Child Protection Officer, NOB, FT, Hargeisa #21168 (Only open to Somali nationals)

Contract

This is a NO-2 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-2 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, a Champion

How can you make a difference?

The purpose for the job:

The Child Protection Officer reports to the Child Protection Specialist for supervision. The Officer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance to government and NGO partners throughout the programming process for child protection programs/projects within the Country Program from development planning to delivery of results, preparing, executing, managing and implementing a variety of technical and administrative program tasks to facilitate program development, implementation, program progress monitoring, evaluating and reporting. He/she will be responsible to follow up and emphasize on the Social Norms and Community-based Care programme, focusing on implementation, lessons learnt, and best practices. Assist in providing advisory services for all GBV interventions in Somaliland. Provide technical assistance on programming on prevention of and response to GBV (development /revision of proposal/PDs submitted by partners). Support ongoing advocacy efforts related to prevention and response to GBV, particularly sexual violence. Initiate areas for advocacy purposes including target audiences to prevent and respond to GBV. Work with UNICEF divisions such as WASH, Health, Education, Nutrition, etc., to ensure that GBV prevention and response is adequately addressed as a cross-cutting issue and is suitably integrated into their programmes.

Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

1. Support to program development and planning

• Conduct/update situation analysis for the program sector/s for development, design, and management of child protection-related programs/projects. Research and report on development trends and (economic, social, health etc) data for use in program development, management, monitoring, evaluation, and delivery of results.
• Contribute to the development/establishment of sectoral program goals, objectives, and strategies and results-based planning through research, collection, analysis, and reporting of child protection and other related information for development planning and priority and goal setting.
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes by executing/administering a variety of technical, program, operational, and administrative transactions, preparing related materials/documentation, and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support program planning, results-based planning (RBM) and monitoring and evaluating results.
• Prepare required program documentation/materials/data to facilitate the program review and approval process.

2. Program management, monitoring, and delivery of results.

• Work closely and collaboratively with internal and external colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues, provide solutions, recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decision. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, program reviews and annual reviews with government and other counterparts to assess programs/projects and to report on required action/interventions at the higher level of program management.
• Monitor and report on the use of sectoral program resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verify compliance with approved allocation/goals, organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity. Report on critical issues/findings to ensure timely resolution by management/stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution.
• Prepare regular/mandated sectoral program/project reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of program progress.

3. Technical and operational support to program implementation

• Conduct regular program field visits and surveys and/or 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 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 on child protection and related issues to support program implementation, operations and delivery of results.

4. Networking and partnership building

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate program implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve and sustain results on child protection.
• Draft communication and information materials for CO program advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support fundraising for child protection programs.
• Participate in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT) meetings/events on programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of child protection programs/projects and to integrate and harmonize UNICEF position and strategies with the UNDAF development and planning process.
• Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes.

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 practice to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable program results.
• Research and report on best and cutting-edge practices for development planning of knowledge products and systems.
• Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders.

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

• A Bachelor's Degree in international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law or other social science field is required.
• A minimum of 2 years of professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection and/other related areas at the international and/or in a developing country is required.
• Relevant experience in child protection and related areas, program/project development and management in a UN system agency or organization is an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

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

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively

To view our competency framework, please visit here

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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 only considers Higher education qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.