Social Policy Specialist

United Nations Children's Fund

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Skill Required: Project and Program Management

Experience: 5 to 10 Years

Apply By: 11-02-2026

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. 

Responsibilities:

  • Supports the collection, analysis, and user-friendly presentation of data on multidimensional and monetary child poverty, and in particular the link between access and coverage of family-friendly policies and child poverty and vulnerability, including strengthening national capacity to routinely collect, report, and use data for policy decision-making.
  • Supports the development of social protection policies, and in particular, family-friendly policies, legislation, and programs with attention to increasing coverage of and impact on children, with special attention to the most marginalized. Identifies, generates, and presents evidence to support this goal in collaboration with partners.
  • Undertakes budget analysis to inform UNICEF's advocacy and technical assistance to Ministries of Finance, planning commissions, and social sector ministries to improve equitable allocations for essential services for children for implementation and expansion of family-friendly policies.
  • Works with sector colleagues to build capacity to undertake costing and cost-effectiveness analysis on priority interventions to help inform policy decisions on child-focused investments.
  • Collaborates with central and local authorities on the expansion and implementation of family-friendly policies and, in particular, provides technical assistance and support to improve policies, planning, budgeting, consultation, and accountability processes so that decisions and child-focused service delivery more closely respond to the needs of families with children, caregivers, and local communities.
  • Supports correct and compelling use of data and evidence on the situation of children and coverage and impact of child-focused services, in particular family-friendly policies—in support of the social policy program and the country program overall.

Requirements:

  • Education: An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: economics, public policy, social sciences, international relations, political science, or another relevant technical field.
  • Work Experience: A minimum of five years of relevant professional work experience is required.
  • Experience working on evidence generation, programming, or implementation of family-friendly policies or the care economy in Malaysia.
  • Language Requirements: Fluency in English and the local language, Bahasa Malaysia, is required. Knowledge of another UN official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) is considered an asset.

Sources: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/589325