TA Child Protection Officer at UNICEF

Job Number: 513961
Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Work Type: Temporary Appointment

Background
How can you make a difference?

• The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria is seeking the interest of a qualified Child Protection in Officer in the area of reintegration of girls and boys who have been associated with armed groups.
• Following the killing of the leader (Mohammad Yusuf) of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS), more commonly known as ‘Boko Haram’, in 2009, a more radical and violent splinter group emerged under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau. From 2011, the group increased its activities in the North East (primarily Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, as well as Gombe) through hit and run attacks, bombings and suicide (or human bomb) attacks targeting both churches and mosques, schools, markets, and villages. Following intensified attacks, Boko Haram shifted tactics from hit and run to hit and hold, resulting in the group controlling 19 out of the 65 local government areas (LGAs) in the three states of emergency in the North East by early 2015. Between 2015 and 2016, the Nigerian Armed Forces strengthened its counter insurgency, regaining control of the majority of areas previously occupied by Boko Haram. Today, Boko Haram are still active, and more recently they have unleashed a wave of suicide and human bomb attacks in Maiduguri.
• An estimated 14.8 million people have been affected by the crisis, with at least 7 million people in need of critical humanitarian assistance, including those who are displaced, confined and hosting displaced persons. More than 1,878,205 people are currently displaced because of the insurgency in the North East.
• The majority of internally displaced persons (IDPs) are in Borno State - 1,446,829 - the epicentre of the crisis.
• A new wave of IDPs (approximately 750,000) have slowly become accessible during the last five months in the so-called ‘newly accessible areas’ – areas previously held by Boko Haram. This population often have even more acute humanitarian needs due to limited access to water, food, sanitation and health care for many months prior to liberation by the Nigerian Armed Forces and because of continued challenges of sustained access for humanitarian agencies.
• The humanitarian community estimates that there are at least a further 2 million people who remain inaccessible to humanitarian assistance in Borno State. In a press release on 26 October 2016, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Nigeria called the humanitarian crisis the worst on the African continent.
• UNICEF is supporting state and non-state partners to develop and implement a reintegration programme, to ensure safe supported return for these highly vulnerable children and women.

Overall Objective

• The overall objective of the post is to promote the reintegration of children associated with armed groups including facilitating release of children held in administrative custody of the military to civilian authorities and to ensure their safe, supported return and reintegration.

This will involve:

• Provide technical guidance for the development and implementation of the strategy and programme on the reintegration of children associated with armed groups (CAAFAG)
• Facilitate the training of and ongoing support for state and non-state actors, including community volunteers, on the reintegration of CAAFAG
• Facilitate the training of military and security personnel on child protection
• Engage in advocacy on the handover of children from military authorities to civilian authorities
• Support implementation of PCAs signed with partners such as Search for Common Ground, COOPI, Plan International, Neem Foundation and International Alert on reintegration of children associated with armed groups.
• Establish the reintegration programme in a minimum of 18 Local Government Areas in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
• Support the development of community based reintegration activities for CAAFAG
• Engage with religious and community leaders to promote reintegration of CAAFAG
• Strengthen the referral mechanism for CAAFAG to available services and programmes, including education and livelihoods programming
• Establish and manage peacebuilding initiatives in focus communities, including the establishment of peacebuilding clubs
• Support the tracing and reunification of families for CAAFAG
• Manage and quality assure the work of the team of consultants and third party local consultants responsible for overseeing and monitoring the children associated with armed groups programme
• Manage and develop new programme cooperation agreements with international and national NGOs for the reintegration of children associated with armed groups and peacebuilding
• Ensure robust data collection to capture the number of beneficiaries reached by the programme and the impact of the programme, including management of the evaluation of the programme
• Ensure effective linkages with other components of the child protection in emergencies programme
• Manage the children associated with armed groups programme, including ensuring timely implementation of activities, timely reporting to the donors, compliance with visibility requirements and compliance with internal UNICEF procedures and processes

Requirements
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced University Degree (Master's or higher) in Social Work, Psychology, Social Science or related field
• Minimum of 2 years’ demonstrable professional experience in implementing child protection in emergency programmes
• Experience of implementing reintegration programmes for children associated with armed groups
• Excellent training and communication skills
• Proven ability to work independently under difficult conditions
• Excellent advocacy skills
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.