TA Child Protection Specialist (Information Management) at UNICEF

Job Number: 514834
Work Type: Temporary Appointment

For Every Child

• Nigeria is a populous country with extremely diverse cultural, demographic and development profiles.  The country combines both development and emergency context as there is an ongoing major humanitarian operation in the conflict prone North East.  Economically, the country presents huge potential for leveraging domestic resources (from both public and private sectors) for child-centered development.  Within its capital, Abuja, it hosts the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and a large number of development partners.
• The UNICEF Nigeria Office is one of the largest UNICEF Country Offices and has a staffing complement of almost 400 staff. The office is also supported by approximately 130 consultants at any given time.  Staff and consultants are located in the national office (Abuja) and nine field offices, some of which are the size of a small country office with 30 – 40 staff members. The Human Resources unit is centralized in Abuja, serving all the staff and consultants as necessary.

How can you make a difference:

• The purpose of this position is to support the strengthening and management of the federal and state government and UNICEF Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS), in order to support the scale up of child protection prevention and response services in both development and emergency settings through optimal use and analysis of available data, including sensitive areas such as Monitoring and Reporting Mechanisms (MRM), operationalize the CCPIMS for emergency and non-emergency states, while supporting other child protection programme components  such as the national campaign on ending Violence Against Children, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting and Birth Registration.

Background

• Children have the right to be free from all forms of abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect. The challenge is how to best support governments to realise this right. In recent years, the global community has increasingly recognised 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.  Such single-issue programmes have been ineffective at producing sustained change. There is now a recognition that children’s issues must be addressed holistically with preventive and response programmes dealing with the array of poverty, protection and rights issues in tandem, rather than in isolated silos, and that in order to achieve sustained change a systems-building approach to reform is essential.
• A child protection systems building approach focuses on the establishment of a system with a set of linked and coherent structures, functions and capacities that can prevent and respond to all child protection concerns. A system integrates the actions of families (and children themselves), communities, formal and informal laws and practices, state and non-state actors across all sectors, to work together to protect children.
• It looks at all the actions needed to protect children along a continuum, from promotion of a safe environment for the child, to prevention through to response and restorative services for children at risk of, or experiencing, violence, exploitation and abuse. When all parts of the system are established and function effectively and in a coordinated manner, children will be protected from abuse.
• To build a sustainable system, an effective child protection programme must include legal and policy reforms, institutional capacity development, enhanced service delivery, social norms change and the creation of fiscal space for child protection. In addition, for National and State Governments to programme and budget effectively and target services and resources, as well as monitor the establishment of system components and the impact of the system and reforms, a robust monitoring and evaluation system must be in place. While the Child’s Rights Act (CRA) 2003 establish a framework for child protection and 23 states in Nigeria have domesticated the law, implementation remains limited.
• The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (MWASD), supported by UNICEF, is leading a child protection modelling programme in nine states of the Federation. UNICEF is directly supporting four states (Gombe, Plateau, Lagos and Cross River) to pilot child protection systems in focus local government areas. Following a mapping of information management practices conducted in 2016, these four states have initiated quarterly data collection and have established road maps to build and run child protection information management systems. 2017 manual data collection indicates an increase in service provision from a 5% national average to a 100% service provision to the children who suffer violence and report.
• UNICEF is embarked in an effort to support these states to set up CPIMS-PRIMERO   and to pilot an integrated information and case management system. The pilot of the system will be launched in 2017. The four development focus states follow the example of the three emergency-affected states in North East Nigeria who are already running CPIMS. CPIMS units are set already in 5 state ministries of women affairs and social development and will be set in 2 additional states (3 emergency affected states and 4 development states).
• Additionally, the protracted conflict in the North East involving Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad (commonly known as Boko Haram) and the Nigerian Security Forces (NSF), has caused the rights of millions of children to be violated. As a result of the ongoing armed conflict, children are becoming increasingly vulnerable to grave violations such as killing and maiming, use and recruitment of children, rape and other sexual violence, attacks against schools and hospitals as well as denial of humanitarian access.
• Both boys and girls have been recruited to be used by Boko Haram as support roles such as cooks, porters, messengers, spies as well as children being prepared to be used in combat. The Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) was created as a result of the conflict with the initial goal of protecting the communities from constant attacks by Boko Haram but led to use of children across the North East of Nigeria. With the signature of an Action Plan between the CJTF and the UN Task Force on MRM, the CJTF is now working closely with the Task Force to ensure that children are no longer recruited nor used in their ranks
• The monitoring and reporting mechanism of the six grave violations against children (MRM) was launched in Nigeria in 2013 with the listing of Boko Haram on the Security Council’s list of armed groups violating human rights. The Information management (IM) specialist will support the Child Protection in Emergencies (CPiE) team including the MRM Specialist and support the information management system of all the MRM-related data and ensure its confidentiality, systematic collection as well as safe storage.
• The IM specialist will support the MRM Specialist to ensure that all MRM-data related is timely, accurate and reliable in its use in the Global Horizontal Note (GHN), Annual Report to the Security Council on Children Affected by Conflict but also for any other CPiE use. The IM specialist will liaise both nationally and regionally to ensure the MRM system is up-to-date and complies with latest MRM-related data rules and regulations.

