NATIONAL CHILD PROTECTION CONSULTANT ON VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS, ABUJA

This vacancy is open to Nigerians only

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Purpose of Assignment:

Under the overall guidance of the Child Protection Chief, the national consultant will contribute to the design and integration of child protection programme on ending violence against children in school to existing education Programmes, curriculum and polices to contribute to the prevention and response of violence against children in the school setting.

Background

Access to quality education is a fundamental right of all children and a key factor for socio-economic development including poverty reduction. The protection and education rights of children are neither respected nor fulfilled when school based violence and abuses place girls and boys in situations of physical and psychological risks[i]. Schooling and the school environment ideally should provide protection for children from violence, exploitation and abuse. But the reality is that violence against children in schools has become endemic with severe implications for the development of children including their health, ability to learn or even their willingness to go to school thereby exposing them to further danger. Violence destroys a child’s self-confidence and esteem as well as undermine their ability to grow into well-adjusted adults.

Based on the alarming rate of violence against children at home, school, institution amongst others, the United Nation Secretary-General’s in 2006 commissioned a Study on Violence against Children-, the report provided alarming revelations on the scope of violence against children. This study and other reports show that many children are routinely exposed to physical, sexual and psychological violence in their homes, schools and care institutions.  

In Nigeria, as in many other countries, the educational setting exposes many children to violence and may also teach them violence. Violence committed by teachers and other adults without the approval of school authorities includes corporal punishment, cruel and humiliating forms of psychosocial punishment, sexual and gender based punishment, and bullying. Corporal punishment such as canning and beating is a standard practice while other forms of violence such as playground fighting and bullying by students is also common in many schools. A study conducted by the Federal Ministry of Education in 2007 established baseline data on the situation of violence against children in Basic Education in Nigeria. The findings of this study revealed that the existing types of violence in schools are physical, psychological, sexual, gender and health based violence. The report of this study indicated physical violence among school children to be (85%) while psychological violence (50%) accounted for the bulk of violence against children in schools. Other types of violence reported among learners in basic education level in Nigeria included gender –based violence (5%), sexual violence (4%) and health related violence (1%). This study further revealed that across region, physical violence was more prevalent in the rural (90%) than urban areas (80%). A comparison of the prevalence of violence in the Northern and the Southern part of the country reveal that all forms of violence are more in the south than in the north except for sexual violence. Physical violence is higher in the south (90%) compared to the north (79%). Psychological violence is also more prevalent in the south (61%) than in the north (38.7%). In the north, health-related violence was not reported, but in the south about 2% of learners reported health-related violence. Sexual violence was however more prevalent in the north (4.7%) than in the south (3.2%). Across gender; physical and psychological violence are almost evenly distributed among males and females in basic education in Nigeria. The study further revealed that physical violence are perpetrated more by senior students (4.9%) and classmates (4.7%); while the school teachers were reported as mostly the perpetrators of psychological violence (26.4%)[i]. Incidence of sexual violence and rape among learners are seldom reported or under reported. Despite this fact, 5.4% of male and 7.2% of female students respectively, knew of school mates who have been raped.  Also, 9.6 % and 3.9% of learners in urban and rural areas respectively knew of students who had been raped.  A higher percentage of students (9.3%) in the junior secondary compared to 3.1% in the primary school also knew about learners who had been raped. Further analysis along north south dichotomy also revealed that 3.1% of students in the north and 9.4% of students in the south knew of students who had been raped. 2% of male teachers were aware of incidents of rape while none of the female teachers were aware of it.  Meanwhile 7.8% of male students have heard of rape and 10.6% of the females claimed to have heard of it.

Rationale/Justification

A violence free learning environment is one of the fundamental human rights of children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in several Articles requires Governments to ensure that children grow up, learn, complete the education cycle and develop in a violent free environment. Specifically, Article 19 mandates Governments to ensure that children are protected from all forms of violence. Article 34 requires States Parties to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse while Article 37 mandates Governments to ensure that no child is subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. While the Nigeria Child’s Rights Act 2003 establish a framework for child protection state level domestication and implementation remains limited. Ongoing effort at implementing the law has adopted a child protection system strengthening strategy which focuses on the establishment of a system with a set of linked and coherent structures, functions and capacities that can prevent and respond to all child protection concerns. It integrates the actions of families (and children themselves), communities, formal and informal laws and practices, state and non-state actors across all sectors (education, health, social welfare, justice and law enforcement), to work together to protect children. It looks at all the actions needed to protect children along a continuum, from promotion of a safe environment for the child, to prevention through to response and restorative services for children at risk of, or experiencing, violence, exploitation and abuse. When all parts of the system are established and function effectively and in a coordinated manner, children will be protected from abuse.

