Duty station: Johannesburg South Africa

About UNAIDS:
Serving Communities and Countries to End Inequalities and AIDS We, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, lead the global effort to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. By placing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to reduction of inequalities at the heart of our work, we lead the global response to AIDS by: (i) maximizing equitable and equal access to HIV services, (ii) breaking down barriers to achieving HIV outcomes, and (iii) integrating efficient HIV responses into wider health and protection systems.
We are committed to creating an equal, safe and empowering workplace culture where all people in all their diversity thrive. We live our values of Commitment to the AIDS Response, Integrity and Respect for Diversity. You can access the full UNAIDS Competency Framework at www.unaids.org.MANDATE OF THE DEPARTMENT:
The UNAIDS Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) provides leadership and coordinates support for an expanded UN system response to ending the AIDS epidemic at regional and country level. It steers, promotes, and supports regional and national partners and the UN system towards ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Using an equity and equality lens as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Regional Office for ESA promotes effective use of strategic information of the epidemic trends and the status of its response and provides technical leadership on people-centered HIV prevention and response in the region focused on key populations and locations most at risk.
The Equality and Rights for All Practice delivers on the UNAIDS Secretariat’s goals of reducing inequalities. This specifically refers to ensuring that the HIV response is gender-transformative, rights-based, and people-focused in a manner that is community-led, inclusive and progresses societal enablers. The Practice also delivers on the organizational agenda to remove human rights barriers and intersecting gender inequalities. It does that by developing and sharing policies, guidance, research, and tools that support legal, policy and social norm change; by advocating for a greater political commitment; and by convening communities of practice and leveraging existing and new partnerships to continuously identify and respond to the inequalities driving the HIV epidemic.Main tasks and Responsibilities of the Position:
Within the matrix management reporting structure of the Regional Office for ESA and the Equality and Rights for All Practice, the Regional Youth Officer focuses on a manageable set of deliverables that are aligned with the UNAIDS equality and rights for all vision, the epidemic trajectory, the social norms, and the needs in the region. This post, like all ERA posts, includes a focus on youth engagement and leadership, customized to respond to the regional and subregional contexts and epidemic, and to match the focus of the post (i.e., a focus on young people living with HIV and young key populations etc.)
The Regional Youth Officer is responsible for contributing to the practice area objectives in the office and with UNAIDS partners and counterparts, coordinating specialist expertise and contributing to the overall coordination of the UNAIDS response in the functional areas described below.
He /she has the following key responsibilities:
1) Youth-specific focus
-Provides substantive support to countries in coordinating their youth activities by leading, facilitating and promoting efforts to scale up, strengthening and funding of the HIV response by and for young people.
-Provides advice to and engages with regional mechanisms or country-level governments, cosponsors, community led, women-led, and youth-led organizations and networks, on issues related to:
i. youth leadership and engagement.
ii. capacity building and skills development.
iii. investment in youth leadership and partnerships.
iv. comprehensive sexuality education.
v. education and social protection policies and programmes for young people.
vi. removal of policy, legal and societal barriers for adolescents to access services, including age of consent laws and policies.
vii. integration of services.
viii. generation, analysis, and use of data for both youth specific and youth responsive programming and advocacy; and
ix. the overall expansion of youth-led responses.
Supports the establishment of a culture of youth inclusion within UNAIDS and adoption of ‘youth as asset’ perspective including via strengthening and quality assuring of internship and other youth support programmes.
2) Provision of technical advice
Provides technical input into laws, jurisprudence, policies, programmes, plans, frameworks, and others as required in support of UNAIDS’ institutional efforts to advance youth engagement and leadership in the overall health and HIV response, ensuring the highest standards of quality, accuracy, clarity, and presentation. This specifically includes the provision of normative support to regional bodies and regional policy processes.
-Drives the prioritization agenda in the region on youth engagement issues. Supports country offices in the region via the provision of on-call support, sharing of information, guidance, tools, and resources that help strengthen and diversify human rights and youth leadership and engagement reduce discrimination, including in the health sector, stigma and punitive approaches to HIV, and transform harmful social norms.
-Advises on demand creation for the inclusion in National AIDS plans of programmatic interventions addressing the integration and scaling up of youth-led responses, and to advance human rights, gender equality and youth engagement and leadership as central to the HIV response.
-Together with colleagues in the global Equality and Rights for All Practice, Regional Office team and other partners, works towards maximizing the potential of grant opportunities and bilateral aid available at regional and national level in the region to broker aligned, harmonized resources to address key community priorities, and provide knowledge and other resources for youth, youth-led networks and organizations, civil society organizations
-Develop appropriate scorecards and dashboards to monitor cross-country performance on selected youth performance indicators.
3) Partnerships and collaboration
Identifies needs, plans, coordinates, implements, and evaluates regional capacity building activities for UNAIDS staff, regional and national communities and civil society counterparts and others as required. This particularly refers to organizing regional communities of practice of youth engagement and. Youth-led HIV responses and participating as required in any relevant global communities of practice.
-Provides support to cosponsors and other partners to ensure that: key considerations on how advances in youth engagement affect the HIV response and community priorities are integrated into relevant AIDS response and broader plans, programmes, budgets, and initiatives.
-Facilitate multi-country proposal development and resource mobilization for youth -led initiatives.
4) Advocacy and knowledge management
-Identifies and promotes good practices from within the region and from other regions to benefit the response in countries of the region, in other regions or globally, through appropriate representation of UNAIDS positions on youth engagement and leadership.
-Provides support and guidance to country offices and supports coordination with regional/global partners during human rights crises experienced by communities of young people living with and/or affected by HIV.
-Liaises with the Global Fund, PEPFAR and other partners to facilitate regional learning on, youth -led responses.
Performs other duties as required.REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS Education:
Essential: Advanced university degree at Master´s level in Social Sciences, Public Health, Human Rights, Public Policy or Administration, Business Administration, Law, Gender or Women’s Studies, or another field related to the responsibilities on youth engagement/leadership. A relevant first university degree and 4 years of relevant professional experience will be considered as equivalent for internal candidates only.

