Adolescent Engagement Support Volunteer

Details

Mission and objectives

Social inclusion of all children is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate in Romania. To accomplish this, we, along with our partners, central and local authorities and NGOs, developed two models: The Minimum Package of Services for vulnerable children and their families; and the Quality Inclusive Education Package. These models focus on preventing unnecessary separation of children from their families, poverty, early pregnancies, illness, discrimination, absenteeism and school dropouts. They are now ready to be scaled-up nationwide, with national or European funding. Through Communication for Social Change campaigns we are also working on preventing discrimination and violence against children and empowering parents, caregivers and legal guardians, to provide a protective, stimulating environment for every child. UNICEF is also mobilizing resources from private individuals, private sector companies and foundations to support children in Romania and beyond.

Context

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works in the world’s toughest places to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. Across more than 190 countries and territories, UNICEF staff do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive, and fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. UNICEF is the world’s largest provider of vaccines, supporting child health and nutrition, safe water and sanitation, quality education and skill building, HIV prevention and treatment for mothers and babies, and the protection of children and adolescents from violence and exploitation. Before, during, and after humanitarian emergencies, UNICEF is on the ground, bringing lifesaving help and hope to children and families. Non-political and impartial, UNICEF is never neutral when it comes to defending children’s rights and safeguarding their lives and futures. For 75 years, UNICEF has been the defender of children around the world, regardless of gender, religion, race or economic background. When the world’s most vulnerable need a champion in the face of conflict, disease or exclusion, UNICEF has been there. Child participation is one of the key programmatic work areas of UNICEF Romania, with the goal of mainstreaming the meaningful participation of children and adolescents in decision-making processes, in accordance with art. 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. To this end, UNICEF Romania works with different child-led groups, such as the Romanian Children’s Board and the Romanian National School Students’ Council, as well as other partners, in order to ensure that children’s voices and views are heard and listened to. The selected UNV will have the role of providing day-to-day support to the child participation activities, including, but not limited to, logistical and administrative support. U-Report is UNICEF's flagship digital platform started in 2011, to engage young people in programme priorities, emergency response and advocacy actions. It supports adolescent, youth, and community participation; and works as a tool to share information, raise awareness, and collect quantifiable data on specific areas that impact children, including the most vulnerable. The received responses are analyzed in real-time, mapped, and displayed on a public dashboard, ensuring the young people's feedback can be actioned by local and national decision-makers. At global level, there are more than 25 million users registered across the 95 different countries implementing this platform. As part of the national-level child participation work, UNICEF Romania has launched its own U-Report, to support its programmes and more specifically to provide a space for participation to children and young people to advocate for their rights. The selected UNV will contribute to this effort and ensure its success. More information can be found by consulting the different U-Report platforms available: U-Report global https://ureport.in/ U-Report Romania: https://romania.ureport.in/ U-Report for Ukrainians on the move: https://europe-uk.ureport.in/ U-Report Ukraine: https://ukraine.ureport.in/

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Child Participation Officer, the Community UN Youth Volunteer will: - Maintain constant communication and interaction regarding UNICEF’s child participation work with the child-led groups involved in the organisation’s activities. - Support with the planning, implementation, and evaluation of different child participation activities and events. - Provide methodological support for designing child-friendly workshops, trainings, and other activities. - Support internal recruitment processes for child participation opportunities, on a need basis. - Ensure children and young people’s engagement under U-Report - coordination of participation from adolescents and children, gathering inputs, ideas, and suggestions for the use of U-Report as well as inputs to other relevant programmatic areas (as peers). - Stay connected to the global/regional community and attend webinars to keep abreast of the latest organisational and partners policy change. - Help in disseminating and promoting the platform, including support to produce communication products, materials, and designs; ensure coordination with programmatic areas specialists (Protection, Education, Health, SBC, etc.) for technical support and guidance on content and approaches. - Support community management in the Romanian language for the online platforms used under the U-Report platform. - Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor. Results/Expected Outputs: - As an active UNICEF team member, efficient, timely, responsive, beneficiary-friendly, and high-quality support provided to our interventions in the accomplishment of her/his function. - Children’s participation in different events and activities is supported, ensuring the full implementation of UNICEF Child Safeguarding rules and principles. - Engagement and communication with child-led groups is properly maintained, ensuring meaningful child and adolescent participation. - U-Report Romania is operational and provides the support needed to the targeted community of beneficiaries, including key messages and two-way communication. - Support to ensure the U-Report Romania platform is technically maintained and functional. - Timely documents are being drafted and leveraged to influence policy and decision-making.