Job Description: Child Protection and Education in Emergencies Program Coordinator

Job Overview:

The Child Protection and Education in Emergencies Program Coordinator will be responsible for providing strategic direction and vision for the Child Protection and Education programs, ensuring quality implementation. This role involves coordinating and overseeing Child Protection and Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies (CP-GBViE) interventions in targeted woredas of the region, in accordance with the Program Cooperation Agreement (PCA).

The Program Coordinator will work at the woreda level to guarantee that the program is implemented effectively at the kebele or site level, as outlined in the PCA. They will offer guidance and support to social workers for the implementation of child protection case management and service provision. This includes identifying, documenting, and facilitating family tracing and reunification (IDFTR), providing psychosocial support (PSS), and addressing prevention, risk mitigation, and response services related to GBV.

Additionally, the Program Coordinator will ensure periodic and timely reporting on the response efforts and the child protection situation in the targeted woredas of Oromia.

Main Responsibilities.

• With guidance and support from the Regional Child Protection (CP) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Specialist, and in collaboration with the Zonal and Woreda Women and Children Affairs (WCA) offices, the Program Coordinator will play a key role in the overall response plan and implementation. The responsibilities include:
• Providing technical and management leadership for Child Protection and GBV in Emergency staff and partners, in accordance with best practices and I1D/UNICEF policies.
• Ensuring that all planned activities are implemented on time, within budget, and according to quality standards, as outlined in the monthly plan.
• In collaboration with the CP-GBV Specialist, organizing and following up on quarterly, monthly, and weekly activity plans to achieve expected results based on quality and timelines.
• Identifying needs and gaps in programming and proactively suggesting new activities to enhance protection initiatives.
• Contributing to the development of new proposals in collaboration with the CP-GBV Specialist.
• Supervising the CP teams to conduct regular monitoring and evaluation activities while frequently liaising with partners to identify gaps and challenges and to ensure the quality impact of the CP-GBV approach.
• Working closely with the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) officer to ensure data collection for accurate reporting on activities and to ensure quality services for beneficiaries.
• Preparing high-quality weekly and monthly reports, including 5Ws reports and other reporting tasks as per donor and partner requirements.
• Identifying training needs and developing a capacity-building strategy, followed by delivering initial and refresher training based on the defined strategy.
• Providing technical support to program staff and partners, such as the Women and Children Affairs Office, in implementing emergency child protection and GBV initiatives. This includes aligning efforts with existing government mechanisms and services to strengthen sustainability.
• Ongoing capacity building for program officers, social workers, and frontline workers on prevention and response to violence, referral pathways, case management, community-based child protection systems, community mobilization, and psychosocial support, in accordance with capacity-building plans. Monitoring and reporting on the results of these capacity-building efforts.
• Ensuring accurate and timely reporting from Woreda and kebeles/sites are met in the established format, along with systematic coordination of appropriate responses within the Child Protection in Emergency operational response plan, collaborating with other relevant sectors, especially health, nutrition, education, and WASH.
• Coordinating and providing support for the zonal/regional level Education and Child Protection led coordination mechanism for effective implementation of emergency child protection and education interventions at the zonal, regional, Woreda, and site levels.
• Promoting the implementation of minimum standards for Child Protection and GBV in humanitarian settings.
• Mapping service providers and ensuring the establishment of referral pathways to guarantee that reported cases are referred to relevant stakeholders and addressed through multi-sectoral responses.
• Participating in zonal-level child protection and emergency response meetings and sharing minutes from these meetings with the national CP-GBV specialist and regional manager.
• Coordinating with other humanitarian partners and local authorities in the target areas to ensure effective and efficient implementation of CP-GBV projects, as well as attending clusters, working groups, sub-clusters, and task forces.
• Facilitating and supporting UNICEF’s field visits to emergency responses in targeted Woredas and kebeles/sites.
• Undertaking other relevant tasks as directed by the supervisor and assisting with additional duties in support of the Child Protection in Emergencies Programme.

Requirements/Qualifications & experience/

1. University degree/master’s at an advanced level in the field of: Sociology, Social Work, Psychology, Social Anthropology, Community Development, Development Studies, Gender Studies, and other related social Sciences
2. PSEA training certified
3. Extensive work experience relevant to child protection in both development
4. At least 5 years of progressively responsible humanitarian and development work experience in child protection and gender-based violence including in emergencies and at least 2 years in a coordination position in the area of Child Protection and Gender-based violence
5. Previous experience in child protection program coordination.
6. Familiarity and experience working with government counterparts.
7. Strong knowledge and experience in establishing child protection coordination architecture, especially at woreda levels will be an asset.
8. Excellent communication skills in the local language and English.

We strongly encourage qualified female candidates to apply.