National Child Protection Consultant at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

Job Number: 514028
Location: Abuja with frequent travels to focus states
Work Type : Consultancy

Purpose of Assignment

• Under the overall guidance of the Child Protection Chief, the national consultant will contribute to the design and integration of child protection programme on ending violence against children in school to existing education Programmes, curriculum and polices to contribute to the prevention and response of violence against children in the school setting.

Rationale/Justification
A violence free learning environment is one of the fundamental human rights of children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in several Articles requires Governments to ensure that children grow up, learn, complete the education cycle and develop in a violent free environment. Specifically, Article 19 mandates Governments to ensure that children are protected from all forms of violence. Article 34 requires States Parties to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse while Article 37 mandates Governments to ensure that no child is subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. While the Nigeria Child’s Rights

Act 2003 establish a framework for child protection state level domestication and implementation remains limited. Ongoing effort at implementing the law has adopted a child protection system strengthening strategy which 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. It integrates the actions of families (and children themselves), communities, formal and informal laws and practices, state and non-state actors across all sectors (education, health, social welfare, justice and law enforcement), 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.

For child protection system to effectively prevent and respond to violence against children in school it is imperative to establish and operationalize structures and mechanism for reporting, tracking, referral, response and monitoring in all early childhood development centres, primary and secondary schools to ensure collective and holistic approach to eliminate violence against children in schools. Such mechanism should also encourage active participation of local governments, religious and traditional/cultural leaders, school based management committees, parents, guardians, head teachers, teachers, pupils and local community leaders in addressing violence against children in schools. Schools are also central platform for socialization and learning for children which have a great potential to educate children on risks management, prevention of violence and reporting of cases and availability of services.

Teachers have an additional responsibility to protect children by abstaining from inflicting any harm to children but also to report cases to the appropriate authorities. Considering the centrality of schools to ensure the protection of children, schools must be guided by mandatory reporting policies establishing clear reporting mechanisms, teachers must be capacitated to educate children and manage classrooms without resorting to violence and children must learn how to prevent violence and report cases.

It is in furtherance of the above, UNICEF is seeking to hire a national consultant to be based in Abuja to provide technical leadership in the integration of child protection principles in ending violence against children in schools into the education system including ongoing Programmes, curricula and policies in alignment with the child protection system strengthening strategy under the supervision of Child Protection specialist (social welfare) and Child Protection System Strengthening manager based in Abuja.

Major Tasks to be Accomplished by each Consultant

• Desk review of relevant materials including education Policies, Curriculum, Programmes, child protection assessments and studies related to violence against children and develop Workplan (methodology) for the implementation for the assignment
• High level stakeholders’ advocacy and consultation to leverage commitment, support, participation and ownership by the education sector at Federal and at least 4 states
• Consultation with key stakeholders from Education, Child Protection sectors and representatives of civil society organizations on ending violence against children in schools
• Develop child safeguarding policy for schools at federal, state and local government level and guideline for operationalizing the policy
• Consolidate finalize and validate violence against children in schools mandatory reporting
• Facilitate consultations for the endorsement of the child protection inter agency protocols on integrated child protection case management at federal and state levels
• Develop guidelines and implementation strategy for s capacity building of duty bearers in the education sector including guidelines for the following:
  • Training of School Officials, Personnel, Parents, pupils & students on positive and nonviolent discipline in classroom management and gender sensitivity
  • Trainings and seminars integrating and teaching children’s rights in the classroom
  • Training of School Officials, Personnel and Ministry of Education on the finalised child safeguarding policy at state and LGA levels
• Training on child protection integrated case management and mandatory reporting protocol
• Develop tools and guidelines for reporting, tracking, referral and response on violence against children in schools
• Develop and support the operationalization of monitoring framework for preventing and responding to violence against children in schools.

End Product (e.g. final report, article, document etc.) 

• Under the technical guidance of an Abuja based Child Protection Specialist, will deliver the following:
• Inception and desk review report highlighting gaps child protection gaps in key education Policies including strategy on the integration of child protection into the education sector
• Child Safeguarding Policy and operationalization guidelines
• Mandatory reporting protocol and a roadmap for operationalizing the protocol including tools and guidelines for reporting, tracking, referral and response on violence against children in schools at federal and 4 focus states
• Endorsed child protection inter agency protocols by the education sector on integrated child protection case management in 4 focus states
• Revised education policy integrating child protection issues
• Guidelines, training packages and implementation strategy for capacity building of teachers in the education sector (teachers training manual on positive discipline and other child protection teaching aids for teachers)
• Monitoring framework for preventing and responding to violence against children in schools

Qualifications or Specialized Knowledge/Experience Required

• Advanced university degree in education/child protection or related field (masters or equivalent)
• A minimum of Eight years of relevant professional work experience with projects related to child protection in the education section
• Experience in the field of prevention and responding to violence against children in schools
• Experience in the field of child protection system strengthening is an asset
• Excellent planning and organizational skills
• Strong communication skills - both oral and written
• Experience with UNICEF is desirable
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Experience working with government desirable.