Title: Child Protection in Emergencies (CPIE) Consultant- Somali

Purpose: Provide child protection in emergencies technical, operational and coordination support in complex/acute emergency settings

Duty Station: 2 Deployments: Somali (Gode and Jijiga, roving basis)

Duration: 1 year

Reporting to; Child Protection Specialist in Jijiga field office

 Background

 Drought Response

 The Horn of Africa is experiencing one of its worst droughts in recent history, with 12-14 million people severely food insecure in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. In Ethiopia, families are struggling for survival following three consecutive failed rainy seasons. The most severely impacted areas are the lowlands of Afar, Somali, SNNPR and southern and eastern Oromia Region . This has led to a devastating impact on livelihoods and livestock, with food security deteriorating rapidly. More than 70,000 livestock animals have died with the number increasing daily in all affected regions due to a lack of animal feed and water, leading to further negative impacts to livelihoods. Internal displacement has already begun with severe consequences to displaced people, livestock and the children and families left behind, as caregivers seek livelihood opportunities for their survival.

 The affected population is facing a critical lack of potable water, with 95 per cent of water sources nonfunctional/running dry in some areas. Women are reported to be walking upwards of 15km in search of water. This is against a backdrop of skyrocketing food costs with an 80 per cent decrease in milk production and a failure of 70 per cent of crops. If the next rainy season (March – April 2022) is poor or fails, the situation could exacerbate leading to increased food insecurity and potentially famine. The drought is worsening an already fragile situation, with pre-drought Global Acute Malnutrition rates reported at 18 per cent which is higher than the emergency global threshold of 15 per cent.

 According to Government data, it is estimated that more than 6.8 million people in drought impacted areas in Afar, SNNP, Somali and Oromia lowland regions will need urgent humanitarian assistance by mid-2022.

 The impact on children has been particularly severe with more than 156,000 children in Somali and southern Oromia out of school due to school closures and lack of school feeding programmes. The decrease in milk production directly manifests in child under nutrition with severe consequences on pregnant and lactating women. Immediate nutritional interventions are needed for malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

 In terms of protection issues, according to the Deyr assessment conducted on October -December 2021 by the Somali Region Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau, 63.2 per cent of the key informant reported increased child marriage due to the drought and conflict displacement. Similarly, BOWCA reported more than 400 child marriage across 11 weradas of the region. 11 zones that form the Somali region of which six of them are drought affected zones. In Oromia, as the drought sustains for an elongated period of time its impact on children and women becomes very clear. For instance, an administrative data report from East Hararghe zone shows that child marriage cases increased from 70 (70F) to 106 (106 F) when we compare six months data of 2020/21 and 2021/22. This is 51 per cent increase in child marriage. Other effects of drought on children including exacerbated protection concerns from family separation due to drought induced migration/displacement, including the separation of predominately young boys from their families as they are sent to search for water for livestock. For girls and women, the risks of GBV become even more pronounced as more families in turn become women- and child- headed households.

 CP-GBV AOR

 Reflecting the unique nature of the Ethiopian context, the Child Protection AoR and Gender-Based Violence AoR work together within the Protection cluster to coordinate the response of CP and GBV partners addressing the needs of emergency-affected Ethiopians, especially the most vulnerable women and children, in non-refugee contexts. The IASC Generic Terms of Reference for Cluster/Sector Leads at the Country Level include a requirement for ensuring appropriate Information Management (IM) for an effective and coordinated cluster response. Information management is also essential to support to a number of cluster core functions, including:

 Core function 1: To support service delivery through (1.2) developing mechanisms to eliminate duplication of service delivery;

 Core function 2: To inform strategic decision-making by (2.1) Preparing needs assessments and analysis of gaps (across and within sectors, using information management tools as needed) to inform the setting of priorities; and (2.3) Formulating priorities on the basis of analysis of needs and on-going response; and

 Core function 4: Monitoring and reporting on activities and needs by (4.2) Measuring progress against the cluster strategy and agreed results.

 UNICEF is scaling up its Child Protection and GBV programs in Somali Region in partnership with NGOs and government partners.

 The CP/GBV AoR in Somali requires more dedicated support to ensure ongoing reporting on results for children, including through training/mentoring to existing and new CP and GBV partners on the 4Ws and 5Ws tools, the Child Protection Assessments and information analysis. Such information and analysis form the foundation for evidence-based advocacy and strategic programming, as well as justification for renewed resource mobilization in the sector. The CP/GBV AoR in Somali and its partners need to be supported on IM management and the 4/5Ws by the IM consultant.

 PROSPECTS

 UNICEF Child Protection is implementing the Netherlands-funded PROSPECTS partnership in Somali Region since mid-2021. The Child Protection activities fall under Pillar 3 of the global partnership, focusing on ‘protection & inclusion’, with an added component under Pillar 1, ‘education & learning’.

 The five priority areas of the Child Protection programme under PROSPECTS are:

• Dedicated social workforce for child protection
• Strengthen protective environment through resilient and empowered communities
• Community leadership, decision-making and self-management for refugees and host community supported
• Inclusive case management system for children, including displaced persons
• Safe and protective learning environments are in place

 UNICEF implementing partners under PROSPECTS are both Government (BoWCY), for which PROSPECTS has been integrated in the 2014/2015 RWP, as well as NGO partners (Plan International Ethiopia), for which partnership documents have been prepared.

 Considering the substantial investments of the PROSPECTS partnership into the Child Protection system of Somali, there is a need of close monitoring of activities under implementing partners, as well as the collection of lessons learned from PROSPECTS from the Somali context, including analyses and best practices.

 Justification

 As part of its child protection response, UNICEF seeks to provide and strengthen child protection and GBV services to affected populations. The quality of implementation of services requires monitoring of the situation, technical assistance to implementing partners, and skilled coordination.

The deployment of Third-Party Child Protection in Emergencies Consultants linked to affected areas will provide technical support to the implementation, monitoring and reporting of UNICEF’s child protection programme response. The consultants will also play a convening role with child protection programme partners. The existing efforts to strengthen/establish zonal/woreda level coordination mechanisms requires further support and this will ensure continued monitoring of the child protection situation and on-going responses in highly dynamic emergency contexts. This technical support will be linked with strengthening the capacities of Government sectors and other UNICEF PCA partners to provide CPIE and GBVIE response services in line with UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children for Child Protection. These dedicated Child Protection in Emergencies Consultants are therefore required to provide the needed field support to ensure a coordinated, quality assured response in dynamic and acute emergency settings.

 Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

 UNICEF Child Protection in Emergencies Response:

 In line with the Core Commitments for Children for Child Protection, provide technical and programmatic support for the design, implementation, monitoring and reporting of child protection in emergency response in partnership with BoWCYA and NGOs and ensure that interventions included in the child protection priority focus areas are implemented, monitored and managed in a timely and effective manner. Specifically;

1. Provide technical support and closely follow up on establishment and strengthening a functional Child protection and GBV AOR coordination forum at regional,zone and Emergency woredas
2. Support and coordinate implementation of the CPiE Response action plan through the leadership of regional and Zonal office of women and Children Affairs (ZoWCYA) to strengthen prevention, coordination and addressing the needs of unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) based on agreed best interest determination standards in line with the National Case Management Framework
3. Support the establishment of community-based safe environments for women and children, including child-friendly spaces, learning spaces, and other safe spaces, with attention to girls, adolescents and their caregivers, and support the provision of psychological first aid and psychosocial support services.
4. Strengthen referral pathways for children experienced and at risk of violence, exoploitation, abuse and neglect by mapping different service provision outlets.
5. Strengthen the capacity of IPs to complete registration and documentation of the caseload of all unaccompanied, separated and missing children in the IDP sites and host communities
6. Ensure an appropriate and confidential filing system is maintained by social workers and case managers for all identified and registered cases of child protection in woredas offices of BoWCYA.
7. Assist BOWCA, ZoWCYA and WOWCA to facilitate family tracing, verification and reunification efforts for unaccompanied and separated children in coordination with ICRC/Ethiopian Red Cross (ERCS) and community structures, where appropriate.
8. Assess alterative care options and ensure all the necessary safeguards are in place and ensure partners abide by the relevant standards and principles.
9. Support social workers and ZoWCYA/WoWCYA staff to timely and accurately enter all case management/FTR forms into the central case management database for all IDP sites managed by BoWCYA .
10. Identify stakeholders, services and partners with the capacity to address violence, exploitation or abuse, including GBV; and build capacity of partners to provide multi-sectoral response services (e.g., health, psychosocial support, security and legal/justice) to victims and survivors.
11. Provide an ongoing capacity assistance and monitor the implementation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for UASC in coordination with the BOWCA, ZoWCYA, their woreda offices and other implementing partners of UNICEF

