Chief Child Protection

The Chief of Child Protection reports to the Representative or Deputy Representative for general guidance and direction. The Chief is responsible for managing and leading all stages of child protection programmes/projects from strategic planning and formulation to achieving concrete and sustainable contributions to national and international efforts to create a protective environment for children against all harm and to protect their rights to survival, development, and well-being as established under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, international treaties/frameworks and UN intergovernmental bodies.

The Chief is responsible for leading and managing the child protection section and establishing the plans of action to ensure the achievement of concrete and sustainable programme/project results, according to plans, allocation, results based-management approaches and methodology (RBM), and UNICEF’s Strategic Plans, standards of performance and accountability framework.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Managerial leadership:

• Establish the section’s annual work plan with the child protection team; set priorities/targets and performance measurements. Monitor work progress and ensure results are achieved according to schedule and performance standards.
• Establish clear individual performance objectives, goals, and timelines; and provide timely guidance to enable the team to perform their duties responsibly and efficiently. Plan and ensure timely performance management and assessment of the team.

 Programme development and planning:

• Lead the planning and updating of the situation analysis to ensure that current and comprehensive data on child protection issues is available to guide UNICEF’s strategic policy advocacy, intervention, and development efforts on child rights and protection, and to set programme priorities, strategies, design, and implementation plans.
• Consult and collaborate with national and global colleagues, partners and allies to develop partnership frameworks to address specific needs and to leverage resources for enhancing and scaling up child protection programmes/projects. Ensure synergy, integration, coherence, and harmonization of programmes/projects with UNICEF Strategic Plans and priorities, donors’ development strategies/policies, national priorities/competencies, and UN System development interventions/initiatives.
• Ensure emergency preparedness taking into account multiple levels/ dimensions of vulnerabilities,  is contained in national programmes/projects to ensure the protection and well-being of children in cases of armed conflict, natural disasters, and other emergency situations.

Programme management, monitoring, and quality control of results:

• Coordinate, plan, and collaborate on monitoring and evaluation initiatives to establish benchmarks, performance indicators, and other UNICEF/UN system indicators, to assess and strengthen performance accountability, coherence, and delivery of concrete and sustainable results in child protection programmes.
• Participate in major monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews, and annual reviews with government and other counterparts to assess progress and to engage stakeholders to take required action and interventions to achieve results.
• Assess monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths, and/or weaknesses in programme management. Identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals

Advisory services and high-level technical support:

• Provide technical advice to key government officials, NGOs, UN system, and other country office partners on strategies and best practices to influence approaches/policies, support social/economic/political/legal development planning & implementation, and to support the delivery of results on child protection, human rights, and other related issues.
• Participate in strategic discussions to influence policy and agenda setting for combating poverty and all forms of discrimination against women/children by advising on and advocating strategies and approaches to promote and catalyze social changes for child survival, development, and well-being in society.

Advocacy, thought leadership, networking, and partnership building:

• Build and strengthen strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with local/national governments, UN system agency partners, donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, funding organizations, research institutes, and the private sector to reinforce cooperation and/or pursue opportunities to promote goals and achieve sustainable and broad results on child protection.
• Participate and/or represent UNICEF in inter-agency (UNCT) discussions and planning on child protection and related issues to ensure organizational position, interests, and priorities are fully considered and integrated in the UNSDCF process in development planning and agenda setting. Collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNSDCF planning and preparation of programmes/projects including emergency preparedness.

 Innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building:

• Promote critical thinking, innovative approaches, and good practices for sustainable child protection programme/project initiatives through advocacy and technical advisory services.
• Lead, plan and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders to promote sustainable results on child protection and related programmes/projects.

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

Minimum requirements:

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.
• A minimum of ten years of professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection related areas, at the international level, is required.
• Experience working in a developing country, particularly in a complex socio-cultural context, is required.
• Experience in leading and managing a large team is required.
• Relevant experience in programme management in child protection-related areas in a UN system agency or organization is considered an asset.
• Experience in both development and humanitarian contexts is an added advantage.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/575328