External Vacancy Announcement : Child Protection Officer, NOB, Tombouctou, Mali

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.

For Every Child, hope

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential – to the benefit of a better world. To learn more about UNICEF, visit www.unicef.org.

The security situation is volatile in Tombouctou region due to asymmetric attacks against national and international forces as well as the local population. Recent security developments in the Liptako Gourma area showed a resurgence of clashes in the cross-border area causing the population movements and leading to child protection concerns. Children continue to pay a heavy price to the conflict which affects their fundamental rights and welfare. The major glaring problems remain the recruitment and use by armed groups who are present in most of the rural communities. In addition, family separations, GBV cases, the issue of unregistered children and school closure (153 out of 753) are on rise. Tombouctou region is one of the regions most affected by the COVID-19, exacerbating the humanitarian situation. According to the Humanitarian Need Overview (HNO), 692,000 people out of the total population of 927,000 including 216, 124 children are in need of humanitarian assistance among which are 54,031 children targeted for child protection response services.

UNICEF Child protection jointly with the Decentralized Direction for the Promotion of Children and Families have recently established a transit and orientation center to provide holistic assistance to children released from armed groups as well unaccompanied children. Besides, UNICEF had been supporting civil society organizations to address the issues of conflict-affected children namely the prevention and response of recruitment and use of children by armed groups, sexual violence and other forms of violence against children.

How can you make a difference?

The Child Protection Officer based in Tombouctou reports to the Chief Field Office Tombouctou for supervision. He / She provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process for child protection programmes/projects within the Country Programme from development planning to delivery of results. He / She prepares, executes, manages, and implements a variety of technical and administrative programme tasks to facilitate programme development, implementation, programme progress monitoring, evaluating and reporting.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES and DUTIES & TASKS

Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, the incumbent may be assigned the primary, shared, or contributory accountabilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results.

1. Support to programme development and planning

• Conduct and update the situation analysis for the development, design and management of child protection related programmes/projects. Research and report on development trends and data.
• 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.
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes.
• 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.
• 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.
• Prepare regular and mandated sectoral programme/project reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.

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 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.

4. Networking and partnership building

• 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.
• 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.

To qualify as a champion for every child you will have…

1. A university degree in one of the following fields is required: international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.

2. A minimum of two years of professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection related areas is required.

3. Relevant experience in programme development in child protection related areas in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
4. Experience in both development and humanitarian contexts is an added advantage.
5. Relevant experience in a Fluency in French (written and oral) is required. Good working knowledge of English is required.
6. Knowledge of one local language of the duty station is highly desirable

Skills:

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drives to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values attributes: Care; Respect; Integrity; Trust; Accountability

UNICEF’s core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The technical competencies required for this post are:

• Analyzing (2)
• Applying technical expertise (2)
• Learning and researching (2)
• Planning and organizing (2)

Learning and Researching (II)View our competency framework at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

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