The
three international organizations or communities of practice I am choosing are
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and World Organization for Early
Childhood Education (OMEP).
UNICEF
is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child
are realized. The UNICEF has the global authority to influence decision-makers,
and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative
ideas into reality. UNICEF is the
world's leading children's rights organization.
For 60
years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories
to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest
provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and
nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and
girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.
UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals,
businesses, foundations and governments.
There are jobs opening, and the interesting
one is as below:
Child
Protection Specialist, P-3, Islamabad Pakistan (UNICEF,
n.d.).
Vacancy No:
E-VN-2014-003187 Duty
Station: Islamabad
Country: Pakistan Region:
ROSA
Job
Level: P-3. Position#: 00067844 . Contract Type: Long-term Staff (FT)
Application
Close: 17-Dec-14
Key Expected
Results
1. In
order to ensure child protection and welfare results in accordance with UNICEF
policy, processes and national priorities, assists with assessing, designing,
implementing, reporting, monitoring, evaluating, budgeting and financial
management of Child Protection projects within a development context.
2.
Assists with formulation of programme goals and objectives and with developing
strategies and implementation frameworks in order to meet the outputs set in
the AWP and the other programme performance indicators, applying the principle
of HRBAP and the RBM to the following
programmatic areas:
- child
protection system development
-
juvenile justice and justice for children
-
advocacy
-
knowledge management and research
- promotion
of child's rights and information management systems
- child
labor and access to social services
Contribute
to UN JPs and TWGs such as ARP; Health and Population etc, and cross cutting
themes such as gender and HIV and AIDS.
3.
Provide technical assistance in the area of child protection and welfare to
federal and provincial governments as well as to UNICEF Offices in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.
4.
Supports partnering and resource mobilization through strategic collaboration
with government institutions and programmes, non governmental structures, other
UN agencies (UNFPA, UNOCHA, UNRCO, WHO, ILO), international agencies and
representatives, donor agencies, to ensure effective implementation of the
programme.
5.
Assists efforts to strengthen knowledge and skills of federal and provincial
governmental authorities in order to support effective reform and/or
implementation of relevant child protection policies. Assess training needs and
modalities for the purpose of capacity building, responsiveness and
accountability.
Qualifications of Successful Candidate
a)
EDUCATION
Advanced
university degree in Human Rights Law, International Relations, Social and
Political Science. Additional specialised training in Child Protection, Child
rights, etc. would be an advantage.
*A
first university degree with a relevant combination of academic qualifications
and experience may be accepted in lieu of advanced university degree.
b) WORK
EXPERIENCE
Five
years progressively responsible professional work experience in a development
context, project administration, monitoring and evaluation, some at the
international level.
c)
LANGUAGES
Fluency
in English and another UN language as required. Knowledge of local working
language of the duty station is an asset.
UNESCO
was created in 1945 in order to respond to the firm belief of nations, forged
by two world wars in less than a generation that political and economic agreements
are not enough to build a lasting peace. Peace must be established on the basis
of humanity's moral and intellectual solidarity. UBESCO strives to build networks
among nations that enable this kind of solidarity by mobilizing for education,
building intercultural understanding, pursuing scientific cooperation,
protecting freedom of expression.
There
are projects related youth within UNESCO. One of them is UNESCO’s Youth
Development and Violence Prevention Programme. However, it does not relate the issues
that are the poverty of teen parents. Hope one day there will be projects that
help all teen moms learn to live together for their better life (UNESCO, n.d.a).
There
is no job open which related the early childhood education field currently (UNESCO,
n.d.b). However, there are interesting requirements for any job of UNESCO as
below:
Education:
university degree in education, culture, science, social and human sciences or
communication or in a field linked directly to the management and
administration of an international organization.
Languages: an
excellent knowledge of either French or English (the two working languages) and
a good knowledge of the other language. A knowledge of Arabic, Chinese, Spanish
or Russian is an additional asset.
Note:
for applicants from unrepresented or under-represented countries, knowledge of
a single UNESCO working language is acceptable. However, once appointed, the
staff member must learn the second working language.
Attitude:
awareness of the multiple facets of a multicultural world and a commitment to
international public service are essential.
Experience: as a
rule, two to three years’ experience for junior professionals (grade P-1/P-2);
four to eight years’ experience for middle-ranking professionals (grade
P-3/P-4); ten to 15 years’ experience, including management experience, for
management professionals (grade P-5, D and ADG).
In
addition to these essential features common to all Professional posts, each
vacant post has its own specific requirements, which can be found in the post
vacancy notice.
OMEP was
formed in 1946 by Lady Allen of Hurtwood (United
Kingdom) and Alva Myrdal (Sweden) with
others from France, Denmark, and Norway to promote
the wellbeing, right and education of young children. The first UNESCO
assembling was a World Conference on Early Childhood Education represented 19
countries from 5 continents in Prague in
1948. Alva Myrdal was elected its first World President. The second World
Assembly, in 1949, represented by 33 countries. The third World Assembly in
1950 was attended by observers from the major intergovernmental agencies with
related interests, including UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization
(WHO).OMEP is recognized then, as it is now, as the principal mechanism to
bring together people from all over the world, without any criteria other than
an objective to share information and initiate actions to benefit young
children everywhere. The current World President is Dr. Maggie Koong (Hong
Kong) (OMEP, n.d.a)
OMEP is
a community of practice functioned with its executive committee under the World
President. In each member country one is established, it has full voting
rights, can send delegates to international and regional meetings. There must be
no job open in this CoP. Anyone represented OMEP must have had career and be the
highest respected in the field of the early childhood (OMEP, n.d.b).
References
OMEP,
(n.d.a). Executive Committee. Retrieved from http://www.worldomep.org/en/about-omep-2/executive-committee/
OMEP,
(n.d.b). Structure and Functioning of OMEP. http://www.worldomep.org/en/about-omep-2/structure-and-functioning-of-omep/
United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). (n.d.).
Retrieved from
https://careers.unicef.org/sap/bc/webdynpro/sap/hrrcf_a_posting_apply?PARAM=cG9zdF9pbnN0X2d1aWQ9NTQ3QUExMDc3QzMyNjczOUUxMDAwMDAwOUU3MTBGMEYmY2FuZF90eXBlPUVYVA%3d%3d&sap-client=100&sap-language=EN&sap-accessibility=X
United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), (n.d.a).
UNESCO’s Youth Development and Violence Prevention Programme. Retrieved from
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/youth/development-and-violence-prevention/
United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), (n.d.b).
UNESCO Careers - External Candidates. Retrieved from
https://careers.unesco.org/careersection/2/joblist.ftl