Child Protection Specialist Vacancy-Job Ref: JKCDUNICEF/1409/202354

Child Protection Specialist Vacancy-Job Ref: JKCDUNICEF/1409/202354
Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
JOB DESCRIPTION
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
For every child, protection.
More than nine out of ten children in the DRC have experienced some form of violence. Sexual violence is endemic, with almost 40% of cases of sexual violence affecting children. Similarly, only 40% of children under the age of 5 are registered at birth and only 13% have a birth certificate. 29% of young women aged between 20 and 24 are married or in a union before the age of 18.
This is the national average, with rates of over 50% and even 60% in some of the country’s provinces. Finally, almost 13% of children are engaged in one of the worst forms of child labor. Preventing and responding to violence against children is therefore at the heart of UNICEF’s work in the DRC.
Based on the evidence of the disproportionate deprivations, vulnerability and exposure to violence and exploitation faced by adolescent girls in the country, UNICEF has focused on addressing the multiple abuses and risks faced by girls through multi-sectoral programming as a flagship area of the child protection programme.
Support has been given to the government to speed up its efforts to prevent child marriage, through the revision of the DRC’s five-year national action plan against child marriage, and direct assistance to more than 5,000 girls threatened with or victims of child marriage. In addition, to promote the full participation of adolescent girls and young women in the crucial issues that concern them, UNICEF helped the government to organise the first DRC Girls’ Forum, which brought together more than 100 girls from the DRC and Africa, as a national platform for including girls’ voices in national priorities and programmes.
The programme aims to strengthen its activities to prevent and respond to sexual violence against girls and child marriages through innovative strategies to prevent social and behavioral change and the provision of appropriate multi-sectoral services, in both humanitarian and development contexts.
To this end, UNICEF is also committed to generating new data on adolescent girls to inform evidence-based and contextualized programmes to protect and empower women and girls, while addressing discriminatory social norms against women through innovative social and behavioral change interventions.
How can you make a difference?
As the Child Protection Specialist based in Kinshasa, you will contribute to the development of a programme to end violence against children, and in particular sexual violence and child marriage in the DRC by supporting the Government and civil society organizations in:
Developing, implementing, monitoring, and reporting on the progress of programmes to prevent and respond to sexual violence and child marriage at national level
Developing technical guidelines and programme management support at provincial level in collaboration with field offices to facilitate the administration and delivery of concrete and sustainable contributions to efforts to combat sexual violence and child marriage.
Strengthening innovative partnerships to galvanize concerted action around these issues, around a new approach to safe spaces for adolescent girls and women.
You will be based in Kinshasa with missions to the provinces to implement new national programme to combat sexual violence and child marriage. Under the supervision of the head of the child protection section, you will have the following responsibilities:
In collaboration with the relevant Ministries, the Child Protection Specialist will update the DRC’s strategy to combat child marriage and finalize UNICEF’s multi-sectoral strategy on child marriage, which is part of the country’s national strategy.
The Child Protection Specialist, in charge of the development and national scaling up of the programme for prevention and response to sexual violence in emergency and development contexts, will supervise the implementation of interventions in the targeted intervention zones and will use the data thus collected to document and analyze the new approaches that will be implemented, and propose appropriate actions.
The child protection specialist will support the government and civil society organizations in setting up a mechanism for coordinating action on sexual violence and child marriage, particularly for adolescent girls.
The Child Protection Specialist will work in close collaboration with key sectors within UNICEF (Behavior Change Communication, Social Protection, Health, Education, Gender and Adolescents) for the development and implementation of programmes and will be the focal point for the Child Protection Section within the office’s Adolescent Strategy Implementation Working Group.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law or any other relevant social science field
A minimum of five [5] of relevant professional experience at the international or national level in the implementation of activities relating to the prevention of and response to violence against children and child marriage.
Experience working in developing country and/or familiarity with emergency and humanitarian contexts is considered an asset.
Relevant experience in programme development in areas related to child protection in a UN agency or organisation 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.

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