Child Protection Specialist

1. Background

The Child Protection Specialist will provide technical support and quality assurance for child protection and child resilience activities implemented by the organization. The role focuses on strengthening safe, age-appropriate, inclusive, and community-based services for children, caregivers, and frontline staff.

2. Purpose of the Role

The purpose of this role is to ensure that all child protection interventions are technically sound, safe for children, aligned with humanitarian and development standards, and responsive to the needs of vulnerable children.

3. Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Program Quality

• Provide technical guidance for child protection and child resilience activities.
• Ensure activities are age-appropriate, gender-sensitive, disability-inclusive, culturally respectful, and safe for children.
• Support the development of SOPs, referral forms, safeguarding guidance, training materials, and activity plans.
• Advise the project team on child protection risks and practical mitigation measures.

Case Management and Referral Support

• Strengthen safe identification, assessment, case planning, referral, follow-up, and case closure procedures.
• Support case workers through coaching, technical review, and case conferencing where appropriate.
• Ensure confidentiality, informed consent or assent, data protection, and do-no-harm principles.
• Map and update referral pathways for health, legal, education, psychosocial, disability, and social support services.

Psychosocial Support and Child Resilience

• Support structured psychosocial support, life skills, social-emotional learning, and resilience-building activities.
• Guide facilitators working in child friendly spaces, schools, community centers, or outreach settings.
• Promote caregiver engagement, positive parenting, family strengthening, and safe community support.

Safeguarding and Risk Management

• Ensure staff, consultants, volunteers, and partners understand child safeguarding and PSEA requirements.
• Support safe recruitment, codes of conduct, reporting mechanisms, and child-safe activity planning.
• Identify safeguarding risks and recommend mitigation actions.

Capacity Building

• Assess capacity gaps among staff, facilitators, volunteers, and partners.
• Design and deliver training on child protection, safeguarding, case management, psychological first aid, referral pathways, and safe communication with children.
• Provide mentoring and on-the-job coaching to frontline staff.

Coordination and Reporting

• Coordinate with government departments, schools, community leaders, service providers, and NGOs.
• Participate in protection, child protection, MHPSS, education, or safeguarding coordination meetings.
• Prepare technical inputs for donor reports, monthly reports, learning briefs, and project reviews.

Please send your CV to careers@smithson.co. Kindly write the job title in the subject line.