Economic Reintegration Specialist (Child Protection) at Search For Common Ground’s International

Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Duration: 12 months

About the Project

• In the past decade, states in the North East region of Nigeria have faced frequent attacks by Boko Haram militants leading to widespread displacement, violations of national laws, international humanitarian and human rights laws, and a deepening humanitarian crisis.
• Children, who are the most vulnerable members of society, have suffered the worst impacts as pre-existing problems of access to social protection, education and healthcare increase, new threats emerge, and the systems to protect children fails.
• This project, in cooperation with UNICEF, aims to ensure that children verified and separated from the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) receive a comprehensive child protection package including counseling, psychosocial support and socio-economic reintegration, and that their communities understand the importance of their separation and reintegration.
• Search will work closely with the children, their families and communities, local governments and UNICEF to address the psychosocial and economic needs of the children and to influence the attitudes of communities and CJTF so they understand the negative impact of associating with armed groups on children and prevent the CJTF from using children.
• By increasing resilience of children associated with CJTF and increasing their employability, this project will facilitate lasting reintegration of these children and amplify positive narratives around their role in communities as productive civilian actors and agents for peace.

We are searching for…

• An Economic Reintegration Specialist whose primary objective is to plan and implement the economic reintegration program to children of legal age separated from the CJTF, including capacity building on financial literacy and enterprise development and accessing self-employment or wage-employment in the local markets.
• This position requires an experienced professional with relevant experience in the child protection field especially in the areas of economic reintegration of children of legal age.
• S/he will work under the direct supervision of the Child Protection Project Manager and work closely with the Head of Office, North East, DMEL Manager and other senior managers. The position holder will supervise Enterprise Coordinators and Officers. This position is based in Maiduguri with frequent visits to the different working local government areas (LGAs) in Borno.

Your Contribution
The roles and responsibilities include:

• Coordinate and carry out a local market analysis to better understand the local livelihood systems, household economies, and market opportunities so that appropriate and economically relevant training and economic reintegration opportunities can be sought for the children.
• Develop relevant and appropriate customized training curriculum on apprenticeships and micro-enterprise training.
• Facilitate trainings on apprenticeships and micro-enterprise training.
• Identify and coordinate with local businesses and enterprise and vocational training institutes to find and customize appropriate training and apprenticeships opportunities for participating children.
• Develop and carry out business opportunities and administrative support sessions to help trained children of legal age in identifying and accessing small business seed grants, employment opportunities, and information on available economic resources.
• Lead the facilitating and coordinating process for the identified children of legal age to earn their own livelihood either through self-employment or wage-employment in the local markets.
• Ensure that the economic reintegration efforts are conflict-sensitive, promotes an inclusive and community-based approach to reintegration, as guided by the Paris Principles and Guidelines on Children formerly associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups, and are in the “best interest of the child”.
• Build the capacity of project team to understand economic reintegration of children.
• Provide monitoring data to the DMEL team and contribute to the preparation of the periodic report led by the Project Manager.
• Supports resource mobilization efforts and ensures coordination with donors, including the private sector.
• Participate and/or represent Search with donors and in appropriate inter-agency discussions and planning on child protection related issues.

Requirements
You meet the following qualifications:

• An advanced university degree 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 five years of professional experience in social development planning and management in child protection related areas is required.
• Experience in emergency response is essential
• Experience working in a developing country is considered as 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 considered as an added advantage
• Highly organized and systematic with excellent attention to detail.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and oral.
• Excellent cross-cultural communication and working skills, enjoys a multicultural work environment;

Competencies? You are expected to be:

• Leading and supervising: Has the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of SFCG. Is able to build trust within team and acts with integrity.
• Accountability: Being accountable and passing on accountability for one's own actions and those of colleagues and the organization.
• Attention to detail:  The ability to process detailed information effectively and consistently
• Collaboration: The ability to work effectively with others in order to achieve a shared goal - even when the object at stake is of no direct personal interest possibilities.
• Creativity: The ability to come up with original and innovative ideas and solutions, to adopt points of view outside the usual parameters.
• Focus on Quality: Setting high quality standards and striving for continuous improvement and quality assurance.
• Learning Ability: The ability to absorb new information readily and to put it into practice effectively
• Adaptability: The ability to remain fully functional by adapting to changing circumstances (environment, procedures and people).