Child Protection Officer at International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Requisition ID: req9501
Location: Mubi, Adamawa
Sector: Child Protection
Employment Category: Fixed Term
Employment Type: Full-Time
Open to Expatriates: No

Background

• IRC has been present in Nigeria since 2012 when the organization responded to flooding in Kogi state. In response to the Boko Haram insurgency, in early 2014 IRC opened a field office in Mubi town of Adamawa state followed by offices in Yola (Adamawa state) in November 2014, Maiduguri (Borno state) in October 2015, and Monguno (Borno state) in October 2016. IRC is currently implementing programs in Health, Child Protection, Food Security, PRoL, WASH, Nutrition and Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) in three States in northeastern Nigeria.
• The IRC Child Protection team offers Psychosocial Support through Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for children aged six to twelve years and Supporting Adolescents and their Families in Emergencies (SAFE) for nine to nineteen year olds grouped into younger and older adolescents using toolkits developed by the IRC to build their resilience, social skills and ability to understand and handle their emotions. The toolkits also contain resource that provides support to caregivers to help them manage their stress and place them in a position to provide the children under their care a safe and supportive environment for their growth and development.  

Scope of Work:

• This position is responsible for coordinating and supervising CP activities which include case management, parenting sessions and Safe Healing and Learning Spaces (SHLS) and SAFE activities.
• They will also work closely with the case workers to ensure proper and quality implementation of case management and other components of the Child protection emergency response and other IRC sectors to ensure an integrated service delivery to beneficiaries.

Objective of Position:

• S/he will coordinate with the Caseworkers and other relevant technical sectors, to ensure a rapid, proportionate and effective response.
• Ensure that all activities under his/her supervision are conducted in accordance with  the CPiE minimum standards, case management guidelines and SPHERE standards
• Ensure that children are followed up on and receive quality case management services, taking the lead on case discussions/ case management meetings with case workers
• Ensure technical quality of activity reporting
• Provide staff care and support for case workers and CP assistants to ensure they are able to deal with the stress they encounter as a result of the kind of cases they deal with.

Technical Quality:

• Identify gaps in service provision to identified and registered children, with a special attention to UASC and proactively refer and advocate for those gaps to the CP Manager and Coordinator.
• Together with the case workers, ensure vulnerability of the identified and registered children are responded to with the involvement of the community where appropriate, ensuring the best interest of the child.
• Establish/maintain a regular system of project evaluation and progress monitoring, using both qualitative and quantitative indicators, data collection, and beneficiary feedback and liaising with the CP manager and regular reporting as the response progresses.

Grant Monitoring and Reporting:

• Ensure proper delivery of SEL/SAFE sessions.
• Provide input for weekly and staff activity reports.
• Ensure all challenges encountered are immediately reported to the CP officer and the cases that are identified and registered are captured correctly and shared with the CPIMS officer and CP Manager

Coordination & Representation:

• Coordinate with the CP sub sector (Coordination at the field level) in order to assure that adequate and children centered solutions are taken in consideration in the strategic planning of activities.
• Work closely with all IRC sectors and ensure an integrated approach to interventions.

Program Development:

• Contribute to the development of child protection proposal activities
• Identify Child Protection trends that need to be addressed through child Protection programing.
• Coordinate with other the IRC Education team and sectors staff (e.g. WPE, Protection, Health and Livelihoods) at field level and ensure child protection mainstreaming.

Other:

• Consistently and proactively monitor/asses the safety and security of field teams, promptly report concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaise with community leaders and other IRC staff to maintain/enhance the security environment for IRC programs.
• Any other duties assigned by the supervisor to enable the smooth implementation of the emergency response.

Summary Statement Of Duties And Responsibilities

• Work as part of a Child Protection team in a safe space to provide support to children as part of broader response services.
• Participate in identifying facilitators and an initial SEL/SAFE approach training and engage in ongoing skills building using SEL/SAFE materials.
• Participate in mentoring and coaching facilitators responsible for co-facilitating sessions with adolescent girls (younger) or boys (younger and older).
• Ensure Payment Requests and other documents required for the payment of facilitators incentives are drafted and submitted on time for approval.
• Work closely with other project staff to identify Children/adolescents (younger) and female and male caregivers to participate in SEL/SAFE learning activities.
• Develop weekly, monthly and quarterly workplans for the case workers and assistants under their supervision and ensure strict adherence.
• Embark on field visits and provide support to case workers and assistants in the field.
• Build and maintain working relationships with community leaders and structures that will ensure their support for CP programming.
• Complete weekly reports on project activities, including documenting feedback from participants of SAFE sessions and proactively sharing back lessons learned whilst facilitating the curricula
• Organize and facilitate weekly team meetings.

Qualifications
Candidates are desired who have:

• A Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences, Education, Economic, another human development related field or equivalent of experience preferred
• At least two years’ experience working to support children, adolescent girl and boys, women  or parents and caregivers
• A commitment to child protection and gender equality
• A learning attitude and willingness to increase skills and knowledge in child protection.
• Experience as an active participant of social groups, with an understanding of group dynamics and processes.
• Capacity building, facilitation or training experience
• The ability to adapt and work under pressure and strong interpersonal skills
• Basic competency in computer skills
• Personal qualities: team player, flexible, network builder, able to handle pressure well and work in a cross cultural setting.
• Fluency in English and Hausa.

Professional Standards

• All IRC staff is required to adhere to THE IRC Way Standards for Professional Conduct and the IRC country employment policies.
• Uphold the IRC Child Safeguarding Policy and ensure the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the workplace and communities of intervention.
• Promote awareness of the IRC’s Client Responsiveness amongst clients and community members.

Standards of Professional Conduct:

• The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – Code of Conduct.  
• These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, Combating Trafficking in Persons and several others.

Gender Equality:

• IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.

Working Environment:

• IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
• The position is based in Damaturu covering all IRC program sites in Yobe State Successful candidate will be provided with a comprehensive on job inductions, trainings and mentoring to further develop his/her capacity and career in INGO Security Management systems.
• Qualified Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.