Justice for Children Specialist, Programme Coordinator, WCARO, Senegal, 11.5 months (remote)

Contract

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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, an advocate

In 2021, UNICEF’s regional office received funds from the European Union for “Access to Justice for Children on the Move and other vulnerable children in West Africa,” a three-year regional and multi-country (i.e. Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria) programme to improve children’s access to justice and child protection services for 41,389 children on the move and other vulnerable children. The three-year programme (May 2021-April 2024) will promote multisectoral service provision including child friendly justice to children in contact with the justice system in the six targeted countries. This programme aims to build sustainable systems that work at several levels to achieve the following results:

1. Legislation and policies, to prevent immigration detention of children on the move and unnecessary pre-trial and post-trial detention of both children on the move and other vulnerable children, are in place.
2. The availability of appropriate family, community-based care and guardianship mechanisms for unaccompanied children/adolescents on the move and other vulnerable children is enhanced.
3. Children in detention, children in conflict with the law, children at-risk or who experienced violence, abuse and exploitation (including children on the move and vulnerable children) have access to quality, age-appropriate, gender-sensitive and child friendly justice services which address their needs.
4. The capacities of child protection service providers, community-based frontline actors and frontline workers are strengthened on identification, case management, referrals, legal aid and family reunification to facilitate access to basic services which focus on the specific needs of unaccompanied children and including children who experienced sexual and gender-based violence.

How can you make a difference?

The incumbent will coordinate with UNICEF Country Offices and partners, as well as with UNICEF’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa (and potentially other regional bodies) and assure coherent regional advocacy and communication related to the programme.

Main roles of programme coordinator:

1. Programme management, implementation and reporting: Manage and ensure coordination of the multi-country project on Access to Justice for Children on the Move and other vulnerable children in West Africa. This includes organizing and facilitating regular exchanges between the six countries involved (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria); lead on knowledge management; ensure monitoring, reporting and evaluation frameworks are duly set up and implemented in consultation with the UNICEF WCARO Programme Monitoring and Reporting (PMR) section; ensure timely and quality donor reporting in line with WCARO Standard Operating Procedures and grant compliance. This includes developing and consolidating regional donor reports, reviewing and providing inputs to country office submissions, managing related institutional contracts, monitoring and reporting on utilization of funds, responding to donor requests and sharing relevant information on project requirements with country offices as per the grant requirements. It also includes supporting and monitoring the implementation of the project’s Communication and Visibility Plan, in coordination with WCARO’s Communications Section; and any other task related to the coordination of the project.
2. Technical support and guidance: Provide technical support and guidance to regional office KRC coordinators and country offices in WCAR to strengthen access to justice as a critical element to acceleration and results in the following areas: protection of children from sexual violence; prevention and protection from child marriage, and acceleration of birth registration as part of civil registration and vital statistics and legal identity and across development and humanitarian contexts, including among children on the move. This includes review and technical support related to laws and policies, technical support to legal reform and development of referral mechanisms and case management systems that encompasses access for justice. Modalities for technical support include, inter alia, in-country support, webinars and enhanced knowledge management on access to justice.
3. Provide technical guidance to support the development of effective justice for children policies, strategies, guidance and tools, including on justice for children and access to justice overall and including in the context of migration and statelessness. This should consider child justice and access to justice in all aspects of the child protection systems and in all contexts including emergencies.
4. Provide support to country offices, regional office, regional bodies for situation analyses, strategy formulation, project and programme development, results frameworks, and assessment of programme recommendations and programme evaluations related to justice for children.
5. Strategic Partnerships and Networking: Contribute to strengthening strategic partnerships in favour of justice for children and access to justice including in the context of migration and childhood statelessness. This includes technical inputs to regional policies and documents produced by ECOWAS, ECCAS and the African Union Commission (via the UNICEF African Union Office) that concern access to justice including justice for children. Participate in and/or represent UNICEF in relevant meetings and inter-agency discussions.
6. Knowledge Management: In addition to knowledge management related to the multi-country programme, lead in identifying and addressing gaps in evidence and guidance and identifying and disseminating relevant research, guidance and tools to support advocacy, enhanced analysis and programming around justice for children. Topics will include ending deprivation of liberty and promoting restorative justice approaches and supporting use of diversion and non-custodial measures, ending the immigration detention of children, improving support for child survivors/witnesses of crime, legal empowerment of children including legal aid for children, traditional/informal justice, and accountability mechanisms, and preventing childhood statelessness. Organize and participate in trainings, orientations, and other action-oriented learnings responding to identified needs. Keep abreast of and apply knowledge of developments taking place in the wider context and that relate to programming, advocacy and policy making.
7. Team and management support: As part of the regional Child Protection team, support country offices in situation analysis, programme planning, reviews, evaluation and reporting (Sitan, Mid-Term Review, Country Programme Document, Common Country Assessment and UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) etc.) related to justice for children. Contribute to the preparation of detailed rights-based situation analyses, evaluations and documentation on child protection issues related to access to justice. Participate and provide inputs to the regional situation analysis and reports. Contribute to planning and reporting functions in the Child Protection Section, including development and monitoring of workplans.
8. Other relevant tasks including developing and inputting to project proposals, resource mobilization, inputs to briefing notes, talking points for meetings, webinars, workshops and presentations, knowledge sharing and capacity building on justice related subjects within and across the countries/region.

For more details on this consultancy, please open the below document.

FINAL TOR Individual Contractor EU CP systems justice.pdf

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

• An advanced (minimum Master’s level) university degree in Law with an emphasis on international, human rights or humanitarian law, or a related technical field is required
• A minimum of five (5) years of solid professional experience at the national and international levels in programme formulation, strategic planning, design, management and evaluation concerning justice for children or a directly related field, delivering on results, monitoring and reporting.
• Experience working with UNICEF at country or regional office level in justice for children and child protection is an asset.
• Experience managing complex EU programmes is desired.
• Proven experience in effectively managing grants.
• Ability to analyze, synthesize information and communicate outcomes clearly to different stakeholders.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, ability to work independently and in a team, high-level report-writing skills.
• Good understanding of the issues and complexities of justice for children.
• Capacity to manage various tasks simultaneously in planning, implementing, and monitoring a complex project over an extended period.
• Knowledge of the institutions of the UN system.
• Ability to work in an international or multicultural environment
• Fluency (oral and written) in English and French is essential. Knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

Core 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)

Functional Competencies

• Leading and supervising (I)
• Formulating strategies and concepts (II)
• Analyzing (III)
• Relating and networking (II)
• Deciding and Initiating action (II)
• Applying technical expertise (III)

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:

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.