Type: Social Policy Specialist
Duty Station: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Closing Date: 10 April 2024, midnight Sri Lanka time (GMT + 5:30)
Job Description and link to the application

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the leading UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA works in partnership with governments, civil society, and other key stakeholders to promote reproductive health, gender equality, and the rights and well-being of young people. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) plays a crucial role in shaping social policy, focusing on gender equality, reproductive health, and population dynamics.

In the context of Sri Lanka, UNFPA's efforts likely include advocating for policies that support reproductive rights, providing data for informed decision-making, and offering technical assistance in health systems, particularly for maternal health. UNFPA emphasizes integrating population trends into national planning and actively promote gender equality and youth engagement. Additionally, in response to emergencies, UNFPA focuses on protecting the health and rights of vulnerable populations, especially women and girls. UNFPA’s work in Sri Lanka is instrumental in driving progress towards Sustainable Development Goals by collaborating with the government, NGOs, and other partners.

Guided by the prevailing and evolving landscape of population dynamics, including sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in the Country, the SOCIAL POLICY SPECIALIST will ensure UNFPA leverages opportunities and mitigates risks in a timely manner, while also learning from the continued impact of megatrends, multiple threats, geopolitics and polycrises on constrained policy and resource environments.

Scope of work:

The consultant will be responsible for:

Strategic Policy Advice:

• Provide policy advice informed by political scanning and multidimensional analysis of the prevailing political environment for the ICPD Programme of Action.
• Contribute to delivering strategic, timely, and comprehensive analysis, advice, and foresight on social policy to support decision-making.
• Contribute to internal coherence and alignment of approaches as may be required, including the use of reliable sources of evidence to guide corporate recommendations on political positioning and inter-governmental relations, and communicating these in a clear and compelling manner;

Capacity Development on Policy advisory support

• Establish and manage working relations with social policy and research think tanks with the ability to provide external perspectives and capacity to support decision-making
• Provide support for sustained monitoring, analysis, and synthesis of political and policy environmental scanning across the spectrum of the political economy, through guidance notes, tools, and approaches

Policy Research and Evidence

• Develop policy research, evidence, and knowledge management tools to guide regular trends analysis of the policy environment for the ICPD Programme of Action and produce periodic political scanning and policy snapshots of current positions, shifts, and future outlooks
• Develop three policy briefs that are based on country priorities within the sphere of UNFPA’s three transformative results
• Advise on the peace and security dimensions for advancing the role of women and youth to ensure equitable access to sexual reproductive health and rights information and services
• Generate and share policy evidence and knowledge from within and beyond the country and the region on political influence and agenda shaping for SRHR, including through south-south cooperation.

Strategic Partnerships and Positioning

• Identify opportunities for strategic partnerships required to further mobilize key partners at the country level, including strategic partners at regional and global levels in support of the ICPD Programme of Action, the Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing Declaration, Conference of Parties, among others.