Child Protection Officer (Alternative care), NO-A (Temporary appt - 1 year), Ankara, Turkiye #123344 (Turkish nationals only)

Contract

This is a NO-1 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-1 contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, [insert tagline]

UNICEF has been working closely with the partners to strengthen the national system to better respond to the needs of children without parental care under alternative care system. The Alternative care system, which is part of the child protection system includes the care arrangements for a child who is living away from his or her parents. As per best international practices, in the last decade, Turkiye has made rapid progress in the promotion and implementation of alternative care models, the Turkish National Child Care System evolved from institutional care to family-based care, successfully closing large residential institutions and promoting foster care and family-type units for children deprived of family care. UNICEF contributes to the expansion and quality of the overall government programme of de-institutionalization and transformation of children’s care services to community and family-based care.

How can you make a difference?

The Child Protection Officer reports to the Child Protection Specialist for close guidance and supervision.

The Child Protection Officer supports the implementation of the “Rapid Action Plan for Care and Protection of Children under Ukrainian State Care displaced in Türkiye” to strengthen the national system to better respond to the needs of the Ukrainian refugee population in Türkiye, including with regards to identifying and operationalizing specific alternative care options for the children in state care in Ukraine. The plan will be implemented in three different stages: I- Responsive Action, II-Remedial action, III. Long term action aimed at creating a protective environment.

The Child Protection Officer supports overall alternative care system for children deprived of parental care and provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout implementation of the plan through the application of theoretical and technical skills in programming.

Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

Support to programme development and planning

• Prepare technical reports and inputs for the implementation of action plan, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and relevancy of information.
• Provide technical and administrative support throughout all stages of programmeming processes by executing and administering a variety of technical programme transactions, preparing materials and documentations, and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support programme planning, results-based planning (RBM) and monitoring and evaluation of results.
• Prepare required documentations and materials to facilitate the programme review and approval process.
• Research and analyze regional and national political, protection, social and economic development trends. Collect, analyze, verify, and synthesize information to facilitate programme development, design and preparation.

Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results.

• Strengthen the monitoring and supervision system through development of Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism, Documentation, Risk Analysis & Mitigation.
• Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to collect, analyze and share information on implementation issues, suggest solutions on routine programme implementation and to submit reports to alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decisions. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with the government and other counterparts, and prepare minutes/reports on results for follow up action by higher management and other stakeholders.
• Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocation, goals, organizational rules, regulations, procedures, donor commitments, and standards of accountability and integrity.
• Report on issues identified to ensure timely resolution by management and stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution. Prepare inputs for programme and donor reporting.

Technical and operational support to programme implementation

• Provide professional technical, operational and administrative assistance for the Implementation of Rapid Action Plan for Care and Protection of Children under Ukrainian State Care displaced in Türkiye.
• Support for human resources, recruitment of social workers, psychologists and interpreters: Resources are required to deliver services, and provide the care, protection, oversight and monitoring of Ukrainian children and their families.
• Support the implementation of family strengthening and parenting programmes, identification of alternative care models for children and development of individual care plan for each child.
• Support to programme development and planning on alternative care system with a particular focus on family-based services for children without parental care, foster care and DI process under IPA-III Foster Care.
• Undertake field visits and surveys and collect and share reports with partners and stakeholders. Assess progress and provide technical support 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 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.

Networking and partnership building

• Support the establishment of national and local level coordination mechanisms.
• Support the development of a targeted tracking system that ring-fences the caseload of children in state care and links the children across different institutions so that special monitoring of the well-being of these children can be reported upon.
• Support the implementation of RWP 2023-2024 with Ministry of Family and Social Services activities with a focus on services provided to Ukrainian children and families.
• Support NGOs programme implementation activities focusing on provision of immediate care and protection and psychosocial support, including recreational activities, and establishment of a support system.
• Build and sustain close working partnerships with 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.

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

• Support the capacity building activities to be conducted in close coordination with Ministry of Family and Social Policies.
• 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, benchmark 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.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: international development, human rights, psychology, social service, child development, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.
• A minimum of one year of relevant professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection related areas is required.
• Experience working in alternative care system and/or family strengthening programme is considered as an asset.
• Experience working with the partners on alternative care system is considered as an asset.
• Fluency and or proficiency in English and Turkish is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.