Senior Protection Officer

Organisation and Project Overview

Street Child is an international charity based in the United Kingdom that aims to create avenues for out of-school children to access education through an integrated approach that strengthens the capacity of teachers, schools and communities to sustain their investment in the education for their children.

Following the devastating earthquakes in April and May 2015 that left more than 1 million children out of school and destroyed or damaged over 50,000 classrooms, Street Child UK expanded its operations into Nepal to assist local partners to re-establish education in some of the country’s worst affected communities.

With the support of DFID, it is now implementing an education and livelihood program targeting marginalized girls in Dhanusha, Mahottari, Siraha, Saptari and Sunsari districts. Street Child of Nepal is therefore calling applications in following position for the implementation of its new program:

Position: Senior Protection Officer

Reports To: Programs Manager

Duty Station: Janakpur (including frequent field visits)

Working Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00am to 5:00 pm

Objective/Purpose of the Position:

Senior Protection Officer supports the field operations as a technical lead on safeguarding and child protectionof the organization and with specific focus to DFID funded projects: “Breaking the Bonds”(BTB) and “Marginalized No More” (MNM). The incumbent will be accountable for effective engagement in social and policy research, analysis and dialog for program development, contributing to designing evidence-based program and informed decision making for increased public resource allocation towards the social sector and sustainable delivery of social services and capacity building in support of creation of a protective environment for women and children. The primary responsibility of the incumbent is to work towards Protection Policy formulation, potential amendments to the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policies and to implement Life Skills Programme/Protection programme. S/he works with the target beneficiary group in the communities and identifies and screens children with specific needs and makes sure that relevant child protection programmes are in place. Furthermore, s/he offers capacity building opportunities to staff and partners, disseminates trainings to strengthen child protection, social inclusion and gender equality and evaluates existing child/gender protection mechanisms.

Key Responsibilities:

Safeguarding and Child Protection:

• Formulate, revise and update existing safeguarding, child protection, gender and vulnerable adult protection policies of Street Child of Nepal aligning with changing needs, national policies and donor polices and provide technical inputs towards the formulation and necessary amendments of the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policies for consortium partners.
• S/he technical assistance and guidance on safeguarding, child protection, gender equality and social inclusion, and vulnerable adult related issues of the organization with specific focus on DFID funded projects: “Breaking the Bonds” and “Marginalized No More”.
• Mapping of child protection systems, potential risks or breaches of safeguarding and development of a child protection strategy at central, provincial and local level.
• Ensure child protection, gender and vulnerable adult risks and strategies are assessed on a regular basis.
• Strengthening of child protection coordination mechanisms and update safeguarding audit on regular basis.
• Setup of safeguarding and reporting mechanisms in the project districts that ensure the confidentiality of cases are maintained to the maximum extent possible.
• Design of child protection, gender and vulnerable adult interventions and case management systems.
• Coordination with the local, provincial and district-level authorities to ensure efficient and effective addressing of the various reported cases.
• Coordinate and work closely with district team, consortium team members and various local-level, provincial-level and district-level governmental organizations to deliver planned activities such as Safeguarding and Child Protection orientations and trainings.
• Support in capacity building and training of Child Protection Staffof both Street Chiildand consortium partners.

Life Skills Package Design and Delivery:

• S/he will be responsible for enabling the establishment and implementation of Life Skills Support groups, comprising of the beneficiary groups providing them training and orientation to enable girls to confront violence and abuse, and increase confidence in accessing services and social networks, and to support & monitor the life skills/ protection programmes.
• Prepare training manual on Life Skills Education for adolescent girls and deliver training to Social Workers as planned.
• Lead delivering and monitoring the life skills/ protection programme.
• Preparation of teaching and learning manuals, training materials and methodologies for life skills/ protection programmes that will be vital towards improving the awareness of the beneficiaries in regards to safeguarding, GBV, institutional and constitutional rights.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Preparation of weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly reports relating to the Learning and Training activities of the project. Establishing tools and mechanisms of monitoring and evaluation of the child protection systems.
• Regular field visits to monitor implementation of programmes and provide technical guidance as per the requirements.
• Monitor and support the implementation of MEL procedures.
• Support in preparation of annual and donor reports as well as other documentation related to child protection programmes.

Coordination:

Coordinate with other agencies, governments and NGOs to implement and coordinate common standards.

Cooperate with Protection cluster to ensure that child protection issues are part of all initiatives and documents, i.e. participate in Child Protection working group.

Coordinate with consortium members for smooth functioning of the programme.

Human Resource Development and Management

• Supervise staff in line in the performance of their respective duties and ensure the efficient functioning of the Protection Programme and ensure that clear working arrangements are established.
• Develop professional and personal development plan for programme staff in line with Street Child’s HR policy and implement it.
• Serve as a role model – personally embodying Street Child’s mission and values, and strictly adhering to policies and procedures.
• Organize, coordinate and facilitate trainings relating to the various gender-based violence, safeguarding and child protection issues in the project districts to the beneficiaries, members of the consortium organizations and Street Child of Nepal team.

Technical Competencies:

• Confidence, flexibility, patience, and empathy to effectively lead Life Skills Programme
• Enthusiasm for working with marginalized and at-risk community and people
• Development/programming experience and skills particularly those that are pertinent SCoN’s strategic priorities on child protection, social inclusion, gender issues and women's rights
• Ability to support formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects
• Substantive knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in the fields of gender equality and social inclusion
• Knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches
• Ability to maintain networks and partnerships with other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies
• Demonstrated good oral and written communication skills
• Effective facilitation skills

Core Competencies:

Communication and Knowledge Management Skills:

• S/he is able to deal with audiences based on the knowledge audience level.
• Consistently creates and shares knowledge products for different audiences.
• Excellent written and oral communication in Nepali and English. Maithili would be an asset.

Interpersonal and Organizational skills:

• Collaborative within the team, consortium and stakeholders.
• Problem solving and flexible.
• Capacity to take initiative and work independently with minimum instructions and as a team member in diverse workforce.
• Proactive with multitasking abilities.
• Has social skills- builds and maintains relationships within the organization and with stakeholders.
• Adept at collecting, collating and curating data in the form of weekly, quarterly and yearly reports.

Accountability:

• Is able to be accountable for the responsibilities and demonstrate high efficiency at work while adhering to the core values of SCoN.
• Is able to make the team accountable in delivering the planned activities.

Creativity and Integrity:

• Adapts to change and is open to new ideas of teaching and learning pedagogies.
• Encourages team to be innovative in working ideologies and processes.
• Is honest and transparent at work with highest level of integrity.

Required Qualifications:

• Master’sdegree in Gender Studies, Social Sciences or related field combined with extensive experience in similar position in rural community is considered as equivalent.
• At least 3 years of work experience in a field related to child protection, gender equality, social inclusion, life skills,livelihoods and planning or project management.
• Previous successful involvement with, and good knowledge of CBOs, I/NGOs and civil society is desired.
• Willingness to undertake regular field visits in difficult conditions is required.
• Computer literacy in Microsoft packages (Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc.).

Application Procedure:

If you are a self-motivated individual, who also believes in the mission and vision of this organization and meet the above mentioned skills and qualifications please send your updated CV with three (3) references and a cover letter explaining why you believe you qualify for this job at admin@street-child.org.np not later than 29 July 2019 . The subject should clearly mention, “Application for Senior Protection Officer.” Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted-please do not contact us directly. Telephone inquiries will not be entertained. Female candidates and candidates form local areas/district, minority community, groups and cast are highly encouraged to apply. Street Child of Nepal is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to the safeguarding and protection of children in our work and all employment offers are subject to satisfactory reference checks