National Consultant on Health Sector Response to Violence Against Children at UNICEF

Job Number: 515314
Location: Abuja
Work Type: Consultancy
The duration of this consultancy: 6 months

Purpose of Assignment

• Under the overall guidance of the Child Protection Chief, the national consultant will contribute to the design and integration of child protection programme on ending violence against children in the Health setting to existing health Programmes, Polices and guideline to contribute to the prevention and response of violence against children in the health sector.

Background
Children have a right to be free from all forms of abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect. In recent years, the global community has increasingly recognized that (i) the number of children experiencing abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect is significant, and is rising in some areas (ii) efforts to address child protection issues have been poorly coordinated and resourced, with a focus on stand-alone/single issue based projects (such as on sexual exploitation, child trafficking, street children, child labour etc. with limited sustainability; and (iii) children face multiple risks - abuse can be combined with exploitation and/or abandonment, for example, yet many programs are designed to address a single risk.

To corroborate this, the findings of the 2014 VAC Survey highlighted shocking statistics on the various forms of violence children face in Nigeria. Key highlights indicate that before the age of 18 years, 6 out 10 children experience some form of violence; 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 10 boys experience sexual violence and majority of the children reported multiple incidents.

The survey further reveals that children are not speaking out or seeking or receiving services. i.e. less than 6% of children who experience sexual or physical violence sought help and less that 5% of those who sought help receive help. These Statistics indicated that very few children knew where to seek help after suffering violence (15.6% of girls and 26.1% of boys who experienced sexual abuse in the last 12 months) and a low percentage of children reported their experiences (5.2% girls and 3.4 boys). It is also distressing to note that out of the few children that reported only 4.2% girls and 3.4% boys received any help. Violence Against Children including physical, emotional and sexual abuse, including sexual assault or rape of children and adolescents is a major global public health problem, a violation of human rights and has many health consequences in the short and long term.

The physical, sexual, reproductive health and mental health consequences of such abuse are wide ranging and need to be addressed. Data from several settings show that children are disproportionately represented among the cases of sexual abuse that are brought to the attention of health care providers. Health services in many instances are slow to recognize violence against children, lack staff trained on identifying and responding to violence against children, have limited resources and seldom consider violence against children as health problem, are reluctant to talk about it and may not know how to help.

The consultant will be responsible for the implementation of the following tasks:

• Conduct literature reviews of both qualitative and quantitative studies to identify values and preferences to inform good practices and guiding principles
• Stakeholders consultation to review existing health policies and inform policy recommendations for the integration of child protection issues and health sector response to VAC
• Develop and validate national guidelines and protocols for the health sector response child victim/survivors of violence, consistent with international human rights standards and WHO guidelines
• Develop, validate and finalize pocket books with messages on VAC, guiding principles for front line health care providers (general practitioners, nurses, paediatricians, gynaecologists etc.)
• Develop guidelines and implementation strategy for sustained capacity building of health care providers (1) training of health care providers on VAC and child friendly/sensitive health care (2) Integration of training on child protection in pre-and in -service curriculum for all health professionals
• Develop strategy for strengthening routine reporting and documentation of violence against children and final report

End Product

• Inception and literation review report documenting good practices and guiding principles for delivery of clinical care for child victims/survivors of violence
• National guidelines and protocols for health sector response to VAC and safe guarding policy
• Pocket books with messages on child protection and VAC including guiding principles for front line health care providers (general practitioners, nurses, paediatricians, gynaecologists etc.) and short messages on health sector response to VAC for different categories of health care providers
• Guideline and implementation strategy for sustained capacity building and training material /pre and in-service curriculum on CP and VAC for health care providers
• Mandatory reporting policy and protocol for health facilities and health care providers and a roadmap for operationalizing the protocol including tools and guidelines for reporting, tracking, referral and response on violence against children

Qualifications or Specialized Knowledge/Experience Required

• Advanced university degree in Medicine, Health promotion/child psychology or related field (masters or equivalent)
• A minimum of eight years of relevant professional work experience with projects related to child protection in the education section
• Experience in the field child psychology and clinical care of children
• Experience in the field of child protection system strengthening is an asset
• Excellent planning and organizational skills
• Strong communication skills - both oral and written
• Experience with UNICEF is desirable
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Experience working with government desirable