Education Specialist (Policy & Budget), NOC, FT, #138583, Bridgetown, Barbados, Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean

Organisation: UNICEF
Location: Barbados, Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean
Deadline: 11 November 2026

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Job no: 596064

Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment

Duty Station: Bridgetown

Level: NO-3

Location: Barbados

Categories: Education

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

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For every child, the right to education

UNICEF’s Caribbean Multi-Country Office (MCO) serves twelve English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. As part of UNICEF's Future Focus Initiative, the Caribbean MCO brings together policy influence, technical expertise and strategic partnerships to advance results for children across the region through one integrated programme, one management structure and a shared pool of resources. The Multi-Country Programme 2027-2031 focuses on three shared outcomes: equitable access to primary health care, learning and skills; protection of children from all forms of violence; and child poverty reduction and resilience strengthening.

Children across the Caribbean face interconnected challenges including learning losses, mental health concerns, violence, child poverty and increasing exposure to climate-related disasters. Despite many countries being classified as upper-middle or high income, significant inequalities persist, particularly for vulnerable children, adolescents, indigenous communities and those living in remote areas. Small island developing states also face fiscal constraints and heightened vulnerability to economic and climate shocks, requiring stronger regional cooperation and system-based solutions.

The Caribbean MCO’s management strategy is governed by four principles that together translate the new business model into concrete ways of working:

• Impact-driven : technical expertise is organized in shared multi-country working groups rather than replicated in each country, with enabling functions aligned around UNICEF’s strongest comparative advantages.

• Effective and agile : parallel country ecosystems are replaced by harmonized systems and flexible cross-country staffing, keeping management lean and decisions close to implementation.

• Grounded : regional scale is balanced with national depth through country-specific workplans, Heads of Office in each duty station, and matrix management that anchors authority and accountability at country level.

• People-centered : structural and managerial choices are guided by staff wellbeing, transparency and inclusion, with clear role definitions, meaningful consultation, and continuous investment in learning and development.

The operational expression of this model is the working group model. Rather than replicating similar roles across four separate country offices, technical and operational expertise is organized into 16 thematic and functional working groups, each distributed across different duty stations and each serving the full 12-country MCO — not just its host location. Roles are designed around three organizing principles: shared regional service , meaning every specialist contributes to the wider MCO; complementary expertise , meaning team capabilities reinforce each other rather than repeating the same profile in multiple places; and agile presence , meaning the workforce can be rapidly deployed across countries through travel, surge support or remote modalities in line with evolving needs and priorities. This working group model is the foundation of a fundamentally new way of working for UNICEF in the Caribbean: depth replaces duplication, and shared capacity replaces fragmented country-by-country coverage

The Education Specialist (Policy and Budget) is part of the Equitable and resilient services for primary health care, learning and skills working group. This group leads the implementation of the CPD outcome on equitable and resilient services that boost children’s nutrition, mental health, learning and skills, by strengthening health and education systems to deliver integrated PHC, nutrition, MHPSS and quality basic and secondary education for all children and adolescents. Its function is to translate this priority into integrated policy packages, service delivery models and scalable solutions across the subregion, ensuring that equity, inclusion and climate-resilience are embedded in the expansion of health and education services and that socio-emotional learning and future-ready skills are systematically advanced in all 12 countries.

The team is led by the Assistant Representative for Equitable and Resilient Services for Primary Health, Learning and Skills (Belize) and includes seven NOC Specialists. The specialist profiles have been defined directly against the CPD outputs under this outcome, so that each post is anchored in a specific strand of work (early learning, foundational learning, policy and public finance, PHC/MHPSS, PHC/nutrition and Early Childhood Development), while together they form a complementary skills mix that covers the full range of expertise required to achieve the intended results. The working group is comprised of the following: Education Specialist (Early Learning) in Belize, Education Specialist (ECD) in Suriname, Education Specialist (Foundational Learning & Skills) in Guyana, Education Specialist (Policy & Budget) in Barbados, Health Specialist (Primary Health Care & Mental Health) in Suriname, Health Specialist (Policy & Budget) in Jamaica, and Health Specialist (Primary Health Care & Nutrition) in Barbados.

How can you make a difference ?

The Education Specialist (Policy & Budget), reports to the Assistant Representative for Equitable and Resilient Services for Primary Health, Learning and Skills, P4, located in Belize, in close day-to day coordination with the in-country Lead in Barbados.

The Education Specialist (Policy and Budget) provides specialized technical expertise in education policy development, education system financing, costing analysis, and public budget advocacy for children across the Caribbean MCO. The role operates at a strategic register — supporting the development of evidence-based education policy, tracking education budget allocations, and engaging regional education bodies to advance systemic improvement in learning outcomes, reduce inequities and ensure sustainable financing for education sector priorities. The Specialist supports government counterparts and partners in translating evidence into policies, strategies, and programmes that contribute to child survival, growth, development, and resilience.

Working in close collaboration with the Social Policy Specialist responsible for public finance for children, the incumbent contributes education-sector analysis to broader work on fiscal space, public financial management, equity and financing. The Specialist also supports education authorities to strengthen the policy and financing foundations for quality, inclusive and resilient education, including early and foundational learning, socio-emotional and future-ready skills, accessibility for children with disabilities, continuity of learning, and shock- and climate-resilient education systems.

Based in Barbados and serving all 12 programme countries, the position supports UNICEF engagement with national governments, regional institutions, international financing institutions, development partners, civil society and academia. The role contributes to regional policy dialogue, harmonized approaches, knowledge exchange and resource mobilization, including engagement with CARICOM, OECS, UNESCO, development banks and other relevant partners, to advance equitable education systems and improved learning and skills outcomes for children and adolescents.

The Education Specialist (Policy and Budget) contributes to the achievement of education results across the Caribbean Multi-Country Programme (MCP) and supports collective action, knowledge exchange, innovation, and cross-country collaboration to advance shared programme priorities and outcomes throughout the Multi-Country Office.

The key functions and accountabilities are:

• Technical leadership on Education Policy, Financing and System reform

• Strengthening education sector policy, planning, budgeting, and accountability frameworks.

• Strengthened advocacy and partnerships for education policy, financing, and systems strengthening

• Policy Advocacy, Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization, Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results

• Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results

• Cross-Sectoral Policy Integration and Regional Coordination

This position belongs to the Equitable and Resilient Services for Primary Health, Learning and Skills working group. If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: NOC Education Specialist(Policy and Budget) Barbados.pdf

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