Child Protection Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF has been working in Liberia for close to 30 years, turning our vision for children into practical action. With our child-focused mandate, country presence and operational capacity, we support the Government of Liberia and other partners to help every child reach their full potential. The goal of our current country programme for 2013-2019 is to: Make sure that every child and adolescent has access to basic education and a variety of post-basic education and improved learning outcomes. Improve the health, nutrition and welfare of children and women on an equitable basis. Increase access to the basics of life – safe water, sanitation and hygiene Protect the poorest and most vulnerable children and women from all forms of violence. Our interventions are supported by a robust monitoring and evaluation system that helps us track and improve results for children. Behaviour change communication is a key strategy across all our programmes, while advocacy and resource mobilization ensure that policies and funding are in place to bring about positive change for children in Liberia.

Context

Liberia is a youthful country. Children under the age of 15 make up 42 per cent of its population while 63 per cent is under 25. This gives the country a great task at hand: to protect its young people from harm while giving them the space and opportunity to develop and lead the country forward. Yet, most of Liberia’s children, adolescents and youth are trapped in a cycle of violence, poverty and deprivation, experience violence, struggle to get educated, and find it difficult to find decent employment. Violence against children and adolescents, especially girls, is rampant, including rape, abuse, harassment and exploitation. In 2015, 89 per cent of reported rape survivors were children, with 39 per cent 12 years or younger. Sexual harassment in schools in the form of ‘sex for grades’ and ‘sex for school fees’ is common. Violent discipline is also a widely accepted practice, while at least 31 per cent of children (2-14 years old) were engaged in some form of labour. Harmful cultural and traditional practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) are among the worst forms of violence practiced against children in Liberia. Birth registration, which is the first critical first step towards safeguarding lifelong protection for a child, is out of reach for many children in Liberia. The country has one of the lowest levels of birth registration in the world: less than one quarter of all births are registered. When vulnerable children and adolescents come into conflict with the law, they are often exposed to even more violence and distress. In Liberia, UNICEF is helping to build a comprehensive child protection system to keep children safe. This means supporting the implementation of laws, especially the Children’s Law, and relevant policies, regulations and services that protect children from harm, and that respond to, and support victims and survivors. Protection starts at birth. UNICEF supports the delivery of birth registration services by building the capacity of government, increasing the availability and quality of services and mobilizing parents and communities to register their children. A key priority in Liberia is to stop the violence that children experience every day. We collaborate with the government, civil society and development agencies to strengthen community-based protection and response services to prevent all forms of violence against children or provide assistance should it occur. To help adolescents fulfil their potential, UNICEF supports the government to provide life skills and vocational training, and to protect adolescents, especially girls, from abuse, sexual violence and harmful traditional practices. Young people are also given opportunities to have a say on policies and programmes through SMS-based tools such as U-Report and the Children’s Representative Forum and Adolescent Girls’ Forum. UNICEF’s work in child justice involves strengthening laws and systems to better protect children in contact with the law, especially by supporting them to receive support and rehabilitation at community level, rather than be detained in adult facilities. This United Nations Volunteers (UNV) assignment is part of UNICEF’s Violence Against Children programming and strengthening of the child protection system initiatives, among others. The office will reserve the selection for a candidate from the Minority groups in Liberia

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Chief, Child Protection Section, the Youth United Nations Volunteer will support the child protection section to strengthen their knowledge management to ensure better data and evidence for results for children. The UNV Child Protection Officer will: • Act as the Child Protection Section’s disability data and inclusion champion • Manage the Child Protection Section’s SharePoint: ensuring timely updates of information, resources, and product, to ensure value-added knowledge sharing across the team • Develop a progress monitoring tool (with disability and gender data) to track UNICEF’s Child Protection Results for Children in Liberia. • Develop a dashboard to monitor development and humanitarian situations that potentially have an impact on the protection of children in Liberia. • To support the communication team at UNICEF to capture the best practices, success stories and shed light to the activities of the implementing partners to ensure the visibility for the donors. • Assist the team with data (dashboards) in preparation of concept notes, proposals and donor reports. • Undertake any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.