Child Protection officer

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF's core mission is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does: in programs; in advocacy; and in operations. The equity strategy, which focuses on the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment into action for children's rights. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have the opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the extent that a child has unequal opportunities in life in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions - his or her rights are violated.

Context

For 75 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. In Mali, children face a variety and multiple forms of abuse and exploitation at different level; within their families, in their communities, on the streets as well as in institutions, that are supposed to protect them. The crisis that Mali has experienced since 2012 has had an enormous impact on the lives of children through various forms of grave violations of their rights, namely the recruitment and use of children, sexual violence, exposure to remnants of war and improvised explosive devices, in addition to other child protection issues affecting them before the crisis (violence, abuse, ill-treatment, etc...). The conflict has led to a massive displacement of populations from the Northern regions to the Southern regions and neighboring countries (Mauritania, Niger, Algeria, Burkina Faso) and thus causing the separation of children from their families and communities. Families in host communities, already for the majority in precarious situations, have to deal with the economic consequences resulting from an exacerbated pressure on their limited resources. UNICEF Mali is working with it’s partners from government and civil society by providing support to prevent and respond to child protection issues. Child protection system strengthening is among the strategic intervention in this field. strengthening the children's justice system is among the priority areas of intervention in this framework. It is a question of revitalizing the collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, strengthening the capacities of justice actors, reinforcing data collection and reporting and supporting legislative reforms.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Child Protection officer or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteer Child Protection Officer will: • Provide technical assistance for the planning, implementation and monitoring of the UNICEF “Strengthening the Justice System for children” annual plan, • Provide technical assistance to civil society and institutional actors in the field of transitional justice, especially supporting the dissemination of the final report of the Malian Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission to children and youth audiences. • Support chief of section/Child protection Specialist to conduct Child Protection Assessments and Situation Monitoring in coordination with CP colleagues in zone offices. • With a focus on justice for children and transitional justice, contribute to monitoring the trends and emerging evidence of child protection concerns as well as the response by actors, support the analysis of this information to advise on the child protection response priorities and support advocacy. • Contribute to resources mobilization for the Child Protection response through coordination with field offices and other sections within UNICEF, elaboration of project proposals and reporting to donors, as appropriate. • Contribute to the child protection programme quality through the design of partnership documents, periodic meetings with partners, programmatic visits, and other monitoring and evaluation activities. • Provide technical guidance to national child protection governmental and nongovernmental actors regarding response planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, reporting and evaluation. • Facilitate linkages with other interventions in the framework of the triple nexus humanitarian-development-peacebuilding and support the mainstreaming of Gender equality and Youth participation in UNICEF-supported projects. • Depending on the needs identified by the Chief of section, support the other Child Protection programme when needed. Results/expected outputs • As an active UNV team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNICEF and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including: o Timely and quality support is provided to the UNICEF Child Protection programming in the fields of justice for children system strengthening, transitional justice and children on the move, o Resources are mobilized through the elaboration of concept notes, project proposals, briefing notes and evidence-based reports. o Partners are monitored and evaluated, and their interventions are supported through adequate capacity building. o New partnerships are designed based on identified needs. • Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed