Adolescent Development and health Specialist

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.

As result of the pandemic, the educational indicators show the situation of Brazilian public education has worsened in these last three years, as well as a sharp increase in the number of cases of lethal and sexual violence against adolescents in large and medium-sized urban centers. Among the situations that have had a major impact on adolescents’ wellbeing, we should also highlight the increase in cases of mental health problems among boys and girls, both in the school environment and in the community – the adverse effects of social isolation, the lack of perspectives and opportunities for legal inclusion in the work´s world or back to scholar studies. Moreover, adolescent girls face menstrual poverty and limited access to sexual and reproductive health services. Health units also need to develop and offer an adolescent friendly approach. The environmental and climate crisis is also another contextual factor that has mobilized the innovative participation of adolescents and young people from different territories and identities to express their demands for a safer, more inclusive, healthy, and equitable climate and environment, based on cultures, community traditions, neighborhoods and cities. A last element that also results from the pandemic is related to the drop-in vaccination coverage rates among children and young people, mostly affecting children and adolescents in the Northeast and North regions. This exposes yet another central impact on adolescence related to the importance of investing the best efforts in the first decade of life – the childhood, to commit to a positive impact on the second decade of life the adolescence.
Considering this context, the new UNICEF’s Country Programme (CPD 2024-2028), will work to ensure by 2028 the following objectives:
Every vulnerable child, adolescent and young person has access to qualified and integrated adolescent health programs, services (in mental health and psychosocial support, sexual and reproductive health, immunization, and healthy eating) and inclusive initiatives regarding gender, race and ethnicity sensitive issues.
Within this perspective, UNICEF plans to continue implementing the “Pode Falar” (Speak Up) initiative, offering online mental health support, and encouraging adolescents to participate in peer-networks to better understand and demand their rights to education, health, protection and others, in dialogue with public policies managers, to improve public policies for adolescents with a gender, race and ethnicity equality perspective.
Strengthening the primary health-care system in joint work with the State and Municipal Secretaries of Health, Education and Social Welfare to regain immunization coverage through identify and immunize non-vaccinated children; and to promote healthy eating through law enforcements and change behavior and practice at municipal levels.
More institutional partnerships (public and private) ensuring that the most vulnerable adolescents make a positive transition from school to the world of work, connecting them to decent jobs and incomes that are equitable in terms of both race and gender.

The UNICEF City agenda with adolescents engaged in communitarian issues and UNICEF Seal with adolescents engaged through Núcleos de Cidadania de Adolescentes NUCAS; protected, safe and participating in their community, family and communities and children in their early childhood with guaranteed health care services and full immunization rate.

Under the general guidance of the Head of the Salvador Field Office, the UN Volunteer Specialist selected will be responsible for providing technical assistance, incidence and advocacy on Citizen and Development Participation of Adolescents though four dimensions: improving immunization rates and the early childhood health services, Adolescent Health , socio-productive inclusion and racial, gender and territorials identities straightening in the territory of Valeria and Salvador (by UNICEF City Agenda, Salvador/BA) and in the states of Sergipe, Minas Gerais and Bahia via the UNICEF Seal; Working with state governments of that respective State, establishment of alliances with civil or private society organizations and with communities, families and adolescents of the territories prioritized by UNICEF.

The UN Volunteer Specialist will contribute to the development of programme at territorial level in the programmatic contents by implementing following activities:

 Provide technical assistance on health in early childhood issues to Salvador team responsible for UAPIs initiative ( Unidade Amiga da Primeira infancia) through mobilization, adherence, monitoring, evaluating and certification activities of the initiative.

 Provide technical assistance to Ips and other partners on immunization issue and advocacy to municipal and state governments to increase municipal vaccination rates within the framework of the Seal, Municipal Agenda strategies and BAV initiative ( Busca Ativa Escolar).

 Provide technical collaboration with UNICEF´s partners and IPs (Parceiro implementador) on healthy eating mobilization and advocacy to municipal and state governments to improve law enforcements, and to enhance intersectoral activities related.

 Provide technical advocacy to the establishment of adolescent health program in Primary Health Care units, aligned to the Integrated Adolescent Health National Policy,

 Collaborate to Salvador team responsible for PIA initiative – primeira infancia antirracista implementation on dissemination and training anti-racism practices within health public service for early childhood, and other social technologies on racial literacy for health professionals.
 Contribute, at local and state levels, to implementation of the online Pode Falar initiative which provides to adolescents and young people online support on issues of well-being and mental health, with a view to transforming it into a continuous and systematic public action.

 Contribute to identifying, articulating, promoting and strengthening the participation of adolescents and young people in local, municipal and state initiatives for citizen participation and the promotion of rights, and connect them to networks, formal spaces and instances of participation based on an ecosystem of adolescent and youth participation, and contributing to improve public policies for adolescents based on gender, race and ethnicity equality.

 Support and drive youth and adolescents’ mobilization activities including aligned activities of 1 Million Opportunities (1MiO) initiative’s goals, through specific strategies in Bahia, Sergipe and Minas Gerais states carried out in collaboration with local teams and partners to empower young people and boost their participation in community development.

 Supporting to youth mobilization activities by 1MiO initiative in the UNICEF City Agenda for Salvador, through coordinated activities with municipal government and local partners as IP, to support youth-led initiatives enhancing social inclusion and economic opportunities.

 Support to mobilize community-based organizations (CBOs) within the 3 states to support implementing the 1 million Opportunities (1MiO) initiative. Forming strategic partnerships with local CBOs to co-create and execute projects that align with 1MiO’s objectives, fostering income generation and empowering local communities.

 Promote the engagement and activism of adolescents and young people on the issue of climate change, participation in the preparatory conferences and COP 30, and the strengthening of the EntreNoClima initiative.

 Implement the UNICEF Action Strategy for Guaranteeing the Rights of Adolescent Girls in Brazil, aligned with the Global Strategy: Building Back Equal, With and For Adolescent Girls, with the objectives of ensuring greater involvement of adolescent girls in decision-making at all levels for greater social recognition of girls’ rights

EXPECTED RESULTS:

Ensuring specific policies and investments on health in the first decade of life in the states of BA, SE and MG, in order to consolidate more investments for the second decade of life by policies for the development of adolescents into prioritized territories, municipalities and traditional and originating communities at UNICEF Seal and #AgendaCidadeUNICEF initiatives

The UN Volunteer may be required to travel, to participate in collaborative work with internal and external teams, including territories and communities in rural areas far way into the States. In addition, the UN Volunteer will participate in face-to-face events, webinars, and virtual meetings with colleagues and/or partners. Activities such as organizing meetings, conferences, workshops and training will be required. Contribution with articles and opeds (artigos de opinião) , production or provision of inputs for reports, proposals for donors, notes and audiovisual pieces for the purposes of communication, analysis, data collection and systematization will be requested.