Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)H (no hardship)
Family Type (not applicable for home-based)
Family
Staff Member / Affiliate TypeCONS Local
Target Start Date2023-10-02
Job Posting End DateSeptember 21, 2023
Terms of ReferenceOrganisational context
The Child Protection Unit sits within the Field Protection Service, DIP at headquarters and provides technical support and guidance to field operations across humanitarian and refugee operations through developing policy, guidelines and tools, facilitating learning events, coordinate and work with colleagues and partners to enhance the prevention, mitigation and response strategies to protect forcibly displaced and stateless children. One of Child Protection Unitโs (CPU) objectives for 2023 and beyond is to strengthen working across sectors on child protection. Mainstreaming Protection with a focus on children is a priority for UNHCR and is aligned with the Centrality of Protection and the Pillar 4 of the Child Protection Minimum Standards (CPMS) as well as UNHCRโs upcoming child protection policy. In addition, UNHCR has been strengthening the Refugee Coordination model through the development of interagency tools, including for protection. Guidance on protection including CP and GBV in the RRPs has been developed and disseminated to field colleagues. Protection mainstreaming is a core part of UNHCRโs protection work, in both refugee settings, where the refugee coordination model is applied, as well as in Cluster settings. UNHCRโs work on child protection mainstreaming to operationalize the 2021 Child Protection Audit and Evaluation recommendations that require UNHCR to better integrate child protection principles and concerns within the programming of other sectors.
UNHCRโs work in these areas builds upon and informs broader Inter-Agency efforts to promote cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination for childrenโs protection and well-being. Since 2021, through a partnership with Save the Children, the CPU positively progressed towards ensuring protection of children is a shared responsibility with all sectors in humanitarian actions, through:
โข Development and delivery of learning initiatives to UNHCR and partner staff
โข Support development of Inter-Agency guidance and products
โข Provision of technical support to refugee coordination mechanisms on mainstreaming child protection across sectors, including through in country support in Uganda, Nigeria and Rwanda
โข Ensure MHPSS is integrated in child protection interventions
Finally, UNHCR will issue a child protection policy in the second half of 2023, and UNHCR will develop a number of guidance notes to provide guidance on how to operationalise the policy.
The position
This consultancy will build on the existing efforts to mainstream protection with a focus on children in other sectors. Since 2021, through a partnership with Save the Children, the CPU positively progressed towards ensuring protection of children is a shared responsibility with all sectors in humanitarian actions, through:
- Development and delivery of learning initiatives to UNHCR and partner staff
- Support development of Inter-Agency guidance and products
- Provision of technical support to refugee coordination mechanisms on mainstreaming child protection across sectors, including through in country support in Uganda, Nigeria and Rwanda
- Ensure MHPSS is integrated in child protection interventions
The consultancy will also support the Field Protection Service (FPS) in the Division of International Protection on protection mainstreaming efforts and support integrating child protection mainstreaming products and learning into the overall FPS work on protection mainstreaming in refugee settings.
Duties and responsibilities
This consultancy is task-based - and will be supervised by the Child Protection Officer, with the support of the Senior Protection coordinator for the tasks related to protection mainstreaming:
Development of protection mainstreaming toolbox for refugee settings: as part of UNHCRโs responsibility for the coordination of protection in refugee settings, the consultant will develop the first draft of the protection mainstreaming in refugee settings toolbox. The consultant will be responsible for collecting existing tools on protection mainstreaming. This will be done by desk review of the existing published tools โ for instance on UNHCR refugee response operational portal โ as well as liaising with sectors, regional Bureuax and global colleagues. The consultant will also review the protection mainstreaming tools of the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) as part of the desk review and other tools developed by the Inter-Agency fora. The consultant will develop an outline of the compendium of resources (toolbox), then develop a first draft of the protection mainstreaming toolbox. This tool will not replace or replicate the protection mainstreaming tools of the GPC but rather collate and organize practical global and field level tools on protection mainstreaming relevant to refugee settings. The consultant will ensure that the child protection mainstreaming tools are integrated in the protection mainstreaming toolbox. This work will be supervised by the Senior Protection Coordinator and implemented in coordination with Community-based protection, Gender, Child Protection and GBV units.
