Child Protection Specialist

The primary purpose of this position is to ensure that the UNICEF-funded programme “Development of a Child Protection Case Management and Referral Model in Pakistan between 2018 and 2022” is implemented following both the client’s and OPM’s technical and operational requirements in Pakistan. The main objectives of the post are:

1.    Oversee the implementation of the programme in four Pakistani provinces (Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ICT, AJ&K and Punjab), ensuring activities take place as agreed with UNICEF, OPM team members and other key stakeholders; (15%)

2.    Design, prepare and facilitate meetings and technical workshops with provincial stakeholders together with other OPM team members, developing all necessary technical resources and producing high-quality analytical reports in English; (25%)

3.    Provide contextualised child protection (CP) technical inputs to the development of all programme deliverables, supporting and providing technical leadership to the OPM technical team to produce outputs that are appropriate and suitable to each provincial context; (25%)

4.    Represent OPM towards UNICEF and local provincial authorities in relation to the programme, liaising with other OPM team members to secure a harmonised and coordinated approach towards delivery of expected outputs. Support the Team Leader to supervise the work of local consultants that are part of the OPM programme team, ensuring their contractual arrangements are up to date and that they are participating in activities and delivering outputs according to plan; (10%)

5.    Lead the program development on Social Protection by re-packaging OPM’s learnings, donor mapping, proposal writing/bidding, negotiating with donors and represent OPM. (25%)

Responsibilities

Under the supervision of and in close collaboration with the programme’s Team Leader, the CPS will be responsible for undertaking at least the following tasks:

Child Protection technical assistance:

-        Provide technical inputs to the design of the methodology and tools for provincial supply capacity mapping and assessment (SCMA) exercises, working with other OPM team members to organise fieldwork, undertake data collection and co-author analytical, in-depth SCMA reports, proposing appropriate/innovative conceptual and methodological approaches to deliver effective results;

-        Provide technical inputs to the design of the Child Protection Case Management and Referral Model(CP-CMRM) package and lead the validation and testing of CP-CMRM tools and manuals at provincial levels, writing reports about all related fieldwork and/or workshops;

-        Support the development of the CP-CMRM Training of Trainers (ToT) methodology and materials and lead the facilitation of the ToT with provincial stakeholders, writing all respective workshop reports;

-        Provide technical inputs to the development of guidance for child protection helplines (to be designed by other OPM team members);

-        Provide technical inputs to the design of and support the process of field testing of CP communications materials (to be designed by other OPM team members);

-        Provide technical inputs to the development of a CP Information Management System and technically support provincial ToT and validation processes (to be designed and led by other OPM team members);

-        Oversee the roll-out of the whole package of tools described above in selected districts per province during the last year of the programme, providing technical assistance to provincial stakeholders in the implementation of the package;

-        Lead the development of and/or provide inputs to any other CP technical output produced by the OPM team, as required by the Team Leader.

Programme implementation:

-        Systematically monitor workplan implementation, liaising closely with UNICEF and local provincial authorities in preparation for all field work, ensuring that all required OPM team members are mobilised and prepared to undertake field work as planned;

-        Produce updated quarterly programme workplans, in close collaboration with the Team Leader, and secure UNICEF approval for the same;

-        With support from OPM’s operations team, monitor budget execution, ensuring expenditure is in line with approved workplan. Anticipate significant budget deviations and timely discuss preventive adjustments or risk mitigation measures with the Team Leader and OPM operations team;

-        Follow all internal operational and security procedures to ensure that local team members are ready to travel domestically as needed, by liaising with OPM’s operational support team as necessary;

-        Work closely with all locally hired consultants, supporting the Team Leader to coo-ordinate work and supervise their performance, ensuring they are updated and actively engaging with activities and delivering expected outputs as required by their contracts and programme workplan;

-        Explore potential collaboration with other OPM-implemented programmes in Pakistan, seeking to promote cross-sectoral synergies that can enhance the effectiveness and quality of programme implementation, bringing contextualised child protection leadership and expertise to the equation;

-        Produce brief, fortnightly internal updates for all team members on the status of workplan implementation;

-        Ensure that all documentation related to programme implementation is regularly saved in an organised fashion in relevant Dropbox folders;

-        When necessary, support the identification of new team members and their onboarding as required for programme delivery.

Stakeholder collaboration:

-        Facilitate monthly meetings with UNICEF to monitor workplan implementation and secure clear and coordinated approaches to programme delivery within the boundaries of OPM’s contractual obligations. Produce short minutes from all meetings;

-        Be the primary OPM focal person to liaise with the provincial Technical Working Groups (TWG) and the provincial Child Protection Commissions (CPC) for the implementation of this programme. This includes attending TWG and CPC meetings as necessary and also being OPM’s liaison with other relevant provincial stakeholders (such as UNICEF field offices) in matters related to the work of the TWG and CPC;

-        Maintain positive, flexible and collaborative working relations with all stakeholders involved in the programme, anticipating any potential challenges or conflicts, pro-actively mitigating those in a constructive and timely fashion;

-        Facilitate and ensure good and flexible collaboration across all team members working in Pakistan ensuring frequent and clear communications across the team;

-        Maintain frequent contact with the Team Leader to ensure the programme is delivered to the highest quality technical and operational standards.

Program and Business Development:

-       Lead business development for OPM Pakistan in the area of special protection and right based sphere under guidance from respective portfolio lead and CD Pakistan

-       Develop strategies and technical program plans on Social Protection for OPM Pakistan in;

-       Actively work on mapping of donors, identifying opportunities and do prepositioning for upcoming work

-       Support portfolio lead on bid preparation, team selection and other areas of bid submission

-       Represent OPM in this particular area of work at wider forums in Pakistan;

The job holder will be expected to make decisions regarding OPM’s ability to implement the programme’s workplan and to propose adjustments, as necessary. Supported by the Team Leader, s/he will be responsible for liaising locally with UNICEF, provincial government authorities and other partners to secure high quality programme delivery. S/he will be expected to build and maintain strong relationships with all stakeholders and team members involved in the programme and across relevant OPM teams. S/he will liaison with donors for program development on Social Protection.

Job Requirements

Essential educational qualifications, relevant experience and requested skills

Required:

-       An advanced degree in the social policy sector (preferably social work, sociology, anthropology, political science, international development, international relations and/or related studies);

-       Minimum 15 years’ experience in implementing Social/child protection or child rights programmes in Pakistan and/or other countries in South Asia, preferably in a long-term development context;

-       Minimum 10 years’ experience in ensuring efficient delivery of development programmes in Pakistan, including in managing workplans, budgets and teams;

-       Proven experience working directly with provincial government authorities in Pakistan, preferably in the implementation and delivery of child protection and/or social services activities, with demonstrable experience and informed technical expertise in the sector;

Required:

-       An advanced degree in the social policy sector (preferably social work, sociology, anthropology, political science, international development, international relations and/or related studies);

-       Minimum 15 years’ experience in implementing Social/child protection or child rights programmes in Pakistan and/or other countries in South Asia, preferably in a long-term development context;

-       Minimum 10 years’ experience in ensuring efficient delivery of development programmes in Pakistan, including in managing workplans, budgets and teams;

-       Proven experience working directly with provincial government authorities in Pakistan, preferably in the implementation and delivery of child protection and/or social services activities, with demonstrable experience and informed technical expertise in the sector;

-       Experience facilitating multi-stakeholder consultative and capacity building workshops and meetings, involving government, civil society, UN agencies and other actors in Pakistan;

-       Excellent technical writing skills including policy papers, concept notes, proposal writing etc. 

-       Excellent representation, communications, negotiations and networking skills, required to maintain a diverse group of stakeholders motivated and focused on effective programme delivery;

-       Strong analytical skills and demonstrable experience of creatively employing a range of traditional and more innovative methods to reach and defend judgements and decisions that are robustly informed by evidence in situations of complexity and uncertainty;

-       Fluent English language speaking and writing skills, required to write good quality reports and provide inputs to technical documents written in English;

-       Availability to travel frequently within Pakistan.

Desirable:

-       Experience working on UNICEF or other UN agency-funded programmes;

-       Experience managing consultancy contracts;

-       Experience undertaking data collection and writing social policy study and/or research reports.