View Vacancy - Social Development Adviser, British High Commission, Islamabad

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer.  We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Programme Roles)

Main purpose of job:

We are looking for a Social Development Adviser to join the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) at British High Commission (BHC) in Islamabad. 
This role is managed in the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Team (GESI) within Open Societies and Effective Institutions Group. This team acts as the hub for social development expertise within BHC. While the line management and technical quality assurance function for this role sits within this group, the job holder will provide social development inputs to sectoral teams. The indicative division of labour for the role is as follows: 40% Health and Education; 40% Climate Change and Resilience; up to 20% broader social development priorities and modest flexible support across other groups as required. 

The job holder will be expected to demonstrate and apply knowledge, experience and skills around the social development competencies: social policy; poverty and vulnerability analysis and monitoring; gender equality, rights and the empowerment of women and girls; empowerment and accountability; and social protection. (See below for more details)

The SDA role requires the provision of expert advice on mainstreaming gender equality, social inclusion and rights into the design, implementation, appraisal and evaluation of sectoral programmes; on the development, implementation and dialogue around our own and Pakistan’s policies on education, health, climate and the environment and social protection; and on diplomacy and international partnerships as needed. She/he will play an expert role in inter-disciplinary thinking and thought leadership, linking programmes, and bringing deep expertise to maximise the impact of our work in Pakistan. 

The job holder will have a solid understanding of poverty, vulnerability, social exclusion, marginalisation and inequality in Pakistan and will be able to develop strong links with specialist networks, research organisations and professional bodies in Pakistan and globally.

The role requires excellent communication and team working skills and the ability to work with a diverse set of operational, programmatic and policy leads. It will also necessitate strong interpersonal and networking skills to build and maintain working relationships across the British High Commission on related issues including on the Pakistan Network Gender Strategy and human rights.
The role sits in GESI team whose focus is to ensure integration of gender, inclusion, and rights perspectives into our engagements across all BHC campaigns. The team has a supportive work culture in which members work flexibly to support each other and share their skills. There are also excellent learning and development opportunities available, and the Senior Social Development Adviser will provide enduring guidance and support.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?:
     
Social development advice and analysis for informing effective programme development, implementation and monitoring as well as policy dialogue on education, health and climate resilience. 
•    Collaborate effectively with thematic and programme leads, including around defining short, medium, and long-term social development demands / requirements, drawing in senior social development colleagues as necessary.
•    Provide timely, high quality social analysis to better understand the drivers of poverty, exclusion and inequality, and implications for policy and programmatic work. This will include providing data, information, and knowledge to support programming and policy dialogue at Federal and Provincial levels.
•    Participate effectively in the development of business cases (BCs), annual reviews (ARs) and project completion reviews (PCRs) and ensure that these reflect accurately / realistically issues related to women and girls, gender, social inclusion.
•    Act as the focal point for strengthening approach to safeguarding in education, health and climate change teams. 
•    Provide leadership for the group on responding and engaging internally and externally on inclusion issues, including gender equality and disability. 

Specific tasks related to education and health. 
•    Lead a process to provide analysis of education and health teams’ overall approach to equity, inclusion, and targeting of the poorest, making specific recommendations on strengthening it going forward. 
•    Provide social develop advice to support the building of more inclusive health and education systems for delivering more and better social services to the most marginalised people.
•    Lead education and health teams’ engagement on freedom of religion or belief (FORB) in close coordination with education and health advisors, including representing the group at cross-mission human rights strategy discussions. 
•    Contribute a social development perspective and analysis to the further development of a new cross-mission workstream on demography. 

Specific tasks related to climate change & resilience
•    Act as the lead social development adviser for the Building Resilience and Addressing Vulnerability to Emergencies in Pakistan (BRAVE) programme. BRAVE is a climate resilience and response programme that aims to maximise the Government of Pakistan’s and communities’ ability to anticipate, avoid, plan for, cope with, recover from and adapt to climate related shocks and stresses. It focuses on institutional strengthening, community climate resilience, and adaptive and shock responsive social protection initiatives. The job holder will lead the adaptive and shock responsive social protection initiatives. 
•    Act as lead social development adviser for the Water Resource Accountability Pakistan (WRAP) programme. WRAP aims to strengthen water governance at national and provincial levels, supporting adaption to climate change and improving environmental sustainability.


Essential on arrival: 
•    Advanced degree (Masters) in social policy, international development, sociology, gender studies or similar relevant discipline.
•    At least five years of full-time relevant professional experience, with demonstrated experience across the breadth of technical competencies. 
•    Knowledge of poverty and vulnerability, gender and inclusion issues in Pakistan.
•    Strong interpersonal and communication skills 
•    Ability to work and deliver project outcomes within tight deadlines.

Demonstrated experience and expertise that meets FCDOs technical competencies on Social Development Cadre . Please refer to the FCDO technical competency framework: FCDO Social Development technical competency framework 2020 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Also please go through the civil service behaviour: Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Desirable:      
•    Experience of working in education, health and/or climate and resilience is strongly desirable.

Seeing the Big Picture, Delivering at Pace, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together
12 June 2023
Grade 7 (G7)
Full-time, Permanent
South Asia & Afghanistan
Pakistan
Islamabad
British High Commission
1
PKR
6625078
1 August 2023

The BHC is recognised as a good employer, with a robust, fair and transparent performance management & appraisal system linked to increments and staff bonuses. We have a 5-day working week, plus annual leave, public holidays, maternity leave provision, special leave, paid sick leave provision; ample development opportunities, travel opportunities, a good organisational culture, and excellent work/life balance. 

Around half of our work forces are women.  We treat people with respect and equality and have a policy of zero tolerance for any form of discrimination, bullying, or harassment. 

This is a good opportunity to be part of a strong, diverse team, working in the biggest network that FCDO has anywhere across the globe.  We are aiming to make it the best.

The position is based in Islamabad, with occasional international travel and frequent in-country travel, as required.

Learning and development opportunities :
•    The job holder will be required to undertake all FCDO mandatory trainings.
•    Identify, discuss and action own professional performance and training / development needs with the role’s line manager through FCDO appraisals process and/or attending internal / external training events. The post holder will be supported to accredit to the FCDO Climate and Environment Professional Cadre.

Language requirements: 

Language: English and Urdu

Level of language required: Fluent 

Note : All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the complete online application form including the employment and educational details and the behavioural questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the application forms only for all the required details. Forms that are incomplete in any respect will not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.’’

BHC candidates, the Local BHC Terms & Conditions will apply. Internal candidates applying for this position should inform their current line managers and check for the eligibility clause if on probation, else the applications will not be considered.

For other than BHC candidates, Basic Salary will be PKR 6,625,078/- per annum

To ensure a successful application it is important that you explain how you demonstrate these behaviours, including through your experience. You are strongly advised to read the Success Profiles Civil Service Behaviours Framework, which provides detailed guidance on how the behaviours are defined and the standards expected at Level 4 for this position.

Please go through the technical competency framework before completing the technical questions: FCDO technical competency frameworks - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Applicants are encouraged to use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format to prepare specific examples of when they have demonstrated these behaviours in their application. Using the STAR format to provide evidence of your skills and experience in your application and at interview helps to give a structure.  You briefly describe the situation in which you showed the behaviour, and then explain your task in addressing the situation, what action you took and the result of this.

All applications will be assessed based on evidence provided against the Social Development technical competencies and the civil service competencies listed in the advert. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for a written test. The candidates who will pass the test will be invited for an interview and a short 5-minute presentation on a set topic. 

For inclusivity and diversity, please remove the following personal information when uploading your CV: name, address, email address, age, date of birth, gender, and nationality.

The start date mentioned in the job advert is a tentative start date and the successful candidate will be required to undergo security vetting procedures. Any offer of employment will be subject to the candidate achieving suitable clearances.

To Apply:

Please note applications without (a) and (b) will not be considered.

  1. Complete the Online Application Form
  2. Complete the Motivation and Competency Segment in the Online Application Form

Internal candidates applying for this position need to upload their appraisal forms for the previous 2 years (if applicable) and also inform their current line managers, else the applications will not be considered.

We will accept only online applications by 12th June 2023 - 23:55 hours PST.

Please note that all the applicants will be required to strictly adhere to the security guidelines for British High Commission.

Applicants who do not have the required qualification & experience should kindly abstain from applying, as their applications will not be considered.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and no telephone enquires will be dealt with.

The appointment will be subject to Police Verification and other checks including references, medical, educational and professional.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.