• Follow up and support the implementation of the Regional response plan and Program documents with UNICEF supported NGOs: Provide technical support to BOWCA, ZoWCYA and NGO partners to implement the overall CP/GBV regional response plans and PCAs and support rapid assessemnts as deemed timely.
• Child Protection in Emergencies situation and response monitoring and reporting including regular Sit Reps and 5W reporting: On monthly basis (and ad hoc requests as needed) collect, analyze information and report against the Ethiopia Country Office (ECO HAC Results framework and CP/GBV monitoring framework). Reports will be shared with the ECO through the Child Protection Specialist and Emergency Officer/ Specialist for quality assurance.
• Reports: Ensure key reporting requirements are met including inputs for weekly/bi-weekly and monthly sitreps, donor reports and systematic coordination of appropriate responses on child protection in emergency operational response plan, with other relevant sectors, especially health, education and WASH.
• Capacity Building: Based on needs assessment, support and facilitate capacity building of humanitarian actors and front-line workers on child protection, GBV and PSEA areas and report on results of capacity building effort

 CP GBV Area of Responsibility (AoR) Coordination

• Provide Technical support to regional BOWCA and ZoWCYA to lead the child protection and GBV Area of Responsibility (AoR) coordination, promoting and facilitating active participation from key actors,
• Work with DPRM, OCHA, the Protection Cluster led by UNHCR, and child protection actors to coordinate inter-agency needs assessment to map out priority child protection issues, gaps and identify key resources and assets to avoid duplication and build complementarity of partner’s child protection response. Ensure that Child protection concerns are well addressed.
• Support the capacity development of the CP AOR members at regional and zonal level and ensure that clear and effective communication occurs between federal, regional AOR and zonal AOR and strengthen a more standardized child protection response across all affected areas.
• Co-lead on the strategic planning against identified child protection needs and response priorities with AOR members.
• Promote the implementation of the Minimum Standards of Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and GBV Humanitarian Standards.     
• Collaborate with the Protection Cluster lead and OCHA to ensure that key child protection concerns are well reflected in all documents and humanitarian initiatives.
• Coordinate and collaborate with other clusters such as the Health and Nutrition Cluster, Education and WASH Clusters to ensure that CP is mainstreamed across sectors to meet the psychosocial needs of children affected by emergencies and promote multisectoral response to CPiE.
• Monitor performance of the inter-agency CP/GBV response against agreed indicators and monitor the core cluster functions.
• Represent the CP – GBV Area of Responsibility in humanitarian coordination meetings under the EOC; the Protection Cluster and other relevant meetings.

 PROSPECTS

 Conduct monitoring and evaluation activities in accordance with the set PROSPECTS project indicators, and maintain strong relationships with implementing partners (government and non-government) for this purpose

• Develop an M&E work plan and tracking matrix, in line with the project’s thematic standards and practice
• Develop and manage tools for collecting, tracking and analyzing data
• Ensure accurate and timely collection of program data from the field (all participating woredas)
• Provide regular updates and contribute to monthly, interim and final project reports with sound analysis and documentation of data
• Provide quality assurance, including data verification, on all reports and information produced by and for the project
• Visualize and depict progress on the project and against targets and key milestones
• Provide technical support and quality assurance to implementing partners on the collection, use, storage and sharing of information related to project activities, results and resources.
• Initiate data analysis and action planning meeting with program team to review data trends and overall project performance on a monthly basis.

Job Requirements

Expected background and Experience

•  University degree at an advanced level in the field of Sociology, Social Work, Psychology, Social Anthropology, Community Development and related.
• Extensive work experience relevant to child protection in both development and emergencies may be considered as a replacement for formal qualifications for an advanced level;
• At least 4 years progressively responsible humanitarian and development work experience in child protection and gender-based violence including in emergencies with UN Agencies and/or INGOs.
• Previous UNICEF/ABH/NGO experience in child protection programme coordination, IDP/Returnee Situation is an asset
• Familiarity and experience working with government counterparts
• Strong knowledge and experience in establishing coordination architecture especially at zone and woreda levels.

Fluency in written and verbal English and Somali required

How to Apply

interested applicants can apply through EthioTalent until April 24,2022