Child Protection Specialist (Child Protection Systems and Justice for Children), P4 - FT, Amman-Jordan, MENARO

Contract

This is a P-4 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 127,722 USD and 164,671 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, Hope

The MENA region is one of the largest, most diverse, and complex in UNICEF, with a range of country typologies and two on-going Level Three emergencies and one Level Two emergency. The region has low levels of per capita income relative to its wealth, high levels of illiteracy, poor health and educational outcomes in comparison with countries of comparable income levels, high youth unemployment, significant gender inequality, and, most recently, acute conflict with mass internal and external displacement. The region is characterized by deeply entrenched structural impediments to development: status of women and girls, increasing vulnerability to climate change, pressure on water resources, unshared and inefficiently shared resources, constraints on civil society participation and the promotion of human rights.

Throughout crises, governments remain critical partners for service provision, including holistic child protection. The strength and effectiveness of a comprehensive social service system tailored to the needs of the most vulnerable groups in many ways depends on the strength of the workforce. The workforce is an integral part of the overall social service system and delivery of interventions that improve health and well-being throughout the region and reduce people’s vulnerability. While social service workforce structures differ from country to country, in many countries the workforce is largely embedded within state systems responsible for ensuring child protection. As evident in several MENA countries those systems are often under-sourced or overwhelmed due to complex demands, the responsibility for providing social services is often fragmented between the state and non-state actors and tends to rely heavily on a para-professional, underpaid workforce.

Organizational context

In a diverse context ranging from protracted humanitarian crisis (more than 16 million children affected by forced displacement), fragile states as well as middle and high-income countries, the development of a qualified social services workforce is a regional public good. UNICEF, in collaboration with government and civil society, is uniquely placed to promote and develop a social service workforce with the aim of: (i) addressing the care and protection needs of the most vulnerable children (ii) strengthening families to provide a caring and nurturing environment for children (iii) preventing violence, abuse and exploitation.

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision of the Regional Advisor Child Protection, the incumbent will provide high quality technical advice to governments, country offices and key stakeholders on child protection system strengthening, justice for children and children without family care informed by best available evidence and sector/international standards.

The incumbent will nurture regional and country specific collaborations to inform policies, resource allocation and capacity building programmes.

The Child Protection specialist will contribute to inclusive child protections services for migrant/refugee children and children with disabilities and will champion gender equality in all strategies and interventions.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

The incumbent will be accountable for ensuring that child protection system strengthening and justice for children programmes and policies in the MENA region are designed and implemented in line with sector standards, International Humanitarian Law, and International Human Rights Law. This will be done through high-quality, solution oriented technical assistance to country offices and partners, informed by data and evidence. The Child Protection specialist will be accountable for co-designing practical solutions and supporting advocacy under the leadership of concerned country representatives and the Regional Director/ Deputy Regional Director

1. Provide technical advice to country offices, governments, and key stakeholder on strategies to strengthen child protection systems.
2. Provide technical advice to country offices, governments, and key stakeholder on justice for children reform.
3. Develop technical assistance collaborations, strategies, and tools for a rigorous public policy approach to child protection.
4. Ensure child protection systems strengthening and justice for children contribute to concrete outcomes for children (reducing violence, abuse, and exploitation)

5. Provide technical leadership for protection and wellbeing of children without family care.

6. Provide technical advice to country offices, governments, and key stakeholder on strategies to strengthen child protection systems.

• Establish systematic policy dialogue and learning exchanges with governments and civil society on evidence-informed approaches to child protection system strengthening.
• Advise governments, regional bodies, and donors on strategies to strengthen the social service workforce.
• Develop collaboration with academic institutions and social workers associations aimed at developing social work practice in child protection.
• Contribute to the design of information management systems relevant to child protection.
• Define strategies for services integration in collaboration with other sectors (social protection, health, education) to maximize results for children.
• Ensure child protection systems strengthening and justice for children contribute to concrete outcomes for children (reducing violence, abuse, and exploitation)

2. Provide technical advice to country offices, governments, and key stakeholder on justice for children reform.

• Lead the UNICEF Justice for Children agenda informed by international standards and organizational guidance.
• Contribute to the design of country-specific scalable and sustainable alternatives to deprivation of liberty for children in conflict with the law, supported by access to reintegration programmes and services and therapeutic approaches.
• Contribute to structured and sustained advocacy to end the unlawful and arbitrary detention of children, immigration detention, of children, and detention due to association, with armed groups or for national security reasons.
• Provide technical advice to country offices governments on child and gender sensitive policies, procedures, and services for survivors of sexual violence abuse and exploitation.
• Promote prevention and early intervention in child offending including through the child protection services, community engagement and allied systems.

3. Develop technical assistance collaborations, strategies, and tools for a rigorous public policy approach to child protection.

• In collaboration with Social Policy, develop country-specific approaches to public finance to child protection/justice for children (costing, financing, public expenditures reviews) aimed at the implementation of laws, policies, and procedures.
• Promote public and private investment on the social service workforce (policy framework, accreditation, training, retention)
• Contribute to the development of child protection information management systems.

4. Promote inclusive and gender transformative child protection and child justice systems.

• Assess child protection and justice for children’s policies and practices with regard to gender equality.
• Contribute to the design of gender sensitive and transformative approaches to child protection and access to justice.
• Promote disability inclusive skills for children with disability within the child protection system and justice for children .

5. Provide technical leadership for protection and wellbeing of children without family care.

• Led the regional agenda for children without family care.
• Promote policy dialogue and a community of practices on family and community-based care.
• Contribute to the development of system for the care and protection of children without parental care.

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

• Education: An Advanced University degree in international development, public health, human rights, psychology, social work, sociology, international law, or other social science field is required.
• Work Experience: At least 8 years of relevant national and international experience in strengthening child protection systems and/or justice for children. Candidates with a strong social policy background and good understanding of child protection systems can be considered.
  • Good understanding of public finance for children, justice for children and public policy is essential for this work.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

• Knowledge of Arabic and or French is an asset. Knowledge of another official UN language (Chinese, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

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

The 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

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

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 measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions 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.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

In this role, you will collaborate with colleagues across multiple locations. For effective collaboration, we encourage flexible working hours that accommodate different time zones while prioritizing staff wellbeing.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.