Organization: UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund
Location: Juba
Grade: Mid level – P-3, International Professional – Internationally recruited position
Occupational Groups:
Women’s Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming
Children’s rights (health and protection)
Sexual and reproductive health
Emergency Aid and Response
Protection Officer (Refugee)
Gender-based violence
Drugs, Anti-Money Laundering, Terrorism and Human Trafficking
Closing Date: 2024-07-31
UNICEF South Sudan is looking for an experienced professional passionate about positively impacting every child to join the team as Child Protection Specialist (Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies (GBViE)). The individual will provide oversight for quality assurance and coherence with UNICEF’s global level GBViE Operational Guidance and Resource Pack, other global standards and guidelines, UNICEF Core Commitment for Children in Humanitarian Action, Strategic Plan and Gender Action Plan.
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.
UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.
Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.
For every child, Protection
Across South Sudan, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) including sexual violence, intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), and child marriage, are pervasive. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, exploitation, and abuse, with child marriage on the rise. However, access to lifesaving multi-sectoral GBV responses, including health, GBV case management, psychosocial support, higher-level mental health, and other services, is very limited. Across health services, there is a severe shortage of medical personnel trained in Clinical Management of Rape (CMR) and basic psychosocial support is insufficient. Even in locations where there are services, there are multiple barriers to survivors seeking support, including self-blame, fear of reprisals, mistrust of authorities, and risk of retaliatory attacks coupled with cultural norms and values promote a culture of silence. Quality of care and capacity of service providers also impact the utilization of services when available. Deep-rooted gender inequalities in education, economic opportunities, decision-making, harmful socio-cultural norms, and weakened social and community support systems perpetuate vulnerability and marginalization, disempowering women and girls. As a consequence, South Sudanese women and girls have some of the lowest education and health outcomes in the world.
How can you make a difference?
PURPOSE OF POST
Under the overall supervision of the Child Protection Specialist (GBViE) (P4) and working closely with the Health Manager (HSTP), the Child Protection Specialist (GBViE) (P3) will provide oversight for quality assurance and coherence with UNICEF’s global level GBViE Operational Guidance and Resource Pack, other global standards and guidelines, UNICEF Core Commitment for Children in Humanitarian Action, Strategic Plan and Gender Action Plan. The Child Protection Specialist (GBViE) Specialist will support the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of UNICEF’s GBV-related prevention, and mitigation in South Sudan ensuring overall efficiency, effectiveness, and delivery of results by national and international standards including UNICEF’s and IASC technical guidelines. The Specialist will be responsible for providing strategic direction, high quality technical guidance, and assistance for the design, planning, and expansion of GBV-related health services within the HSTP.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Provide technical support to UNICEF South Sudan to improve GBV-related health services.
Work with the Ministry of Health, UNICEF Health section, and implementing partners to strengthen GBV service delivery in health facilities by enhancing the capacity of healthcare providers to deliver quality care to survivors through training, support, and supervision, including GBV prevention and response, CMR, and IPV.
Implement a detailed capacity building plan to ensure healthcare providers are trained to provide:
Survivor-centred care and PFA to all GBV survivors.
CMR includes history taking, the physical and genito-anal exam, treatment, follow-up and referral for specialist services, and legal reporting requirements (Form 8)
Care to survivors of IPV and care for child survivors adapted to their needs and capacities.
Develop approaches to improve coordination and development of functional referral pathway systems between health and GBV service providers at the national, state, and county levels through training, materials, and other support.
Support implementing partners conduct facility-based assessments to assess the readiness of health facilities to provide GBV services and safety audits to identify GBV risks in and around health facilities. This will include country-wide facility assessment and safety audits, consultations, and training for assessment. Based on findings from safety audits and assessments, develop mitigation measures to address GBV risks identified within and around health facilities.
Provide technical support to expand and strengthen UNICEF GBViE programming.
In collaboration with the Child Protection Specialist (GBViE) (P4) and Child Protection section, provide technical support and guidance on the formulation, design, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of GBViE programmes to ensure overall efficiency and effectiveness of programme management, delivery and accomplishment of programme goals and objectives.
