Child Protection Officer/Clinical Psychologist at Plan International

Role Purpose

• Plan International has secured funding from the German government through its German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) for the implementation of a Child Protection Mobile program intervention in order to address the immediate protection needs of children, adolescents and their families affected by the crisis in North-East Nigeria
• The crisis in North-East Nigeria has adverse psychological impact on children and caregivers thus building their resilience and coping mechanism is key to their recovers and fostering of social cohesion
• In this regard, Plan International is recruiting Child Protection Officers/Clinical Psychologists who will be responsible provide community based mental health and psychosocial support children, adolescents and their families, coordinate and lead community mobilization; capacity building for community-based actors in line with International minimum standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and MHPSS guidelines.
• The post holder will be supervised directly by the Project Coordinator and technically by the Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist
• S/He is expected to work very closely with other members of the program team. Initial assignment is for 12 months with possibility of extension of up to 36 months depending on satisfactory performance and availability of funding.

Dimensions of Role

• Communicates within Plan International Nigeria and with partners and related government institutions
• The post holder will coordinate the community mental health and psychosocial support and community based protection programming interfacing with other programme team members
• The post holder will also contribute towards the capacity building of Plan Internationals implementing partners and government counterparts
• The role is part of a Mobile team responsible to provide rapid response services and must be willing to deploy in a very short notice in areas highly affected by influx of IDPs, volatile security and extremely hard to reach communities cut off by natural disaster like floods.

Key Roles/Responsibilities
In collaboration with the Field Team, Project Coordinator and CPiE Specialist, the Community  Engagement Officer will:

• Support the strengthening of child protection community-based systems inclusive of developing trainings, supervision/coaching tools, monitoring and tracking tools and improve referral systems;
• Support the establishment and strengthening of community based mechanisms and groups including parent support groups, child protection committees and foster caregivers,
• Support community advocates and children to develop participatory media and other IEC materials to use in the community to raise awareness;
• Conduct training and follow-up with community based service providers on community based mental health and psychosocial support
• Conduct screening and assessment of beneficiaries and develop individual treatment and rehabilitation plans according to their needs
• Design and facilitate community mobilization/sensitization campaigns in collaboration with community volunteers, Community Based Protection Mechanisms, and children/adolescents
• Provide psycho-education to children, adolescents and their families
• Provide psychological counselling services to children, adolescents and their families including survivors of GBV
• Ensure mental health and psychosocial support needs of children, adolescent and their families are captured during rapid needs assessment and relevant actions are planned.
• When necessary, develop and facilitate group therapy and support group sessions in coordination with the multidisciplinary team
• Organize community, rehabilitation and awareness activities including community dialogues, sensitizations with children, adolescents and their families in coordination with the case managers
• Provide ongoing support and ensure child participation and safeguarding practices are strictly adhered to;
• Supervise all mobile child friendly space psychosocial activities including designing of activities in consultation with case managers, volunteers, adolescents and children.
• Ensure all Plan International CFS and Safe Spaces in assigned locations are in line with the quality standards for Child Friendly Spaces and Safe Space guidelines.
• Identify, report and provide on-the-job coaching and supervision for Case Managers related to child participation and child protection;
• Produce weekly and monthly data and regular narrative reports for Project Coordinator to feed into overall project and donor report
• Ensure project staff safety and security, and ensure all Plan International policies and principles are upheld as well as International Minimum Standards for Child Protection, Case Management, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support guidelines and UNHCR’s guidelines
• Perform any other project related duties as specified by the Project Coordinator or Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist
• Ensure beneficiaries are informed and regularly reminded about their entitlements from the project, and the confidential complaints mechanisms.

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge
Essential:

• University Degree Psychology, Social Work, Clinical Psychology strongly desired
• Minimum of 3 years relevant working experience in child protection prevention and response programming, humanitarian affairs or human rights.
• Minimum of 2 years implementing community based mental health and psychosocial support activities
• Experience working in emergency settings
• Experience working with unaccompanied and separated children and children formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups
• Experience working in a mobile team or a rapid response team
• Experience working with refugees and other vulnerable populations (ideal)
• Experience in Community Based programming and Child Friendly Spaces
• Previous experience directly providing services to children at risk and survivors of abuse, exploitation and violence and developing/implementing referral pathways and case management systems.
• Previous training on case management and/or bio-psychosocial approach is an asset
• Strong experience providing counselling services that are gender-sensitive and child friendly.

Desirable:

• Strong skills in monitoring, evaluation, research and conducting participatory, community-led assessments. Experience working with case files and databases and providing regular documentation.
• Excellent community mobilization skills
• Ability to work individually and within a team with limited supervision. A self-starter.
• Good analytical, problem solving and project planning skills
• Able to communicate clearly and strategically with internal and external stakeholders as a representative of Plan. This includes effective negotiation and representation skills.
• Strong capacity building/training/coaching/mentoring skills with communities and internal and external staff
• Community oriented and respect for local culture
• Computer knowledge - Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook
• Strong command of both written and spoken English
• Knowledge of local language (Hausa, Kanuri) a must
• Creates strong sense of purpose and commitment within own part of operations and with stakeholders
• Holds self and others to account to deliver on agreed goals and standards of behaviour
• Demonstrates a high degree of professionalism/integrity
• Provides good and adequate administrative and logistical support to enable programmes to meet meets it’s agreed financial and program outcomes.
• Actively seeks for support in addressing difficulties in execution of duties.
• Strategic thinking and effective contribution to own work and Organisational development.
• Sound judgement and decision-making in complex situations
• Strong emotional intelligence including self-awareness.
• Leads by example to motivate high performance of others
• Very strong commitment to continuous learning.