Child Protection Specialist – Public Finance at the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: International Consultant – P3, Child Protection Specialist – Public Finance

Job Number: 520998
Location: Nigeria
Work Type: Consultancy

Purpose of Assignment

• Under the guidance of the Child Protection System Strengthening Manager, the international consultant will contribute to the advocacy for increased public budget allocations to sufficiently finance a functioning child protection system in identified Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at Federal level and in identified focus states in Nigeria.

Background
A precondition for a successful strengthening of a child protection system is dependent upon the extent to which the government sufficiently allocates and releases funds to coordinate and provide a minimum package of both preventive and responsive child protection services. In order to ascertain adequate budget allocations and to advocate for increased investments for child protection, UNICEF has conducted a series of budgetary assessments in 2017 including:

• The Child Protection Financial Benchmark, which provided a comparative indication of expenditure on child protection services by Federal and State MDAs for the latest audited financial years (2014-2015);
• The Economic Burden of Violence against Children study, which analyses the cost of inaction of not investing in child protection services in terms of annual GDP loss for Nigeria, and
• A costing analysis of child protection services at Federal level and in focus states to inform the next budget submissions. Having strong evidence is key for successful advocacy to increase budget allocations. It is also a basis for the development of budgetary guidelines to support State governments to make informed financial planning in the future.

In order to continue UNICEFs technical support and ongoing advocacy initiatives with key MDAs at federal and state level and to ensure that required budget lines with specific allocation on child protection services are sustainably included into future budget submissions, UNICEF is seeking to hire an international consultant.

Programme ID & Specific Project Involved: Outcome 6: Children who are victims or at significant risk of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, including those in humanitarian settings, receive quality preventive and responsive services from a functioning child protection system.

Specific Project Objective to which the consultant is related:

• Output 6.1: The legislative and institutional framework is strengthened to better protect children vulnerable and exposed to violence, abuse and exploitation.

Purpose of the Consultancy:

• The purpose of this consultancy is to lead the programme planning for the Public Financing for Children (PF4C) component under Output 6.1.2 of UNICEF Nigeria Child Protection Rolling Work Plan 2019-2020 with the Federal Government of Nigeria.
• Leading the PF4C programme planning includes the monitoring and implementation of activities, the completion and implementation of advocacy strategies with key governmental stakeholders, the provision of technical assistance for submission of child protection inclusive budgets by key MDAs at federal and state level, the development and dissemination of related budgetary guidelines to inform the future budgetary cycles, the replication of the PF4C strategy in additional Nigerian states, the initiation of a study on the impact of PF4C in Nigeria, and the recruitment and coordination of expert consultancy firms and  individual consultants.

Qualifications or Specialized Knowledge/Experience Required

• Advanced University Degree in Social Science, Finance and Economic Sciences, or related field (Masters or equivalent level)
• A minimum of five years of relevant professional work experience in Child Protection and/or Social Policy programme management
• Experience in policy/advocacy, specifically and specifically in the field of for budgeting and financing is a strong asset
• Abreast with latest development in the field of public finances and budgeting an asset
• Excellent planning and organizational skills
• Strong communication skills – both oral and written
• Experience with UNICEF is desirable
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Experience working with government is an asset
• Experience working in Nigeria and/or the region is desirable

For every Child, you demonstrate…

• UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

Application Closing Date
23:55:00 GMT+0100 (W. Central Africa Standard Time); 11th April, 2019.

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