Child Protection Officer at I Choose Life - Africa (ICL)

Job purpose:

Under the leadership of the Project Manager the incumbent will provide oversight in implementation and integration of child safeguarding and protection approaches into Jielimishe GEC project through provision of technical guidance to the project team, community child protection committees and community volunteers.

• She/he will coordinate and support the implementation of the Child Protection Policy and related child safeguarding policy support documents in the project to mitigate existing child safeguarding risks for children and vulnerable adults
• She/he will collaborate with the project team to roll out and implement an integrated and holistic community-based response to child protection issues and barriers to accessing education services.
• She/he will oversee designing, coordinating and monitoring of effective implementation of child safeguarding minimum standards
• She /he will oversee establishment and management of collaboration and partnerships with other child safeguarding actors and actively involve/engage in relevant child rights networks with the aim to advocate for holistic child protection
• She/he will support child safeguarding and participation related activities and share best practices and experiences with the networks and the organization at large
• He/ She will be responsible for field-level coordination, mainstreaming & strengthened implementation of case management processes, monitoring and evaluation of child protection activities, as well as providing guidance to Project Officers, Assistants and Community Volunteers.

Key responsibilities

Project Planning and design/Technical Program Development

• • Coordinate implementation of the Child Protection Policy and related child safeguarding policy support documents in the project
  • Prepare quarterly and annual child safeguarding reports and submit the report to the project manager
  • Lead in establishment of a strong and reliable child safeguarding reporting and responding procedure
  • Maintain a central Child Safeguarding Incident Register for coordinated response and closure of reported incidences
  • Follow up on reported Child Safeguarding concerns and incidents together with the project team and other appropriate child protection structures in the community
  • Document lessons learnt as well as identified challenges to ensure that relevant preventive, awareness raising, and capacity building measures are implemented to enhance the safeguarding environment
  • Ensure that relevant child safeguarding documents and tools are available to the project team for strengthened integration
  • Facilitates internal and external knowledge sharing on child safeguarding with a strong focus on prevention detection, response and capacity building
  • Participate in the regional child safeguarding network
  • Develop technical strategies and lead in the implementation of I Choose Life-Africa’s child safeguarding/protection activities and standards
  • Facilitate integration of child safeguarding activities/standards into the project
  • Lead in design, planning and implementation of Child Safeguarding activities and minimum standards to improve the child protection environment in the project sites
  • Participate in the development and design of new project proposals with enhanced child protection component.
  • Participate in reviewing the attainment of goals and objectives as set out in the funded proposal and with regard to safe guarding policy
  • Oversee the design and implementation of child protection reporting and feedback mechanism
• Child protection implementation
  • Oversee the coordination of all child safeguarding project activities including preparation of work plans, implementation and reporting
  • Ensure all Project Officers and Assistants understand the child safe guarding policy and mechanisms for reporting concerns
  • Oversee the implementation of whistle blowing policy to strengthen the safeguarding policy and minimum standards
  • Manage and support the individual case management and implementation of I Choose Life – Africa’s Gender, Child Protection and Do No Harm Policy and strategy.
  • Provide support to Project staff and all project partners to ensure timely management and documentation of safeguarding cases at the intervention with relevant Project staff and safeguarding actors
  • Maintain confidentiality, privacy in the management of case files and observe data protection and confidentiality protocols while handling both the paper based and electronic data at all stages of data management.
  • Deliver capacity building trainings for project staff, community structures and project partners.
  • Comply with all relevant ICL’s policies and procedures with respect to child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, security, equal opportunities and other relevant policies.
• Stakeholder Management and Human Resource Development
  • In conjunction with project staff, participate in National, County and sub-county level interagency meetings and engage in the identification and building of links with other partners/agencies, the Government and the community to ensure that issues related to child protection are raised and addressed.
  • Collaborate and coordinate with other aid agencies, governmental institutions and other child protection organizations in order to promote cooperation and strengthen systems for children.
  • Identify capacity building needs on child safeguarding/Protection across project sites and in coordination with HR supports development and implementation of necessary training tools and processes
  • Organises or provides relevant training for staff in the area of child protection/Safeguarding. Ensures knowledge exchange between staff working in project sites.
  • Advises and monitors implementation of appropriate staffing standards and structures in line with quality child protection standards in close cooperation with the HR office
  • Actively support other head office departments in integrating Child Safeguarding/protection activities as a component of their work.

Project Monitoring& Evaluation

• Conduct annual child safeguarding audit across the project sites to inform areas or actions to strengthen child protection
• Work with M&E to track child Safeguarding/protection performance indicators
• Monitor and evaluate program performance on Child protection and Child Safeguarding related goals and objectives and contribute content for internal and external reporting.
• Supports county project teams in implementing safeguarding minimum standards
• Identify and contribute to development of case studies and success stories to ensure milestones are documented and reported on
• Conduct regular data collection using existing tools and/or design new tools as need may be in order to track project performance on indicators and measure overall impact.
• Prepare timely progress reports, including both quantitative and qualitative information, on Gender, Child Protection and Do No Harm activities and input into regular reports as required.
• Work closely with the M&E team and project officers to conduct regular data quality checks to ensure case management information collected as part of documentation and monitoring is accurate, reliable, complete, precise, timely and has high integrity.
• Support in project research in collaboration with the project M&E team.

Desired Education and Training

• Educated to a minimum degree level in a relevant discipline or equivalent including but not limited to Gender, Anthropology, Education, Sociology or Counselling Psychology
• Relevant Child Protection Training, preferably a Diploma.

Experience and Abilities

• Minimum 5 years proven experience in implementation of child safeguarding and protection, community development, education programming, the logical framework approach and other strategic planning strategies
• Good understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods
• Planning and implementing projects in a consortium partnership including children and households
• Field/Project work and working with communities in marginalized areas
• Experience tracking/tracing program beneficiaries over a long period of time including their location, social, academic and physical growth and well being
• Experience working with primary and secondary schools is an added advantage
• Ability to work with a team, foster a team approach and incorporate capacity building activities into the program
• Ability to analyze and utilize program development gaps for designing programs.
• Demonstrate capacity for collaboration, networking and resource mobilization.

Knowledge and skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Good verbal and written communication
• Working with integrity and confidentiality whilst valuing the individual
• Strong leadership skills including an ability to work independently and in a team
• Proficient user of Microsoft Word and Excel
• Ability to work alone and as part of a team
• Able to demonstrate an understanding of the needs of marginalized persons including disabilities
• Able to communicate in English and any other local language.