SayPro Child Protection Senior Management Consulting Service

Contextual Background

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The Syria crisis is often described as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the end of the Cold War. Inside Syria, 6.1 million people are internally displaced and 13.1 million are in need of humanitarian assistance, with three million in hard-to-reach areas. There are 5.4 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. This is no short-term humanitarian episode. The devastating human consequences to huge numbers of people will endure for decades. The destruction of relationships, communities, livelihoods, homes and infrastructure will take years to repair.

Job Overview/Summary:

With direct management support from the Integrated Protection Coordinator and technical support from CP Technical Advisor, the Child Protection Senior Manager plays a key role in leading project development and implementation, providing technical support and guidance to the IRC’s child protection services including remote management of staff and/or partners inside Northwest Syria, and ensuring the delivery of quality child protection programming in Northwest Syria. The CP Senior Manager will be primarily responsible for the establishment or strengthening existing direct and partner-led child protection programs reaching families and children. He/she will be responsible to supervise the direct child protection program activities in the different locations in North West Syria. Moreover, the Child Protection Senior Manager will also support the integrated protection coordinator in strategic decisions for child protection programs.

Major Responsibilities:

Program Design, Support and Planning **

• Technical oversight and support to field level implementation of IRC’s and partners CP direct implementation programming in Northwest Syria. Namely comprehensive child protection services through case management, SHLS, parenting education; outreach PSS; raising awareness on child protection; support to community child protection committees; and training of service providers and community leaders; and rapid emergency assessments and response.
• Ensure IRC’s case management service follow proper case management steps, , referrals and documentation are happening in timely and quality manner, and case conferences with the different teams happen on a regular basis;
• Design new approaches to build the capacity building of partners including operational and technical support on on-going child protection case management services including but not limited to strengthening care for child survivors
• Explore new areas of programming in Northwest Syria to ensure that boys and girls are safe in their homes and communities and receive through direct or partner implementation
• Support the identification of new partners to expand the child program portfolio in Northwest Syria
• Development and implementation of training and technical support to mainstream child protection standards across Northwest Syria response
• Contribute to any business development required for the integrated protection program, including drafting concept notes, proposals as required by the Integrated Protection Coordinator
• Support program design including the development of project narratives and budget, and development of qualitative and quantitative reporting from inside Syria.
• Develop and regularly update activity implementation, spending and procurement plans and budgets for new and existing child protection programs. Plan and monitor the procurement/distribution of new materials for all Child Protection activities as per work plans and donors’ requirements;
• Lead child protection emergency response in areas where new displacement occur in Northwest Syria including the contingency planning and preparedness
• Develop and/or update tools for Child Protection Assessments (or ensure child protection issues are covered during integrated protection assessments) in all IRC selected locations, including: revising tools, directing the child protection staff on how to conduct these assessments and analyzing findings
• Manage the integration of Early Childhood and Development child protection in existing and new child protection programs
• Support the Integrated Protection Coordinator to enhance collaboration and synergy across the Child Protection (CP), Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) and Protection and Rule of Law (PRoL) program components to promote integration
• Lead inclusion and child protection mainstreaming in IRC’s Health and Early Recovery and Development (ERD) programs

Staff management

• Recruit child protection staff members both Amman based and Syria-based, as needed
• Coach, train, supervise and mentor direct-report staff, both Amman based and Syria including communicating clear expectations, setting annual performance objectives, providing regular and timely positive and constructive performance feedback, and providing documented semi-annual performance reviews.
• Develop and implement remote management capacity building approaches to build the strengths of the team in Syria
• Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions.
• Hold high-quality meetings with each direct report on a regular and predictable basis, at least bi-weekly.
• Provide a measurable development plan including on-the-job learning with the aim of strengthening technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and providing guidance on career paths.
• As required identify staff performance issues and work with Human Resources to document and address these in accordance with the National Staff Employment Policies.
• Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions.
• Promote and monitor staff care and well-being. Model healthy work-life balance practices. Support appropriate interventions in response to identified staff care needs of both national and international staff.
• Look for opportunities to support staff in their career growth, where appropriate
• Adhere to and act in accordance with the IRC Global HR Policies and Procedures, and communicates through word and example a high standard of compliance with all applicable policies and regulations.

Project Monitoring and Evaluation

• Work with IRC Monitoring team, IPC, technical advisor and partner organizations to ensure a safe and confidential mechanism for collecting information on project activities is implemented.
• Support the design of monitoring and evaluation tools that are contextually appropriate and will allow the IRC to measure the impact of programming.
• Develop and maintain an appropriate archiving system / database in order to track activity progress and quality;
• Ensure that all internal and external reporting requirements are met and that reports are of a high quality and submitted on time.

Coordination & Representation

• Support the timely information sharing regarding challenges and needs at the field level.
• Represent IRC in internal and external forums as needed, including the protection cluster and CP sub-Cluster.
• Assist in contributing to the development of referral mechanisms in collaboration with IRC coordinators, other NGOs and the Protection cluster.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Integrated Protection Coordinator **
Position directly supervises: Senior Partnership Officer (Amman); Child Protection Officer (Amman) and Deputy Child Protection Manager (Syria); Case management Supervisor (Syria) **

Indirect Reporting: Will work within IRC’s cross-border protection team, led by the Integrated Protection Coordinator

Other Internal and/or external contacts: Regular coordination with relevant IRC staff/departments (eg. Technical Advisor, WPE and protection and rule of law), other humanitarian actors and partners in Jordan and Syria.

Job Requirements

• Minimum 7 years of experience of which a minimum of 3 years is in a managerial level in a child protection program
• Master’s degree in areas including in social work, social sciences, public health, community health, or related field
• Experience in INGO is preferred
• Ideally experience with establishment and running of child protection programs directly or through local partners
• Demonstrated experience with child protection case management and psychosocial support
• Demonstrated experience with capacity building and training of internal and external teams
• Demonstrated understanding of protection mainstreaming in particular demonstrated understanding of best practices for integration of child protection interventions in humanitarian action
• Report writing skills
• Excellent relationship-building, interpersonal skills and the ability to liaise diplomatically
• Solid ability to provide leadership, management, team-building, coaching, and development for staff
• Experience of working with local stakeholders and partners
• High standards written and spoken English and Arabic are required.
• Full professional competency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Standards of Professional Conduct: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, Combating Trafficking in Persons and several others.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.

Attention Returning National Candidates IRC strives to attract, motivate and retain qualified national staff in our programs. We strongly encourage national or returning national candidates to apply for this position. If you are a national of the country in which this position is based and are currently located outside of your home country and possess over two years of international work experience, the Middle East Region has introduced an attractive remuneration package. The package includes competitive compensation, return flight to post, shipping allowance, temporary housing and a relocation allowance. Certain restrictions may apply.