For child protection system to effectively prevent and respond to violence against children in school it is imperative to establish and operationalize structures and mechanism for reporting, tracking, referral, response and monitoring in all early childhood development centres, primary and secondary schools to ensure collective and holistic approach to eliminate violence against children in schools. Such mechanism should also encourage active participation of local governments, religious and traditional/cultural leaders, school based management committees, parents, guardians, head teachers, teachers, pupils and local community leaders in addressing violence against children in schools. Schools are also central platform for socialization and learning for children which have a great potential to educate children on risks management, prevention of violence and reporting of cases and availability of services. Teachers have an additional responsibility to protect children by abstaining from inflicting any harm to children but also to report cases to the appropriate authorities. Considering the centrality of schools to ensure the protection of children, schools must be guided by mandatory reporting policies establishing clear reporting mechanisms, teachers must be capacitated to educate children and manage classrooms without resorting to violence and children must learn how to prevent violence and report cases.

It is in furtherance of the above, UNICEF is seeking to hire a national consultant to be based in Abuja to provide technical leadership in the integration of child protection principles in ending violence against children in schools into the education system including ongoing Programmes, curricula and policies in alignment with the child protection system strengthening strategy under the supervision of Child Protection specialist (social welfare) and Child Protection System Strengthening manager based in Abuja.

Major Tasks to be accomplished by each consultant:

1. Desk review of relevant materials including education Policies, Curriculum, Programmes, child protection assessments and studies related to violence against children and develop Workplan (methodology) for the implementation for the assignment

2. High level stakeholders’ advocacy and consultation to leverage commitment, support, participation and ownership by the education sector at Federal and at least 4 states

3. Consultation with key stakeholders from Education, Child Protection sectors and representatives of civil society organizations on ending violence against children in schools

4. Develop child safeguarding policy for schools at federal, state and local government level and guideline for operationalizing the policy

5. Consolidate finalize and validate violence against children in schools mandatory reporting protocol and develop a roadmap for operationalizing the protocol

6. Facilitate consultations for the endorsement of the child protection inter agency protocols on integrated child protection case management at federal and state levels

7. Develop guidelines and implementation strategy for s capacity building of duty bearers in the education sector including guidelines for the following: -

§  Training of School Officials, Personnel, Parents, pupils & students on positive and nonviolent discipline in classroom management and gender sensitivity

§  Trainings and seminars integrating and teaching children’s rights in the classroom

§  Training of School Officials, Personnel and Ministry of Education on the finalised child safeguarding policy at state and LGA levels

§  Training on child protection integrated case management and mandatory reporting protocol

8. Develop tools and guidelines for reporting, tracking, referral and response on violence against children in schools

9. Develop and support the operationalization of monitoring framework for preventing and responding to violence against children in schools

• 1. End Product: (e.g. final report, article, document etc.)  

  2.  

     Under the technical guidance of an Abuja based Child Protection Specialist, will deliver the following:

1. Inception and desk review report highlighting gaps child protection gaps in key education Policies including strategy on the integration of child protection into the education sector
2. Child Safeguarding Policy and operationalization guidelines
3. Mandatory reporting protocol and a roadmap for operationalizing the protocol including tools and guidelines for reporting, tracking, referral and response on violence against children in schools
4. at federal and 4 focus states
5. Endorsed child protection inter agency protocols by the education sector on integrated child protection case management in 4 focus states
6. Revised education policy integrating child protection issues
7. Guidelines, training packages and implementation strategy for capacity building of teachers in the education sector (teachers training manual on positive discipline and other child protection teaching aids for teachers)
8. Monitoring framework for preventing and responding to violence against children in schools

Qualifications or specialized knowledge/experience required:  

• Advanced university degree in education/child protection or related field (masters or equivalent)
• A minimum of Eight years of relevant professional work experience with projects related to child protection in the education section
• Experience in the field of prevention and responding to violence against children in schools
• Experience in the field of child protection system strengthening is an asset
• Excellent planning and organizational skills
• Strong communication skills - both oral and written
• Experience with UNICEF is desirable
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Experience working with government desirable

Duty station is Abuja with frequent travels to focus states

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.

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