Child Protection Specialist

Job Title: Child Protection Specialist

Organization: UNICEF

Job no: 563633
Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment
Duty Station: Kyiv
Level: P-3
Location: Ukraine
Categories: Child Protection

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, hope

UNICEF Ukraine

Welcome to the UNICEF team! - YouTube

Significant escalation of the armed conflict in Ukraine has resulted in increased humanitarian needs and population displacement within and outside of the country. The situation is rapidly evolving; and hostilities have led to destruction of key infrastructure and disruption of basic social services and economic activity. A number of children have been caught in the crossfire and have been injured and killed, highlighting the extremely vulnerable situation children are in. The conflict in Ukraine poses an immediate and growing threat to the lives and well-being of the country’s 7.5 million children, millions of whom have been displaced, evacuated or transferred and thousands of whom have been separated from their parents/caregivers or were forced to flee whilst in alternative care arrangements.

UNICEF is rapidly scaling up its multi-sectoral response to the increasing humanitarian needs in Ukraine. Ensuring the protection and well-being of women and children is central to UNICEF's response efforts. Multi-purpose cash transfers will be undertaken to support vulnerable households with children. UNICEF will also provide safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as the resumption of primary health care and nutrition services and will work to enroll displaced children in local education programmes. The protracted armed conflict, widespread displacement, and over-stretched national systems and services will leave thousands of children in need of humanitarian assistance for the foreseeable future. In particular children who were separated from their caregivers or who were forced to flee whilst being in an alternative care arrangement before the escalation of the conflict, will need to be protected, whilst family tracing and reunification, best interest assessments/determination and return and reintegration systems and mechanisms are setup. All of this in a complex legal framework which involved national, regional and international laws, conventions and norms whilst Ukraine is implementing a care reform focusing on deinstitutionalization and the strengthening of family- and community-based alternative care options and providing reintegration support to returning children.

Under the supervision of the ECARO Child Protection Specialist, P4 outposted in Kiev and in close daily coordination with other members of the Ukraine Child Protection team as needed, the Child Protection Specialist develops and expands support related to legal analysis and services. This involves capacity development of government partners around keeping best interests at the center of decision-making. As most of the Ukrainian children who were in institutions and other forms of alternative care who find themselves outside Ukraine have living relatives, the specialist will support the government’s leadership to restore their pathways for family contact and reunification. The specialist will establish partnerships and work with these partners to provide legal analysis to promote the rights of children without parental care. The specialist will develop linkages to support services made available under UNICEF’s existing programme of cooperation in Ukraine.

How can you make a difference?

The Specialist supports the implementation of designated partnerships, in line with UNICEF policies, and contributes to the achievement and acceleration of results across countries affected to support family tracing and reunification of children without parental care. This includes the following key functions/accountabilities:

 

• Technical and operational support for programme development, planning and implementation in relation to family tracing and reunification from a legal perspective

• Supporting the government in its family tracing and reunification initiatives, legal analysis and consideration of the best interest of the child.
• Establish and support effective partnerships in provision of legal analysis and services to children and families in the context of family tracing and reunification.
• Conduct and update situation analyses for the development, design and management of child protection related interventions, with a focus on legal aspects.
• Build the capacity of government and other partners involved in family tracing and reunification to ensure a child rights-centred case management approach and processes built on the best interests with a thorough understanding of legal responsibilities, rights, obligations and safeguards.
• 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.

• Develop, distribute and support uptake of analyses, resources and exchange of knowledge and practices on international legal responsibility and jurisdiction and other complex legal issues

• Provide technical guidance and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners on approaches and good practices, training resources and materials to procedures for family reunification.
• Work with partners to identify legal or status challenges affecting displaced children, and devise institutional approaches and positions to respond to their needs.
• Participate in regional- and country-level child protection programme meetings, including programme development and contingency planning discussions on emergency preparedness in the country or other locations designated, to provide technical and operational information, advice and support.
• Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials for management use, information and/or consideration.

• Networking and partnership building

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships at country level, with relevant government counterparts, national stakeholders through active networking, advocacy, and effective communication.
• Draw on internal and external resources and partners to understand and serve as a resource on legal considerations related to complex child protection concerns based on their legal status.
• Prepare communication and information materials for RO and CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances, and support fundraising for child protection programmes and emergency interventions.

• Innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building

• Apply/introduce innovative approaches and good practices to build partners' and stakeholders' capacity and support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results for family trancing and reunification.
• Keep abreast, research, benchmark, and implement best practices in child protection management and information systems.
• Establish a framework and mechanism for regularly consulting with and communicating updates to relevant child protection and other colleagues at country, regional and global levels.
• Organize and implement capacity-building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders to promote sustainable results in child protection and related programmes/projects.

• Support to other aspects of child protection in humanitarian action

• Provide technical support to UNICEF CO Child Protection in Emergencies / Humanitarian Action programming on an ad hoc basis, notably as it pertains children without family care, UASC, children evacuated from institutions.
• Build linkages and referral pathways to other components of UNICEF Ukraine’s programming, both within Child Protection such as Better Care, GBV, justice for children, etc., but also other sections, such as Social Policy, Education, Health, etc.
• Represent UNICEF in regional and national fora on Child Protection issues and programming as requested.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master's) in one of the following fields is required: internal law, human rights, child protection, international development, or another relevant field.
• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection is required, preferably child protection in emergencies/humanitarian action, with a focus on UASC and FTR.
• Knowledge and qualifications in applicable legal areas, including international human rights law, private international law, IHL, international refugee law and regional law (EU and Council of Europe) are required.
• Experience working in an environment where systems strengthening approaches are used to respond to humanitarian and child protection responses is a distinct advantage.
• Prior hands-on experience in emergency programming, including preparedness planning and active involvement in a humanitarian crisis is required.
• Prior hands-on experience in middle and or high-income contexts with upstream advocacy and programmes experience is highly desirable.
• Relevant experience in programme development in child protection related areas in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Good understanding of the child protection, humanitarian action, and development context in ECAR region is an asset.
• Ability to plan, organize, prioritize, and deliver under pressure is a requisite.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively in a diverse organization tailoring language, tone, style, and format to match audience.
• Ability and willingness to travel to emergencies countries if necessary.
• Proficiency in English, written and verbal, is required. Working knowledge of another official UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) and/or regional language as needed to perform the role is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

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)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

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.

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.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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 promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, 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.

Remarks:

Please note that this role is aimed at supporting UNICEF response to the Ukraine emergency in neighboring and surrounding countries. The successful candidate for this emergency recruitment MUST be available to commence work within four weeks of receiving an offer.

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

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government 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.

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

Eligible UNICEF International Professional (IP) Staff Members on fixed-term, continuing or permanent contracts applying to a Temporary Appointment, which is dedicated to L3 (or L2) Response, may be able to retain a lien and their fixed-term entitlements. The conditions of the temporary assignment will vary depending on the status of their post and their current tour of duty, and relocation entitlements may be limited as per the relevant policies.

Advertised: 04 Jul 2023 FLE Daylight Time
Deadline: 18 Jul 2023 FLE Daylight Time

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