Senior Protection Officer (Child Protection), (re-advertised)

Org. Setting and Reporting

UNRWA, the largest United Nations operation in the Middle East with over 30,000 staff working across five areas of operation, is looking for highly committed personnel wishing to make a change.

If you are looking for a rewarding opportunity to make a tangible difference for one of the most vulnerable communities in the world, UNRWA would like to hear from you.

The Senior Protection Officer (Child Protection) reports to the Chief of Protection Division and coordinates with and provides technical advice to Child Protection Officers in each of the field locations in designing and implementing inclusive Agency-wide child protection policy and strategies.

Responsibilities

- Coordinates the development of agency-wide child protection strategies, policies, and associated priorities to promote sustainable results on child protection including defining approaches for child protection situation monitoring and analysis, policy advocacy, humanitarian responses and child protection mainstreaming, performance measurement service packages, risk assessment and analysis, and defining protection roles and responsibilities.

- Coordinates and technically supports the development of inclusive child protection programmes/projects either through direct UNRWA child protection interventions or the integration of child protection into existing programmes and projects.

- Leads the development, keeps up-to-date, researches, benchmarks, and introduces innovation and best practices in inclusive community-based inclusive child protection prevention and response, child participation, research with children, child safeguarding and accessible child friendly feedback and accountability mechanisms. Institutionalizes and disseminates best practices and knowledge and designs, organizes, and implements capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of UNRWA staff, targeted community structures, and other stakeholders.

- Leads in agency-wide discussions on inclusive child protection emergency preparedness, programming and contingency planning to ensure proactive and appropriate responses are in place to meet onset of emergencies for UNRWA operations.

- Supports the Agency’s engagement with the monitoring and reporting mechanism (MRM) on grave violations against children in armed conflict.

- Collaborates with UNRWA programmes and other members of the protection division to mainstream child protection in all UNRWA programmes, systems, and services including the design and implementation of new initiatives and technically support current ones.

- Prepares advocacy and communication strategies and implementation plans and activities to promote children’s rights and outreach to promote awareness and establishes partnerships/alliances.

- Builds and strengthens strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with host authorities, UN Agencies, Funds, and Programmes, donors, NGOs, research institutes and private sector to reinforce cooperation and/or pursue opportunities for child protection.

Competencies

UN Core Values of Integrity, Professionalism and Respect for Diversity, and Core Competencies of Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results apply by default. Default managerial competencies may apply.

- Managing Complexity and Change
- Creating and Maintaining Impact and Partnership
- Applying Technical Expertise
- Deciding and Initiating Action
- Planning and Organizing

For guidance on how to prepare for competency-based interviews: https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=AYI

Education

Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) from an accredited educational institution in international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or other related social science field.

Work Experience

A minimum of eight years of progressively responsible and relevant professional experience in child protection, social development, social protection, human rights, disability inclusion or related areas is required.

At least four years of relevant work experience in programme development and management and/or technical support in child protection related areas in a UN system agency, NGO or international organization is required.

Unless already serving as an international staff member in the UN Common System, a candidate for an international post must have at least two continuous years of relevant international experience outside UNRWA, and outside the country(s) of which the candidate is a national or holds citizenship, a passport or a national identity number is required.

Experience in an emergency or conflict context is desirable.

Previous experience in Middle East & Northern Africa or in any of UNRWA’s fields of operation is desirable.

Languages

Excellent command of spoken and written English.

Working level knowledge of Arabic is desirable.

Assessment

Evaluation of qualified candidates may include an assessment exercise which may be followed by competency-based interview.

Special Notice

Type of Contract and duration: 2 years, with the possibility of further extension.

Note: This post is re-advertised. Applicants who applied to JO number 175379 need not to re-apply.

The Senior Protection Officer (Child Protection) will be required to reside in Amman and will be required to travel frequently within, and occasionally outside, the Agency’s area of operations in the Middle East.

Applicants have to complete the Personal History Profile (PHP) in Inspira in order to be considered. The PHP should be completed with full relevant work experience as per the requirements in the Job Opening, in order to be considered.

A roster may be created from the selection exercise, and successful candidates may become eligible for an appointment to the same post or a similar post.

Equivalency:
A first level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

NB: Work experience alone or formal qualifications with no relevant work experience are not considered an acceptable combination.

UNRWA welcomes applications from qualified candidates with disabilities.

UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states, regional bodies, business foundations and individual contributions. The mission of UNRWA is to help Palestine refugees achieve their full potential in human development under the difficult circumstances in which they live.

For more details on UNRWA, please visit: https://www.unrwa.org/

United Nations Considerations

Staff members are subject to the authority of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA and to assignment by him or her.

UNRWA is committed to achieving gender parity at all levels of staffing under the current UN-wide gender agenda and strongly encourages applications from qualified applicants from under-represented groups.

At UNRWA, the paramount consideration in the recruitment and employment of staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, with due regard to geographic diversity. All employment decisions are made on the basis of qualifications and organizational needs. UNRWA is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. Reasonable accommodation for applicants with disabilities may be provided to support participation in the recruitment process when requested and indicated in the application.

UNRWA Considerations
UNRWA staff are expected to uphold the highest standards of efficiency, competence, neutrality, impartiality and integrity. This includes respect for and commitment to human rights, diversity and non-violent means of dealing with all kinds of conflict. Only persons who fully and unconditionally commit to these values should consider applying for UNRWA jobs. Candidates will not be considered for employment with UNRWA if they have committed violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have been involved in the commission of any of these acts. Candidates who have committed crimes other than minor traffic offences may not be considered for employment. The Agency may disqualify applicants who have separated for reason of misconduct, who left a UN Agency while misconduct processes were pending, or who appear on the UN Sanctions List.
UNRWA is a non-smoking work environment.

Applicants are urged to follow carefully all instructions available in the online recruitment platform, inspira. For more detailed guidance, applicants may refer to the Manual for the Applicant, which can be accessed by clicking on “Manuals” hyper-link on the upper right side of the inspira account-holder homepage.

The evaluation of applicants will be conducted on the basis of the information submitted in the application according to the evaluation criteria of the job opening and the applicable internal legislations of the United Nations including the Charter of the United Nations, resolutions of the General Assembly, the Staff Regulations and Rules, administrative issuances and guidelines. Applicants must provide complete and accurate information pertaining to their personal profile and qualifications according to the instructions provided in inspira to be considered for the current job opening. No amendment, addition, deletion, revision or modification shall be made to applications that have been submitted. Candidates under serious consideration for selection will be subject to reference checks to verify the information provided in the application.

Job openings advertised on the Careers Portal will be removed at 11:59 p.m. (New York time) on the deadline date.