Child Protection Officer

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

Description of task

Under the direct supervision of the Child Protection Specialist, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

Support programme planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting for the overall Child Protection programme with focus on the Violence Against Children (VAC) output area in particular

• Contribute to the planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of child protection programmes particularly related to programmes aimed at ending Violence Against Children (VAC), including addressing harmful practices and online abuse and exploitation.
• Contribute to formulate, design and prepare project proposals, ensuring alignment with UNICEF’s overall Strategic Plans and the Country Programme, as well as coherence and integration with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), regional strategies and national priorities, plans and competencies.

• Support monitoring of programmes/projects through field visits (including remote monitoring in line with COVID 19 safeguarding measures) and exchange of information with partners to assess progress, identify bottlenecks, potential problems and child protection risks. Make recommendations accordingly to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution. Document best practices and lessons learned.

• Collaborate with Government, UN agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and UNICEF zonal offices on planning and implementation of activities, especially in relation to the dissemination of the Violence against Children survey results and National Prevention and Response Plan. Ensure organizational priorities are fully considered and integrated in development planning and agenda setting.

• Monitor and verify the optimal and appropriate use of programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets) in compliance with organizational rules, regulations, procedures, donor commitments, as well as standards of accountability and integrity. Ensure timely reporting and liquidation of funds advanced to implementing partners.

• Support monitoring, data collection and reporting against the Child Protection Section annual workplan and the office Annual Management Plan indicators. This will also entail mobilizing funding in support of planned activities, promoting visibility and advocacy for the protection and well-being of children in humanitarian context

• Support strengthening monitoring, data collection and reporting of the implementation of the ‘National Prevention and Response Plan on Violence against Children 2019 – 2023’ (NPRP on VAC) and provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners with regards to the implementation of the NPRP on VAC and any related activities.
• Work with the Child Protection Specialist in strengthening the Technical Working Group on the National Parenting Progamme for effective coordination, implementation of the national parenting programme, and for leveraging of resources.
• Provide technical and operational support to the National Technical Working Group to develop the National Parenting Programme, including the development of Programme Guidelines, a National Parenting Manual, a Facilitator’s Manual and a Roadmap to scale out parenting programme in the country, and any other programme related documents and activities as needs be.
• Support work to address online protection of children, including implementation of the National Plan of Action which is being finalized as well as other remaining activities and initiatives under a multi year project on child online protection which is coming to an end in the end of 2021.
• Support with the coordination, monitoring and reporting on programme results for the section and develop harmonized tools for data collection, consolidation, manipulation and visualization. Collect and consolidate data for donor proposals and reports and both internal and external reporting exercises.

• Support other programme activities related to child protection and integrated initiatives as required by the supervisor

• Contribute to integrating cross-cutting issues into the child protection programme, i.e. gender, communication for development, adolescents, livelihoods opportunities, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), advocacy as well as enhancing cross-sectoral coordination and collaboration.

Support the implementation of child protection components of the ‘Nutrition Improvement in Children through Cash and Health Education (NICHE) II’ project, including the provision of technical and operational support during the planning and rollout of trainings and sensitization efforts to promote positive parenting for violence prevention and alternative family based care and to strengthen the capacity of community-based child protection mechanisms to respond to violence.

Educational additional comments

A University Degree in Social Work, Psychology, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Law or any other relevant technical field is required; a Master’s degree is an added advantage

Experience remark

• A minimum of two (2) years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: social work, child protection, gender-based violence (GBV), early childhood development, adolescent programming, community development and/or humanitarian work, planning and management of programmes in relevant area, monitoring and evaluation, or any other related field ;
• Demonstrated experience and/or interest in contributing to and promoting early childhood development and the importance of positive parenting and enabling environments, especially in relation to child protection and child rights;
• Good analytical skills and understanding and experience in collecting and analysing data, generating visual tools, drafting policies and guidelines;
• Experience with multi-stakeholder engagement
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (written, oral) in English;
• Demonstrated track record in report writing and documentation;
• Experience working with individuals from diverse professional backgrounds;
• Experience in grant management is an advantage;

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Language skills

• English(Mandatory), Level - Fluent
• Kiswahili(Optional), Level - Working Knowledge

Area of expertise details

Social Work, Psychology, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Law

Competencies values

Accountability, Commitment and Motivation, Communication, Ethics and Values, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Working in Teams

Application procedure

• Not yet registered in the UNV Talent Pool? Please first register your profile at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/signup. Important: After creating your account, complete all sections of your profile and submit it. Then go to ‘My Page’ at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/mypage and click on the ‘Special Calls’ hyperlink. Lastly, select the special call to which you would like to apply. * Already registered in the UNV Talent Pool? Please first update your profile at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/profile. Then go to ‘My Page’ at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/mypage and click on the ‘Special Calls’ hyperlink to select the special call to which you would like to apply. Application deadline: 20 September 2021