Website UNICEF
Regional Adviser Child Protection
Job no: 564835
Position type: Fixed Term Appointment
Location: Nepal
Division/Equivalent: Kathmandu(ROSA)
School/Unit: Regional Services Div (SAR), Kathmandu
Department/Office: Reg Serv – Prog Section, Kathmandu
Categories: Child Protection
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
For every child, Hope
The Regional Advisor, Child Protection provides leadership and advocacy to accelerate progress in the region, responding to the violence against children, strengthening child protection system, and addressing harmful social norms to achieve results towards the Strategic Plan. ROSA especially focuses on supporting countries in scaling up social service workforce, strengthening justice for children, CRVS, ending child marriage and child labour, scaling up mental health and psychosocial support and addressing child protection in humanitarian settings. Cross-sectoral collaboration is at the core of how ROSA works in combination with contextualized programming and working through and expanding partnerships.
How can you make a difference?
Regional advisory services and technical support on strategic planning
- Advise key national government officials, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners on policies, strategies, approaches and best practices on child protection and related issues, including emergency preparedness, to support programme development planning, management, implementation and delivery of results.
- Participate in regional/country programme planning, preparation and reviews to provide advice on the formulation, design, management, enhancement and communication of child protection programmes including setting priorities and results-based management goals.
- Participate in key regional events and strategic discussions to influence policy discussions and agenda setting on child protection and rights to survival, development and well being in society.
- Develop and recommend regional programme policy/papers, strategies and approaches. Lead and organize regional strategic discussions and planning on child protection and related programming issues. Contribute to NYHQ/Global programme policy/papers, strategies and approaches. Collaborate with NYHQ and other Regional Advisers/Country Offices on cross cutting issues to harmonize, link and/or leverage competencies.
Support to country offices on programme development and planning
- Collaborate with Regional Management/Country Office teams throughout all stages of child protection programming to provide technical support to programme preparation, implementation and monitoring for results.
- Provide policy guidance and technical support to national external partners and internal colleagues to develop national policies/strategies for UNICEF assisted programmes including scaling up child protection programmes.
- Contribute to the planning and updating of the situation analysis to ensure that current and comprehensive data on child protection issues is available to guide UNICEF’s strategic policy advocacy, intervention and development efforts on child rights and protection, and to set programme priorities, strategies, design and implementation plans.
- Keep abreast of national, regional and international development priorities on child protection and rights to leverage UNICEF’s position and competencies with donors, national governments, communities and constituents to advocate and promote child protection interventions, policies and social change to achieve goals on child’s rights, protection, survival and wellbeing, as productive members of society.
- Provide technical advice to facilitate the preparation of Country Office child protection programme recommendations and related documentation to ensure alignment of programme goals with UNICEF’s overall Strategic Plans and regional strategies.
- Consult and collaborate with national/global colleagues, partners and allies to develop partnership frameworks to address specific needs and to leverage resources for enhancing and scaling up child protection programmes/projects.
- Evaluate and facilitate synergy, integration, coherence, and harmonization of programmes and projects with UNICEF Strategic Plans and priorities, donors’ development strategies and policies, national priorities and competencies, and UN System development interventions and initiatives.
Regional programme monitoring and assessment
- Collaborate with HQ Advisers and Regional/Country Monitoring and Evaluation Adviser/Officers to establish benchmarks, performance indicators and other UNICEF/UN system indicators and measurements to assess and strengthen performance accountability, coherence and delivery of concrete and sustainable results on child protection programmes.
- Participate in major monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sector reviews with government and other counterparts to assess progress and to provide advice on required actions and interventions to achieve results.
- Assess COs monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths and/or weaknesses in programme management. Identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals.
- Submit and share assessments on child protection programmes in country offices highlighting critical issues and suggestions for enhancing performance and delivery of sustainable results.
Advocacy, networking and partnership building
- Build and strengthen strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with regional and national government counterparts, UN system agency partners, donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, funding organizations, research institutes and private sector to reinforce cooperation and/or pursue opportunities to promote goals and achieve sustainable and broad results on child protection programmes and projects.
- Collaborate with and advise country offices in the region to develop strategies and implementation plans and activities for maximum communication impact and outreach to promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances and support resource mobilization for UNICEF and Country Office child protection programmes and projects.
- Participate and/or represent UNICEF (as delegated/designated) in key events/meetings and in inter-agency (UNCT) discussions and planning on child protection and related issues to ensure organizational position, interests and priorities are clearly articulated and fully considered/integrated in the UNDAF process in development planning and agenda setting. Collaborate with regional inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNDAF planning and preparation of related programmes and project.
Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
- Promote critical thinking and introduce technological and programme innovations, approaches and good practices in the region for sustainable child protection programme/project initiatives through advocacy and technical advisory services.
- Keep abreast, research, benchmark, introduce and implement best and cutting edge practices in the region’s child protection programme management and information systems. Institutionalize and share best practices and knowledge learned.
- Identify, assess, vet and disseminate a roster of qualified experts and highly recognized institutions for easy access and use by stakeholders.
- Lead and/or develop policies and procedures and introduce innovation and best practices to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programmes and projects.
- Lead, plan and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders to promote sustainable results on child protection programmes and projects.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields is required: international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.
- A minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection related areas, at the international level, is required.
- Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
- Relevant experience in programme development in child protection related areas in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
- Experience in both development and humanitarian contexts is an added advantage.
- Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic,
- Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
For every Child, you demonstrate...
UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values
UNICEF competencies required for this post are…
- Builds and maintains partnerships (2)
- Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness(2)
- Drive to achieve results for impact (2)
- Innovates and embraces change (2)
- Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)
- Thinks and acts strategically (2)
- Works collaboratively with others (2)
- Nurtures, leads and manages people (2)
During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks:
UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children.
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Application close: Aug 23 2023 Nepal Standard Time