Competencies:
UNAIDS Competencies

UNAIDS Values:
Commitment to the AIDS response
Integrity
Respect for diversity

Core competencies:
Working in Teams
Communication with Impact
Applying Expertise
Delivering Results
Driving Change and Innovation
Being Accountable

Managerial competencies:
Vision and strategic thinking
Leading Teams
Building Relationships and Networks
Developing and Empowering Others
Managing Performance and Resources
Vision and Strategic Thinking
Exercising Sound Judgement

Experience:
Essential: At least 2 years of experience in the programming, project management and advocacy, including as related to HIV or health, in one or more of the following areas: key populations, gender equality, human rights, community and youth engagement/leadership. This must include experience at the national and/or international levels.

Desirable: Experience working within a youth network, particularly networks of young people living with HIV, young key populations, or young women and girls in the HIV or health response. Experience in programme, project, or initiative-based collaboration with United Nations organizations at national and/or international levels. Demonstrated knowledge and sound understanding of the United Nations Joint Programming on HIV.Languages:
Essential: Advanced level of English.

Desirable: Knowledge of additional UN official languages.Annual salary: (Net of tax)
US$49, 254 at single rate
Applications from people living with HIV are particularly welcome. Applications from women and from nationals of non- and under-represented member states are particularly encouraged.
Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to the Staff Regulations and Rules of the World Health Organization (WHO) adjusted, as necessary, to take into account the particular operational needs of UNAIDS, and any subsequent amendments.

Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
Note: The paramount consideration in the appointment, transfer or promotion of staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity. The medical criterion for recruitment is fitness to work in the particular post. The United Nations HIV/AIDS Personnel Policy clearly stipulates that no staff and/or potential candidates shall be discriminated against on the basis of real or perceived HIV status. HIV infection, in itself, does not constitute lack of fitness to work. There is no obligation to disclose HIV-related personal information.

UNAIDS is committed to providing a work environment that respects the inherent dignity of all persons. UNAIDS has a responsibility to take all appropriate steps to prevent and respond to discrimination, abuse of authority, and harassment, including sexual harassment in the workplace or in connection with work. UNAIDS has zero tolerance towards abusive conduct.
Please visit UNAIDS’s e-Recruitment website at: https://erecruit.unaids.org to review and apply to positions. The system provides instructions for online application procedures.All applicants are encouraged to apply online as soon as possible after the vacancy has been posted and well before the deadline stated in the vacancy announcement.