Education Specialist Cluster Coordinator, P-3, Temporary Position, 4 months, Juba, South Sudan, #00137405

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South Sudan remains one of the world’s most severe and protracted humanitarian crises, with more than 10 million people requiring humanitarian assistance in 2026, including millions of children affected by conflict, displacement, flooding, disease outbreaks, food insecurity, and economic collapse. The education sector continues to face acute pressures, with over 2.8 million children out of school and 1.6 million children requiring life-saving education support. Recurrent emergencies, attacks on education, climate-related shocks, and population movements continue to disrupt learning and place children at heightened risk of exploitation, child marriage, recruitment, and other protection concerns.

South Sudan is currently under an L2 emergency scale-up, requiring strengthened humanitarian coordination and operational leadership capacity. At the same time, the education sector is entering a critical strategic period marked by the ongoing humanitarian response prioritization processes, and discussions linked to the global Humanitarian Reset agenda, the development of a new ECW Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) and evolving humanitarian coordination architecture.

Education in Emergencies (EiE) remains critically underfunded globally and in South Sudan, despite the scale of needs and the recognized protective and life-saving role of education. This context requires strong, principled, and technically credible Education Cluster leadership to maintain effective inter-agency coordination, support evidence-based prioritization, strengthen emergency preparedness and response, and ensure that humanitarian education needs remain visible within broader humanitarian decision-making and financing discussions.

UNICEF and Save the Children co-lead the Education Cluster in South Sudan in support of the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MoGEI). The Cluster coordinates humanitarian education preparedness and response efforts at national and sub-national levels, supports strategic planning and advocacy, and works to strengthen linkages between humanitarian and sectoral education coordination mechanisms.

The purpose of this Temporary Appointment position is to provide strategic and operational leadership to the South Sudan Education Cluster during a critical period marked by the L2 emergency scale-up, severe underfunding of Education in Emergencies (EiE), development of the new Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP), and ongoing discussions regarding the future of humanitarian coordination arrangements in country.

The incumbent will strengthen UNICEF’s capacity to deliver effective humanitarian education coordination in partnership with Save the Children and the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MoGEI), ensuring implementation of the seven core cluster coordination functions and supporting a timely, coordinated, principled, and evidence-based education response.

The position will support emergency preparedness and response scale-up, strategic planning and advocacy, humanitarian prioritization processes, and sustained visibility of education within the broader humanitarian response architecture. The role will also support key strategic processes including finalization of the Education Cluster Strategy, support to ECW-MYRP development, HNRP 2027 preparation, and technical oversight of work related to reviewing future coordination options and sustainability considerations for education coordination in South Sudan.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  ToR Education Cluster Coordinator P-3.pdf

Minimum requirements

• Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Education, International Development, Social Science, Public Administration, International Studies, Humanitarian Studies, Public Policy, International Relations or a related field.
• Work Experience: At least 5 years of relevant work experience in education, emergency, development, cluster coordination, humanitarian coordination, education in emergencies, emergency preparedness, emergency response, strategic planning, interagency coordination, donor engagement, monitoring and reporting, advocacy.
• Skills: Demonstrated ability to engage strategically with government counterparts, UN agencies, NGOs, donors, and inter-agency coordination platforms in politically sensitive environments. Strong analytical, drafting, facilitation, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills. Strong knowledge of humanitarian architecture, humanitarian planning processes (including HNO/HNRP), cluster coordination approaches, and humanitarian-development nexus approaches in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. 
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Desirables

• Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language,
• Experience supporting pooled funding mechanisms, ECW, GPE, or multi-partner education financing processes,
• Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts. 

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates from regions other than Eastern & Southern Africa are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

UNICEF staff members holding fixed-term, continuing, or permanent appointments who are considered to be on abolished post status may apply for this temporary position and, if selected with a start date before 31 December 2025, may take it up as a temporary assignment, in line with UNICEF guidance on separation due to the abolition of posts or staff reduction. They will retain their fixed-term entitlements but will not hold a lien to their abolished post. For other scenarios where a Temporary Assignment may be possible, please refer to Additional guidance on IP to IP temporary assignments after completion of the full TOD.pdf (accessible to UNICEF personnel only).

The conditions of a temporary assignment, including relocation entitlements, will depend on the status of the staff member's original appointment and may be limited in accordance with applicable UNICEF policies, procedures, and practices in force.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

Advertised: 08 Jun 2026 E. Africa Standard Time
Applications close: 15 Jun 2026 E. Africa Standard Time

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