Education and Young People Engagement Associate

UNICEF, also known as the United Nations Children's Fund, is a United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. The agency is among the most widespread and recognizable social welfare organizations in the world, with a presence in 192 countries and territories. UNICEF's activities include providing immunizations and disease prevention, administering treatment for children and mothers with HIV, enhancing childhood and maternal nutrition, improving sanitation, promoting education, and providing emergency relief in response to disasters.

By 2026, it is expected that a higher proportion of children aged 0 to 18, especially girls from disadvantaged counties, informal settlements, and those affected by humanitarian crises, will have access to quality, gender-sensitive early childhood development and primary education services, with increased transition into secondary education. To achieve these goals, the UNICEF education program emphasizes three key outputs: (1) Parents, teachers, communities, and other partners will have increased capacity and accountability to boost enrolment and retention of girls and boys in pre-primary and primary education, particularly in the Arid and Semi-arid land counties and informal settlements. (2) The education system will be better equipped to transform the delivery of quality basic education, rapidly improving learning outcomes and fostering the development of transferable skills. (3) Children and adolescents affected by emergencies, including refugees and asylum seekers, will have equitable access to safe, secure, inclusive, and quality learning opportunities. Kenya has continued to host refugees and asylum seekers since 1991. The country remains the fifth largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, hosting 777,354 registered refugees and asylum seekers. Kakuma camps/Kalobeyei Settlement each host 289,861 refugees and asylum seekers. Over half of this population is school-aged children. Increasing demand for education is projected over the coming years, due to the growing population of school-age children in both host and refugee communities Additionally, Kenya continues to face a significant out-of-school children (OOSC) challenge driven by poverty, climate-induced emergencies, nomadic livelihoods, disability, early pregnancy, and child labor, with particularly pronounced disparities across ASAL counties and informal settlements. As of 2019, an estimated 2.5 million children aged 4–17 were OOSC, with 11% belonging to primary school age (Global OOSC Report, Kenya, 2019). Gender disparities persist, with boys representing 52% and girls 48% of all OOSC. The UN Volunteer will provide support across UNICEF’s PROSPECTS, EiE, Inclusive Education and ADAP program by contributing to coordinated implementation, routine monitoring, and field-level engagement. The role will assist in strengthening meaningful adolescent and youth engagement in PROSPECTS program through supporting coordination across different sections engaged in PROSPECTS implementation, data and information management for Education programming and the EiE working group with linkages to the refugee education group.

Under the direct supervision of the Education Specialist - Access and Inclusion, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: - Contributes to inclusive PROSPECTS coordination by facilitating structured consultation and representation of refugee youth voices, particularly from Kakuma and Dadaab, through inputs into coordination forums, synthesis of youth perspectives, and support to evidence-based decision making at the national level - Supports the implementation of EiE, Access and Inclusive Education portfolio by assisting with follow-up on activity plans, tracking progress against workplans and contributing to smooth rollout across refugee settlements and targeted counties and schools. - Assists in planning and coordinating key program activities, including teacher trainings, community mobilization events, school verification exercises and joint monitoring visits, and participates in field missions by engaging with partners, capturing key observations, and contributing to high-quality after-action documentation. - Together with the education team, contributes to monitoring, reporting and data management by supporting routine data collection from schools and field partners, maintaining and cleaning datasets, organizing monitoring information and assisting in preparing progress updates and donor reporting inputs. - Supports knowledge management by compiling lessons learned, updating shared folders and knowledge products (including communication materials), documenting best practices across refugee education, inclusive education for children with disabilities and OOSC programming, and helping prepare briefs, presentations and summaries. - Contributes to coordination and information management processes for the Education in Emergencies Working Group (EiE WG) by preparing background briefs and agendas, summarizing key insights and action points, maintaining partner and distribution lists and supporting quarterly 5W data consolidation and visualization. - Work closely with the Adolescent Development Specialist to support the government in the review and strengthening of national children and adolescent participation guidelines, practical guidance tools for engagement in humanitarian settings, ensuring alignment with UNICEF standards and the best global practices - Assist with data collection and documentation to support PROSPECTS adolescent situation analyses in Kakuma and Dadaab, contributing evidence on refugee and host‑community adolescents to inform monitoring and planning of adolescent development and participation activities across sectors.