Contribute to the development of the Protection Mainstreaming in refugee settings guidance note led by the Division of International Protection (DIP): the consultant will support consultations with regional bureaux and country operations on the protection mainstreaming guidance note which will be drafted by DIP and reflect comments and suggestions to further expand and refine the protection mainstreaming guidance note. This work will be supervised by the Senior Protection Coordinator and implemented in coordination with Community-based protection, Gender, Child Protection and GBV units.
Support development of the Child Protection Mainstreaming components of the guidance note on protection mainstreaming: to accompany the child protection policy. The aim of the guidance is to provide child protection and non-child protection teams and coordination mechanisms working in field operations with concrete and practical guidance on how to integrate the protection and well-being of children into sectoral responses in line with the core mainstreaming actions described in the draft child protection policy, the protection mainstreaming guidance note and key actions in relevant standards of the CPMS. This will include consultation with Regional Bureaus and key child protection colleagues in operations, sector leads in HQ and RBs, incorporating comments and submitting the final draft. This document will both accompany the protection guidance note, and the child protection policy.
Continue efforts on Learning and development on Child Protection Mainstreaming: continue to support UNHCR protection and other technical sectors workforce capacity and skills for quality child protection mainstreaming across programming and interventions to ensure safe programming and reducing harm to children. This includes:
๏ญ Review, finalization and roll out the existing online Child Protection Mainstreaming course
๏ญ Finalize and publish all tools on child protection mainstreaming on the child protection community of practice
๏ญ Contribute to the development and delivery of Protection Mainstreaming capacity-building packages, ensuring child protection specific elements are well addressed.
๏ญ Integrate child protection mainstreaming core components into otherโs sectors learning and development products to ensure further reach to sectoral colleagues.
๏ญ Continue to support coordination mechanisms in operations (Uganda, Nigeria and Rwanda) on child protection mainstreaming and support additional countries as needed
๏ญ Support other child protection mainstreaming efforts as required. This will include linking with GBV and undertaking joint activities on child protection mainstreaming and GBV risk mitigation wherever possible
Continue to collaborate with the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action as the key interagency forum for child protection in humanitarian action building on the effective collaboration with Save the Children. This includes providing input into ongoing work on child protection mainstreaming within the Alliance and advocating for this work to link to broader protection mainstreaming wherever possible, and ensuring the interagency child protection mainstreaming tools are integrated into UNHCRโs work on child protection and protection mainstreaming.
Review and update the Child Protection Community Based Mechanisms Issue Brief. The issue brief will be updated and rebranded to be an operational guidance note for the child protection policy. This updated Community Based Child Protection Guidance note will provide concrete guidance to field colleagues on key evidence based community-based child protection interventions to be implemented at the child, family and community level, aligned with the socio-ecological model in the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action . This will include Consultation with CBP and other relevant units in DIP.
Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required
The ideal candidate will have:
a. Education (Level and area of required and/or preferred education)
Higher university degree in International Law, Human Rights, International Development, International Relations, Political or Social Science.
b. Work Experience
- A minimum 6 years of work experience (5 years for masterโs degree holders) in protection/child protection in refugee /humanitarian settings.
- Knowledge of instructional design principles and demonstrated experience with developing training materials, including e-learning content targeting different audiences.
- Experience in drafting guidance notes and facilitating learning activities with different audience.
- Experience in working with other sectors to mainstream protection particularly child protection
- Experience working with or in partnership with UNHCR.
c. Key Competencies
Required comnpetencies:
- Strong knowledge of international human rights and humanitarian law, particularly concerning protection of IDPs and refugees.
- Knowledge of and experience in training on child protection in humanitarian settings.
- Knowledge of community-based child protection
- Demonstrated instructional design experience targeting adult learners.
- Excellent written and spoken English.
Desirable competencies:
โข Knowledge of another UN language, especially French or Spanish.
Location
The successful candidate will be home-based with possible travels to locations that will be determined later.
Standard Job Description
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Desired Languages
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Additional Qualifications
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Education
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Work Experience
Other informationThis is a 4 months Consultancy beginning 02/10/24This position doesn't require a functional clearance