Social Policy Officer

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has been present in Brazil since 1950, supporting the most important changes in childhood and adolescence in the country. UNICEF participated in major immunization and breastfeeding campaigns; the mobilization that resulted in the approval of Article 227 of the Federal Constitution and the drafting of the Child and Adolescent Statute; the movement for universal access to education; programmes to combat child labour; among other great advances in guaranteeing the rights of Brazilian girls and boys. In recent decades, Brazil has promoted a strong process of inclusion of children and adolescents in public policies. However, a significant portion of the population remains excluded. Therefore, in its cooperation programme with the Brazilian Government for the period 2024-2028, UNICEF focuses its efforts on the most vulnerable and excluded girls and boys, with a special focus on children and adolescents who are victims of extreme forms of violence. These children and adolescents in situations of greater vulnerability are spread throughout Brazil, but they are more concentrated in the Amazon, in the Northeast and in large urban centers. Through the UNICEF Seal, UNICEF promotes commitments to guarantee the rights of children and adolescents in the Northeast and in the Amazon regions in Brazil. In large cities, UNICEF works with a focus on reducing intra-municipal inequalities, through the #AgendaCidadeUNICEF.

In 2018 UNICEF initiated its response to the Venezuelan migration in Roraima and established an Office in Boa Vista and in 2019 an outpost in Pacaraima, border with Venezuela. The response works in coordination with the Brazilian Federal Government response, Operação Acolhida (OA). Still, migrants and refugees face challenges in accessing social protection, healthcare, early childhood development, education, sustainable livelihoods, and child protection services mainly due to a lack of comprehensive public policies on migratory issues that put families and children at higher risk of not guaranteeing basic rights.

Building on its development programme to support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in Brazil, UNICEF’s response focuses on ensuring access to essential services and programmes, strengthening the capacity of actors responsible for providing social protection, child protection, education, health/nutrition, water and sanitation services (including Government, non-governmental and community organizations), so that they are fully equipped to assist children on the move and their families. Moreover, Terra Indigena Yanomami, with most of its territory in Roraima, also endures a critical humanitarian crisis. UNICEF joined the national Emergency Operation Center of the Ministry of Health and has representatives in the local coordination groups to strengthen coordination efforts at national and local levels.

Considering both crises, UNICEF works to ensure the nexus between the humanitarian response and the development-oriented initiatives at the municipal level, state and federal level, in particular (but not limited to) by the Selo UNICEF, which aims to stimulate and recognize real and positive advances in the promotion of children and adolescents' rights in municipalities of the semi-arid region and in the Amazon territory. At the federal level, UNICEF initiated a partnership with the Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger, the state of Roraima and the municipal governments of Boa Vista and Paracaima aiming to provide better services and benefits for migrants and refugees by improving the inter-federative governance model for the migration response in Brazil.

Based on a situation analysis that reveals important gaps in basic services coverage for migrants and refugees, the priority is guaranteeing that migrants and refugees are registered in the Single Registry (CadÚnico), a first step to accessing social protection. In this sense, UNICEF supported Boa Vista and Pacaraima in launching two CadÚnico stations in the triage posts (PTRIG) to expand the registration capacity for migrants and refugee families. After 1 year of operation, more than 5,000 Venezuelan families have been registered (7,800 children and adolescents out of 15,500 people). Nonetheless, the operational capacity can benefit from workflow adjustments and technical training to reach even more families. A step further to inclusive Social Protection in the territory is to strengthen social assistance services to properly address the needs of migrants, refugees and indigenous people.

To ensure effective coordination and technical support to Social Policy activities in migration, Yanomami responses and humanitarian development nexus, UNICEF will recruit a UN Volunteer who will be based in Pacaraima. A possible transition to Boa Vista will be assessed in coordination with the UNV ending the second month of assignment.

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Social Policy and the guidance of the Chief Field Office in Boa Vista, the selected UN Volunteer will contribute to UNICEF’s work undertaking the following tasks:

Provide technical support to the Social Policy and Social Protection agendas in Roraima
• Liaise with key stakeholders and partners at municipal, state and federal level;
• Provide technical support and advice on UNICEF’s strategic engagement with federal, state and municipal social protection counterparts;
• Provide technical support to advance UNICEF Social Policy and Social Protection agendas Roraima;
• Constantly map out bottlenecks, barriers and opportunities to strengthen Social Policy and Social Protection in Roraima;
• Report regularly and timely the ongoing initiatives and results achieved in Roraima.

Support the programmatic implementation of the Social Protection initiatives, considering the migration and Yanomami response, the Humanitarian-Development nexus in Roraima:
• Coordinate CadÚnico strategy in partnership Ministry of Development, Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger, the state government of Roraima and the municipal governments of Boa Vista and Pacaraima;
• Provide technical support in social protection to Selo UNICEF, including technical support to its implementing partner;
• Strengthening the humanitarian-development nexus in Social Protection activities;
• Extend technical support in particular to the Implementing Partners and to the Social Protection local Network, and actively contribute to UNICEF initiatives and to the existing coordination mechanisms of Operação Acolhida;
• Support evidence generation and needs assessments related to Social Protection;
• Assist in capacity-building activities related to social protection and the Humanitarian Development nexus;
• Provide weekly updates on Social Protection activities in Pacaraima to UNICEF's Outpost coordinator and coordinate joint advocacy with the Social Protection partners and stakeholders, if required or necessary. Activities developed in Pacaraima should be previously aligned with UNICEF Outpost coordination in the territory;
• Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisors.
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.

Results/expected outputs:

• Improved information management and relationship between social protection field partners (municipal government, non-government organization, UN agencies, and others) and UNICEF in Boa Vista and Pacaraima.
• Quality material and knowledge products for internal and external audiences produced in a timely fashion, including for training.
• Adequate support provided to the Social Protection team.
• Capacity development and technical assistance provided, when working with governmental or non-governmental counterparts, including Implementing Partners (IPs), considering also the Humanitarian-Development nexus
• A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.