Work with the UNICEF field offices to design, plan, and coordinate the scale-up of GBViE interventions for priority locations.
Support the planning, design, and development of partnerships with women-led organisations to enhance GBV service delivery and their leadership in humanitarian responses in South Sudan.
Develop detailed capacity-building plans to strengthen GBV service delivery in line with global standards adapted to the needs of UNICEF implementing partners and government counterparts.
Provide technical support on the development and/or implementation of relevant UNICEF programming strategy documents, policy documents, and advocacy to address GBV.
Prepare updates and briefings on GBViE for senior management levels to ensure understanding and prioritisation of programming to address GBVIE.
Work with UNICEF sectors and clusters and inter-agency partners to ensure GBV prevention, risk mitigation, and response are adequately integrated across sectors and actions to reduce risks of GBV are implemented.
Actively engage in and provide technical support to the GBV and Child Protection Area of Responsibility (AoR) to ensure a comprehensive plan of action to better address GBV including:
To support capacity building initiatives to strengthen GBV case management practices in line with minimum standards (integrated with child protection whenever appropriate);
To support safe information sharing practices including through interagency information management systems.
In collaboration with UNICEF Child Protection Specialist (GBViE) (P4), work closely with priority UNICEF sectors and clusters to develop plans to integrate GBV risk mitigation measures across programming in line with the Interagency Minimum Standards and the IASC GBV Guidelines.
Engage with UNICEF Nutrition section to improve GBV risk mitigation measures are in place to improve women and girls’ safer access to Nutrition facilities and increase nutrition outcomes for children.
Support programme knowledge acquisition and monitoring through systematic collection of country experience and the provision of GBVIE-related technical support.
Plan and/or collaborate with internal and external partners to establish monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators, and other UNICEF/UN system indicators and measurements to assess/strengthen performance accountability, coherence, and delivery of concrete and sustainable results.
Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, program reviews, and annual reviews with government and other counterparts to assess progress and to determine required action/interventions to achieve results.
Document lessons learned and good practices from UNICEF’s partnerships with new and existing women-led organisations.
Contribute to UNICEF South Sudan’s capacity for improved participatory monitoring and evaluation, learning exchanges, and forums on GBV interventions. This may also include representation at national and regional forums both internally and externally and ensuring linkages with other countries.
Actively monitor financial and human resource capacity to ensure sufficient resources are in place to effectively achieve the goals noted above.
Ensure allocation and management of sufficient financial and human resource capacity to effectively achieve UNICEF GBViE commitments.
Facilitate the inclusion of GBV into humanitarian appeal processes and documents. As needed, support reporting and writing funding proposals.
Prepare programme reports for management as required.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum requirements:
Education:
Advanced university degree or equivalent in public health, the social sciences or other relevant field related to GBViE in emergency programming.
Work Experience:
A minimum of 5 years of GBViE programming experience with either the UN and/or NGO in emergency settings.
Proven experience working on GBV integration in health services desired.
Skills:
Strong understanding of health responses to GBV including clinical management of rape and demonstrated expertise with GBV case management systems, GBV programming approaches, practices, and applications i.e. on Adolescent Girl Programming, GBViE Minimum Standards, GBVIMS, IASC GBV guidelines.
Proven experience of planning and facilitating training, workshops, and other capacity building modalities.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to effectively liaise with people in a wide range of functions in a multi-cultural environment.
Experience in collecting, collating, and analysing data effectively with strong report writing skills.
Demonstrates, applies, and shares expert technical knowledge across the organisation.
Strong planning, project management and budget skills required.
Ability to work independently and productively, with multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.
Language Requirements:
Fluency in English is required (excellent analytical, communication, writing and editorial skills in English). Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
Desirables:
Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency.
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
The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…
(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others
Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.
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 measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will 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.
UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.
Remarks:
As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.
UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.
Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions 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.
UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.
All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.