Major Responsibilities
Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, the incumbent may be assigned the primarily, shared, or contributory accountabilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results:

Monitoring and reporting mechanism (MRM) on grave violations against children:

• Support MRM specialist on strengthening the implementation of the SCR 1612 on grave violations against children in Nigeria, through programme development, partnership, various reporting requirements to SRSG and operationalizing of the MRMIMS+;
• To support the Child Protection Programme through data collection and reporting system on child rights violations by creating various reporting platforms including mobile data collection as well as the provision of regular analysis and reports of child rights violations;
• Produce maps (hot-spot) for child grave violations with analysis on concentration and significance of geographical areas;
• Enhance the capacity of MRMIMS +, MRM existing database and extend training of relevant partners on reporting, data inputting, and use of MRM tool.
• Produce monthly as well as quarterly trend analysis on grave violations against children based on the data included on MRM database/MRMIMS+ in preparation of the Nigeria reporting to the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, package information on grave violations against children for dissemination in different audiences, as appropriate, including visual representations of trends.
• Ensure accurate and consistent inputting of data received from partners/consultants/ CTFMR/MRMTWG into MRM database and ensure monthly backup into the designated MRM master database

Child Protection Information Management system (CPIMS):

• Support Federal and State Ministries to strengthen the operationalization of child protection management information tools, including a Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS) at both emergency and development setting in cooperation with the State IMS consultant, relevant partners and stake holders.
• Support the pilot of CPIMS in focus states through provision of technical support, regular monitoring and production of quarterly, mid-year and annual fact sheets in coordination with CPIMS state consultants and government led CPIMS and case management Technical Working Groups.
• Maintain and further develop the structure or format of the CPIMS database (CPIMS+), incorporating ideas and amendments from child protection staff and partners to strengthen documentation, database design and operating manuals on how to use the Database for UNICEF and partner organisations.
• Provide technical support to UNICEF and other agency staff on the specific data required from them in relation to the different indicators they are monitoring in relation to strengthen the child protection management system (CPIMS/CPIMS+)
• In collaboration with Child Protection in Emergency staff, configure and deploy CPIMS+ database for case management in both emergency and development settings
• Engage and build working relationships with a broad range of partners including CPN, Orphanages/Shelters, INGOs, relevant governments and education and health partners.
• Identify the linkage between CPIMS tools and database used for Emergency Response in the North East and find possible ways of adapting to /deployment to the development context.
• Maintain strict confidentiality in all aspects of the work.
• Train UNICEF and other agency staff and consultants on the use of different reporting formats for child protection
• Undertake any other tasks assigned by the Supervisor.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in Information Management or relevant field
• A minimum of Five (5) years of relevant professional experience in information management support primarily in emergency and development settings including the operationalization of CPIMS and MRM/MRMIMS
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Key Competencies:

• Experience with information management for child protection programming, and/or human rights documentation desirable and is an asset.
• Proven technical expertise in managing data and information cycle: from data collection, storage, and analysis for diverse datasets, as well as presenting information in understandable, effective and visually appealing tables, charts, graphs, maps, visuals and reports (including snapshots, dashboard, 5Ws analysis, gap analysis, etc.)
• Understanding of how to manage and maintain information/data management systems. Proven skills in using GIS and map-making packages, and software development desirable
• Knowledge of UNICEF’s core commitments to children in development and humanitarian action as well as the humanitarian cluster approach, particularly the child protection working group (sub-cluster), gender-based violence area of responsibility, and protection cluster
• Experience of developing information management systems, producing data analysis on ending violence against children and designing and delivering training
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and proven success in facilitating interagency processes to achieve a common goal
• Professional maturity and ability to handle sensitive information and ability to respect the confidentiality of such information while working with UNICEF and even after the contract ends.
• Previous working experience in Nigeria is an advantage.