Senior Child Protection Associate

Organizational Context

UNHCR prioritizes effective child protection, with children comprising over half its mandate. Adopting a rights and community-based approach, UNHCR emphasizes inclusion within national child protection systems and inter-sectoral collaboration. The Senior Child Protection Associate, a member of the protection team, provides technical support to enhance operational capacity, monitors standards, and ensures effective protection responses for children, adolescents, and youth.

Job Purpose

The Senior Child Protection Associate's primary purpose is to enhance UNHCR's operational capacity for effective child protection, ensuring compliance with international standards and organizational priorities. This involves monitoring child protection standards, operational procedures, and practices, and providing functional support to information management and programme staff. The incumbent coordinates timely and quality protection responses for children and other vulnerable groups, implementing Best Interests Procedures for children at risk. They identify opportunities to mainstream child protection methodologies across all sectors, liaise with authorities and partners on protection policy, and work directly with communities to identify risks and leverage their capacities for self-protection. Building and maintaining effective interfaces with communities, local authorities, and partners is crucial to achieving these objectives, all while upholding UNHCR's core values and regulatory framework.

Responsibilities

The Senior Child Protection Associate supports the formulation of child protection considerations in assessments and strategy development, ensuring compliance with UNHCR's child protection policy and AGD commitments. They advocate for child protection concerns and facilitate meaningful participation of children, adolescents, and youth in strategy implementation. Responsibilities include supporting the development and implementation of child protection programmes, conducting and overseeing Best Interests Procedures for children at heightened risk, and monitoring the application of child protection SOPs. The role involves providing support to case workers for proper case file management, engaging communities in activities, and strengthening community-based child protection programming. Furthermore, the incumbent monitors appropriate alternative care arrangements for unaccompanied children, enforces professional integrity standards, and provides functional guidance to staff. They also assist in interagency coordination, strengthen partnerships, provide technical support to partners, contribute to training development, and document lessons learned, while managing risks in their area of responsibility.

Work Experience

Essential experience includes 4 years in child protection in a local context, covering prevention and response, broader protection, or social work involving empowerment, gender, child protection, mental health, counselling, and working with survivors. Skills in interviewing and working with children and families, including supervision of case management, are also required.

Skills

Child Protection Case Management Best Interests Procedures (BIA, BID) Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS, proGres) Child Protection Prevention and Response Programming Knowledge of UNHCR child protection policies and tools Knowledge of local child protection laws and services Participatory approaches with communities Understanding of displacement and protection issues (GBV, education, AGD) Experience with marginalized groups Interviewing and working with children and families Supervision of child protection case management

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