Context :
The IRC has been active in The Central African Republic (CAR) since 2006 and has been implementing emergency response programs since early 2013. The IRC has three field offices in the north – Bocaranga, Kaga Bandoro, and Zemio – in addition to a central office in Bangui. Since 2007, it has built close relationships with local communities, community leaders, local authorities, and other local and international actors. Today, the IRC is one of the leading humanitarian actors working in the prefectures Ouham Pende, Nana Gribizi, and Zemio, implementing programs in health, women and child protection, and Early Recovery and Development. The IRC has demonstrated its ability to successfully implement health and protection programming, improving beneficiaries’ access to healthcare and providing survivors of violence with safe, confidential services to help them recover and reintegrate into their communities. The gained technical expertise, logistical abilities, and local knowledge and understanding has laid the foundation to expand and deepen these services to reach more people and respond to the emergency need at a greater scale as additional funding is secured.
Scope of work :
The CYPD Coordinator will responsible for overseeing the development, start-up, and implementation of Child Protection (CP) programming. He/she is responsible for child protection context analysis, partner and actor mapping and identification of capacities, needs and priorities in order to strengthen protection response for children. The coordinator will also work to improve current child protection programming through developing and providing needs-based and ongoing capacity building and coaching to the child protection team, strengthen the quality of child protection programme and work closely with the IRC’s Health, Economic Wellbeing and Recovery and Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) teams and partner organizations on developing coordinated, integrated services that will adequately respond to the protection needs of children.
The CYPD Coordinator will also be responsible for increasing IRC’s presence and potential leadership role in the Child Protection sector by participating in relevant coordination meetings, networking with state and NGO actors in the child protection sector, The incumbent will coordinate with monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning unit to ensure CYPD program has measurement and learning systems in place.
S/he reports to the Deputy Director, Programs and will have access to technical guidance from the IRC Child Protection Technical Unit.
The CYPD Coordinator will be based in Bangui and is expected to travel a minimum of 40% of her/his time to project locations, taking into consideration IRC’s RCA security protocols.
Responsibilities :
Programme Development
- Together with the Deputy Director, Programs provide strategic direction and vision to the IRC’s child and youth protection and development programming in CAR ;
- Develop/implement the Child Protection sector strategy for CAR in close collaboration with the DDP, Child Protection team and in collaboration with the Child Protection Technical Unit ;
- Participate in developing the Country Program Strategic Action Plan and its Implementation ;
- Develop and/or lead implementation of child protection assessments and child protection situation analysis for the purpose of program development or programme strengthening ;
- Identify opportunities for design and develop concept notes and proposals based on context analysis and opportunities ;
- Lead in technical inputs for Child Protection during proposal development ;
- Ensure child protection is mainstreamed across IRC programming ;
- Work closely with IRC’s Technical Unit to integrate innovative approaches informed by evidence and/or research ;
- Ensure Child Protection programming in CAR is context appropriate and informed by the knowledge and experience of the country team ;
- Provide lessons learned and feedback at country and global level for a as appropriate, in order to advance the child protection sector.
Program Management and Quality :
- Oversee quality implementation of Child and Youth Protection and Development programs, including quality assessments, budget oversight, implementation plans and partnerships ;
- Ensure that monitoring and evaluation systems are effectively designed and integrated into all stages of the project; that output and impact data are captured and that data is used to optimize program quality ;
- Participate in cross-departmental collaboration and coordination in order to ensure that linkages between programs are made and programs gain from child protection best practice; in particular with regular contact and coordination with Coordinators and Managers in other sectors ;
- Ensure all designed child protection projects use to the IRC theories of change and that outcomes are evidence-driven and evidence-generated and the selection of indicators use the IRC Indicators Section Tools ;
- Ensure quality and timely reporting in accordance with IRC and donor’s regulations and templates ;
- Contribute to implementation and monitoring of good and great standards in line with IRC strategic objectives ;
- Promptly identify and recommend solutions to technical issues ;
- Ensure Child Safeguarding principles and functional feedback mechanisms are in place in the child protection programme.
Representation, Coordination and Advocacy :
- Under the leadership of the DDP/CD forge relevant relations with key government counterparts at the ministerial level, UN, I/NGOs, human rights actors, municipal and other sub-national government actors ;
- Represent the IRC in high level and strategic meetings such as Child Protection sub-cluster and other relevant inter-agency and bi-lateral meetings, e.g. case management task force.
Human Resources Management and Development :
- Technical support and supervision to the Child Protection team to ensure implementation of quality programming ;
- Discuss job expectations, set objectives and provide appropriate and timely feedback regarding performance, including timely implementation of the annual staff performance management system ;
- Clearly define staff development needs of direct reports and ensure they are able to access training and professional development resources appropriate to their skill gaps/needs ;
- 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 including staff development plans ;
- Define in participatory manner a professional development plan for Child Protection National Program Manager and provide her/him with program management coaching with clear goals and time bound measurable milestones ;
- Conduct at least one to one meeting with each report every two weekly.
Key working relationships :
- Position Reports to : Deputy Director, Programs ;
- Position supervises : Child Protection Managers ;
- Management in Partnership: Child Protection Technical Advisor.
Qualifications :
- Advanced university degree in Law, Human Rights, social science or a related field ;
- At least 4 years’ experience implementing child protection programming including experience in emergency or post-conflict project management ;
- Demonstrated experience using international human rights standards in child protection programming ;
- Demonstrated experience implementing Child and Youth Protection and Development programs ;
- Strong strategic thinking and proposal writing skills ;
- Strong leadership, staff and budget management and capacity building skills ;
- Excellent communication skills, cultural sensitivity, flexibility, ability to improvise, team player ;
- Ability to live and productively work under stress and in insecure and harsh environments while maintaining a sense of humor.
DESIRED :
- Experience in context analysis, situation monitoring and ability to link humanitarian and long term sustainable outcomes for our clients ;
- Fluency in French and English.
SPECIFIC SECURITY SITUATION/HOUSING :
The Child Protection Coordinator will be based in Bangui, CAR with travel throughout the country. The security situation in CAR continues is still volatile although the signature of Khartoum Peace and Reconciliation agreement that was signed in February 2019 is always seen as source of hope that the country can recover peace. The level of security remain at 3 (orange phase). The candidate should be prepared to implement programming in insecure environments. This is a non-accompanied position. The Coordinator will live in shared housing.
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, Equality 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.
IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.
How to apply :
Applications to be submitted on the IRC careers page