms amid oil-driven economic transformation as practical experience and lessons for other countries
• Coordinate social protection and other social services, advise on domestic resource mobilization and sustainable financing, and support access to innovative financing including blended and climate finance
• Strengthen child-sensitive disaster risk financing by linking risk assessments, contingency financing, budget reserves, insurance and other risk-transfer instruments with shock-responsive social protection