Child Protection Officer – UNV jobs in Liberia

• Location: Monrovia, Liberia
• Vacancy No: N/A 
• Salary: N/A
• Organization: UNV
• Gender: Both
• Deadline: 2024-03-29

Details
Mission and objectives
UNICEF has been working in Liberia for close to 30 years, turning our vision for children into practical action.

With our child-focused mandate, country presence and operational capacity, we support the Government of Liberia and other partners to help every child reach their full potential.

The goal of our current country programme for 2013-2019 is to:

Make sure that every child and adolescent has access to basic education and a variety of post-basic education and improved learning outcomes.
Improve the health, nutrition and welfare of children and women on an equitable basis.
Increase access to the basics of life – safe water, sanitation and hygiene
Protect the poorest and most vulnerable children and women from all forms of violence.
Our interventions are supported by a robust monitoring and evaluation system that helps us track and improve results for children. Behaviour change communication is a key strategy across all our programmes, while advocacy and resource mobilization ensure that policies and funding are in place to bring about positive change for children in Liberia.

Context
Liberia is a youthful country. Children under the age of 15 make up 42 per cent of its population while 63 per cent is under 25. This gives the country a great task at hand: to protect its young people from harm while giving them the space and opportunity to develop and lead the country forward. Yet, most of Liberia’s children, adolescents and youth are trapped in a cycle of violence, poverty and deprivation, experience violence, struggle to get educated, and find it difficult to find decent employment. Violence against children and adolescents, especially girls, is rampant, including rape, abuse, harassment and exploitation. In 2015, 89 per cent of reported rape survivors were children, with 39 per cent 12 years or younger. Sexual harassment in schools in the form of ‘sex for grades’ and ‘sex for school fees’ is common. Violent discipline is also a widely accepted practice, while at least 31 per cent of children (2-14 years old) were engaged in some form of labour.

Harmful cultural and traditional practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) are among the worst forms of violence practiced against children in Liberia. Birth registration, which is the first critical first step towards safeguarding lifelong protection for a child, is out of reach for many children in Liberia. The country has one of the lowest levels of birth registration in the world: less than one quarter of all births are registered. When vulnerable children and adolescents come into conflict with the law, they are often exposed to even more violence and distress.

In Liberia, UNICEF is helping to build a comprehensive child protection system to keep children safe. This means supporting the implementation of laws, especially the Children’s Law, and relevant policies, regulations and services that protect children from harm, and that respond to, and support victims and survivors. Protection starts at birth. UNICEF supports the delivery of birth registration services by building the capacity of government, increasing the availability and quality of services and mobilizing parents and communities to register their children.

A key priority in Liberia is to stop the violence that children experience every day. We collaborate with the government, civil society and development agencies to strengthen community-based protection and response services to prevent all forms of violence against children or provide assistance should it occur. To help adolescents fulfil their potential, UNICEF supports the government to provide life skills and vocational training, and to protect adolescents, especially girls, from abuse, sexual violence and harmful traditional practices. Young people are also given opportunities to have a say on policies and programmes through SMS-based tools such as U-Report and the Children’s Representative Forum and Adolescent Girls’ Forum.

UNICEF’s work in child justice involves strengthening laws and systems to better protect children in contact with the law, especially by supporting them to receive support and rehabilitation at community level, rather than be detained in adult facilities. This United Nations Volunteers (UNV) assignment is part of UNICEF’s Violence Against Children programming and strengthening of the child protection system initiatives, among others.

The office will reserve the selection for a candidate from the Minority groups in Liberia

Task description
Under the direct supervision of the Chief, Child Protection Section, the Youth United Nations Volunteer will support the child protection section to strengthen their knowledge management to ensure better data and evidence for results for children.

The UNV Child Protection Officer will:
• Act as the Child Protection Section’s disability data and inclusion champion
• Manage the Child Protection Section’s SharePoint: ensuring timely updates of information, resources, and product, to ensure value-added knowledge sharing across the team
• Develop a progress monitoring tool (with disability and gender data) to track UNICEF’s Child Protection Results for Children in Liberia.
• Develop a dashboard to monitor development and humanitarian situations that potentially have an impact on the protection of children in Liberia.
• To support the communication team at UNICEF to capture the best practices, success stories and shed light to the activities of the implementing partners to ensure the visibility for the donors.
• Assist the team with data (dashboards) in preparation of concept notes, proposals and donor reports.
• Undertake any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.

Eligibility criteria
Age
18 – 26

Nationality
Candidate must be a national or legal resident of the country of assignment.

Requirements
Required experience
3 years of experience in • Knowledge management and data analysis
. Excellent oral and written skills; excellent drafting, formulation, reporting skills;
• Accuracy and professionalism in document production and editing;
• Experience working in the UN or other international development organization.
• Experience with UNICEF an asset
• Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners, including grassroots community members, religious and youth organizations, and authorities at different levels; familiarity with tools and approaches of communications for development;
• Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel;
• Solid overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, among others), email, and internet; familiarity with database management; and office technology equipment;
• Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision; ability to work with tight deadlines;
• Desirable: valid national driver’s license and proven ability to drive manual gear 4×4 over rough terrain;
• Sound security awareness;
• Have affinity with or interest in Child Protection, volunteerism as a mechanism for durable development, and the UN system.

Area(s) of expertise
Social work, Communication, Information technology

Driving license
–

Languages
English, Level: Fluent, Required

Required education level
Bachelor degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, Computer Sciences, Mathematics, Law, or Journalism

Competencies and values
Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement, which includes solidarity, compassion, reciprocity and self-reliance; and commitment towards UNICEF’s mission & vision, as well as to the UNICEF’s Core Values of care, respect, integrity, trust, accountability and sustainability.

Other information
Living conditions and remarks
Liberia is a unique country. It provides an interesting and enriching environment, but also requires a mature level of cultural awareness, as well as stamina and commitment. Therefore, flexibility and the ability and willingness to live and work in harsh and potentially hazardous conditions, involving physical hardship and little comfort, are essential.

You can check full entitlements at the duty station at https://app.unv.org/calculator.
The complete UN Volunteer Conditions of Service is available at https://explore.unv.org/cos.”

Inclusivity statement
United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Reasonable accommodation
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for UN Volunteers with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process and afterwards in your assignment.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements
In addition to duty station-specific vaccine requirements, appointments are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the appointment. It does not apply to UN Volunteers who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their contracts.

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