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.

Nigeria has made significant progress towards strengthening the child protection systems at both Federal and State levels. While a lot has been done to strengthen institutional prevention and response framework at the federal and state levels, the capacity of the country to protect children will remain limited unless and until a parallel effort is conducted at the community level. There is increasing recognition of the need for action at the community level, and this has found expression in community-based child protection groups. Community-Based Child Protection Groups (CBCPGs) refer to a collection of people, often volunteers, that aim to ensure the protection and wellbeing of children in a village, urban neighborhood, or other community. If these groups are systematically linked to formal mechanisms and service providers at the LGA and state levels, they have the potential to become a critical and indispensable component of the national child protection system. Their presence in the communities’ places them in a vantage position to perform the core functions of identifying, reporting, and responding to cases, including making referrals to appropriate mechanisms and agencies.

UNICEF has invested in various community structures such as the Child Protection Network in the early 2010s, the community-surveillance teams within the FGM programmes in five focus states in the south of the country (Imo, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, and Ebonyi) which was scaled-up within the Spotlight Initiative to address violence against women and girls in additional states (Lagos, Cross River, Adamawa and Sokoto), and other community-based women, youth and traditional institutions. These groups were sensitized on child protection issues, especially as it relates to girls, and were able to provide substantive results in supporting children and families who had experienced incidents of violence and other child protection challenges. Many other groups have also been set up by other donor agencies and institutions to support community focused interventions in other sectors like health and social protection. The typologies of these groups differ, depending on the level of community ownership and involvement in its establishment, administration, and accountability.

Besides the establishment of community-based structures for child protection, the number of social workers when compared to the country’s population is very negligible. To address the gap, it is important to develop a cadre of auxiliary social workers to support these community structures at the local level to provide services to children and their families and serve as a bridge between them and the formal social service workforce at LGA and state levels.

Under the supervision of the UNICEF Nigeria Child Protection Specialist in the Country office, and the overall supervision of the Child Protection Manager with technical guidance from Chief of Child Protection, the Child Protection Officer will assist in the development of community-based child protection structures at the community level and social service workforce for child protection that ensures a viable strengthened community structure supported by social workers to provide child protection services that are visible, functional and are accessible to children and families.

The Child Protection Officer reports to the Child Protection Specialist and will be responsible for the following:

1. Support to programme development and planning  Conduct a situation analysis of existing community-based structures in the states of coverage with a view to determining their effectiveness and gaps that need to be addressed.  Support the establishment of community-based structures for child protection, building on existing structures and strengthening them to be more effective and efficient.  Working with the relevant state and local government agencies, and under the guidance of the Field Office Child Protection Specialist, facilitate the selection of auxiliary social workers for the communities based on an agreed criterion.  Conduct and update the situation analysis for the development, design, and management of child protection, VAC/ SGBV related programmes/projects.  Research and report on development trends (e.g. economic, social, health) and data for use in programme development, management, monitoring, evaluation and delivery of results.  Contribute to the development and establishment of sectoral programme goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based planning through research, analysis and reporting of child protection and other related information for development planning and priority and goal setting especially for VAC/SGBV response.  Prepare required programme documentations, materials, and data to facilitate the programme review and approval process.

2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results. • Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss implementation issues, provide solutions, recommendations and/or to alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level interventions and/or decisions. • Facilitate the organization of capacity-building programmes for community-based child protection groups and selected auxiliary social workers through provision of technical and logistical support. • Keep records of reports of activities, assessments, training and other programmes for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned. • Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with government and other counterparts to assess programmes/projects, and to report on required action/interventions at the higher level of programme management.  Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative, and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocations, organizational rules, regulations, procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity. Report on critical issues and findings to ensure timely resolution by management and stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution.  Prepare regular and mandated sectoral programme/project reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.  Support community-based child protection groups and auxiliary social workers to collate data on child protection and integrate same into existing reporting channels, especially the CPIMS.

3. Technical and operational support to programme implementation

 Conduct regular programme field visits and surveys and exchange information with partners/stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support. Take appropriate action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks, and potential problems for timely action to achieve results.  Provide technical and operational support to communities, auxiliary social workers, government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes and best practices in child protection, to support programme implementation.  Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of child protection, VAC/SGBV programming processes by executing and administering a variety of technical, programme, operational, and administrative transactions, preparing related materials and documentations, and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support programme planning, results-based planning (RBM) and monitoring and evaluating of results.

4. Networking and partnership building

• Strengthen and sustain close working partnerships with community groups, local and state government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve and sustain results on child protection.  Participate in inter-agency meetings/events on programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of child protection programmes/projects, and to integrate and harmonize UNICEF’s position and strategies with UNDAF development and planning processes.  Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes. • Draft communication and information materials for CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support fund raising for child protection programmes.

5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

 Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.  Apply innovative approaches and promote good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results. • Research and report on best and cutting-edge practices for development planning of knowledge products and systems. • Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders.

I. Core values UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) are required.

II. Competencies  Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)  Works Collaboratively with others (1)  Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)  Innovates and Embraces Change (1)  Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)  Drive to achieve impactful results (1)  Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

social development planning and management in child protection related areas is required. • Experience working in a developing country is considered as an asset. • Relevant experience in programme development in child protection related areas in a UN system agency or organization, International Organization is considered as an asset. • Experience working with social workers, community structures and or religious groups, at grassroot levels on prevention and response to SGBV/VAC is an asset. • Experience in both development and humanitarian contexts and a possession of a Master degree in any of the specified fields are an added advantage.

Duty station is in Abuja, and the designated locations with frequent travel across the country as required. UN Department of Safety and Security graded Abuja’s security level as “moderate”. UN House is located in the central business district by the embassy row (geo coordinate: 9.0359673,7.4626037). Since the office is 10-30min away from the residential areas, most of the staff members commute either by a personal car or Uber/Bolt. Uber/Bolt is readily available and is affordable ($1-3 per trip). H

As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials.