Child Protection Officer at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the leading independent organization for children in need, with programs in over 120 countries. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Save the Children is working in Nigeria because one in five children in Nigeria dies before their fifth birthday. About 40% of children miss out on school and have to work to survive while nearly 2 million children have lost one or both parents to an AIDS-related disease.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Child Protection Officer

Location: Adikpo, Benue
Employment Type: Full-time

Role Purpose and Description

• Save the Children with GPE fund to integrate child protection in education to provide refugee girls and boys, including adolescents, with high-quality psychosocial support, adolescent sexual reproductive health services, life skills training, and livelihood opportunities to strengthen their resilience and promote successful reintegration into their communities in Adamawa, Taraba, Akwa Ibom, Benue, and Cross River states.
• The Job holder will support the education team to improve the physical and emotional safety of children, supporting safe learning environments and ensuring that schools and learning spaces are free from violence, abuse, and exploitation.
• The Job holder will equip adolescent refugee girls and boys in the mentioned state with the skills and experiences vital to make balanced, strategic life choices as well as promote the safety, prevention of and response to violence against children in schools and communities.
• The Job Holder will be responsible for ensuring that quality child protection services are provided to the population served by the project (mostly vulnerable children and their families).
• In addition, will have their capacities developed to provide these kinds of protection to children in a range of Save the Children’s emergency responses worldwide; and will be expected to support on sectoral assessment, project planning and coordination.
• In most circumstances, the post holder will be expected to mentor and/or build capacity of Youth mentors, community volunteers, and animators on the field.
• The job holder provides coordination and engagement with relevant Protection stakeholders including Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Ministry of Humanity and Social Welfare, and other relevant State Ministries.  
• The job holder will also be working closely with community leaders, religious leaders as well as community members.
• In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Key Areas of Accountability

• Coordinate with Social workers when there is a need to provide case management services for adolescent boys and girls.
• Participate in assessments and give to the overall intervention strategy based on feedback received from adolescent boys and girls throughout the programming.
• Strictly adhere to GBV guiding principle while engaging with Adolescent boys and girls and their parents/care givers.
• Supervise and capacitate the community-based child protection system and the youth mentors formally to provide quality life skill sessions through training, daily mentoring, weekly meeting, and applying regular knowledge and skills assessment tools.
• With support from the Child Protection Specialist, develop monthly and quarterly plans and costed plans, contributing towards an overall thematic programme plan. From the strategy initiate programming in the following areas as appropriate:
• Support to the psychosocial (physical, social, emotional) wellbeing of children and their families.
• Prevention and response to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and gender-based violence (GBV) in project communities.
• Prevention and response to the main risks for children’s exposure to physical harm.
• Prevention and response to all forms of exploitation including harmful child labour and child trafficking.
• Support the integration of cases into CFS and PSS in schools.
• Coordinate with the Youth Mentors and other relevant technical sectors, to ensure a rapid, proportionate and effective response.
• With support from the Child Protection Specialist, In collaboration with implementing partners and community leaders, develop a selection criterion of adolescent boys and girls to engage them in life skill sessions.
• Directly engage with adolescent boys and girls and parents as required, and work with mentors to ensure the quality of the program.
• With support from the CP Specialist, mainstream Healing and Learning through ART into schools.
• Supervise project implementation to ensure timely delivery of project activities (for example, monitoring against individual performance management work plans).
• With support from the Child Protection Specialist, prepare and review timely monthly reports submitted by Volunteers.
• With support from the Child Protection Specialist, identify project supplies specific to the programme needs and coordinate with the logistics team to put in place a phased procurement plan.
• Assist in response related IEC materials, coordination GBV team, ensuring messages are appropriate for the community and conduct pre-testing before dissemination.
• Work with the M & E plan to ensure links to reporting requirements where possible, refer the M&E framework to build an evidence-base for child protection programming interventions.
• With support from the MEAL Officer put in place accountability activities for the project, ensuring that feedback from children and their families are considered in project design.
• Ensure that the minimum standards of humanitarian relief are maintained in accordance with the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Settings and the Sphere standard.
• Ensure appropriate child-friendly spaces time schedules are tailored to the physical and mental needs of the children based on age group and gender in the school.
• Coordinate monthly meetings with child protection committee and SBMC.
• Provide essential psychosocial first aid support to children and adults when needed.
• Ensure Volunteers are supervised regularly to ensure activities are carried out in line with minimum standard guidelines.
• Consistently maintain referral pathway of project locations.
• Provide technical support to youth mentors on ASRHR and safe families.
• Maintain a database for all CP activities and update it weekly.

Capacity Building:

• Provide capacity building to implementing partners that have less CPiE experience.
• Provide technical support/capacity building to other CP staffs in the absence of CP Specialist.
• Representation & Advocacy & Organisational Learning:
• Ensure that Save the Children's work is coordinated with efforts of other agencies and Government and support Interagency Coordination forums including the State Child Protection Sub Working Group, advocating for the specific needs of children. This may involve supporting the coordination of working groups and sub-working groups.
• With support from the CP Specialist and/or other senior programme staff, assist in advocacy activities that target decision-makers in-country.
• In collaboration with the Child Protection team, feed in learning, experiences and evidence to relevant global advocacy objectives.

Safeguarding:

• Ensure that  all child protection activities comply with Save the Children’s safeguarding policies
• Work with the project safeguarding officer to ensure that all protection activities have a safeguarding risk assessment and mitigation measure in place

General:

• Comply with Save the Children policies and practice with respect to child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.
• Carry out other assigned tasks as requested by Line Manager.

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• University Degree or equivalent in Social Work, Social Science, Development Studies or equivalent combination of relevant training and experience
• Minimum of three years of work experience in Protection work and solid understanding refugee and or humanitarian response.
• Proven ability to supervise a CP project with a holistic approach and integrated to child protection right
• Speaking fluent English, Pidgin English and local language of the location is an advantage.
• Computer literate.

Desirable Criteria:

• High level of personal integrity, commitment and professional responsibility
• Excellent communication skills,
• Team player with strong leadership skills
• Mature personality with life experience is an advantage.
• Able to be a self-started and work in challenging contexts and fragile environment.

Application Closing Date
1st April, 2024.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online