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UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built, we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, protection

UNICEF in the State of Palestine works to uphold the rights of children to access essential services and protection, from early childhood through adolescence. Our objective is to ensure that every child in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, irrespective of background or circumstance, has an equal chance to fulfil their potential. Following the escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, UNICEF is responding at scale with Education, WASH, Nutrition, Health, Child Protection and Multi-Purpose Cash, while preparing for return to learning for children across the State of Palestine to respond to the most precent and critical needs of children, while supporting the restoration of essential services.

Under the overall direction and guidance of the Special Representative, the Child Protection Manager AoR Coordinator will provide leadership and representation of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group. You will facilitate the processes that will ensure a well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, and effective response by participants in the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group that is accountable to those who are affected by the emergency. In your effort to provide an efficient and effective response to the humanitarian crisis, you will be responsible for building relationships with stakeholders, for securing the overall coordination of sectoral responses and for ensuring inter-sectoral collaboration.

Your key accountabilities and duties:

Coordination, representation and leadership

- Ensure, establish and maintain a coordination mechanism that facilitates the effective achievement of the cluster functions (as outlined by the IASC Reference Module) and the requirements of the HPC (HNO, HRP and CCPM) and which builds on pre-existing coordination structures where appropriate and furthers the development of current or future national and subnational capacities.

- Oversee the functioning of any sub-national or hub AoR/ Sector/ Working Group where they exist, ensuring alignment of work and priorities, effective communication, reporting, engagement and coordination between the levels.

- Supervise the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group coordination team.

- Ensure appropriate coordination and build partnerships with all relevant sector stakeholders including government counterparts and national authorities, local, national and international organizations and affected populations.

- Build complementarity of partner actions within the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group, pro-actively negotiating with partners to avoid and resolve duplication and gaps.

- Coordinate, collaborate and represent the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group with stakeholders across all sectors, including through inter-cluster coordination fora, developing cross-sectoral relationships as appropriate.

Needs assessment and analysis

- Lead the planning and implementation of needs assessment and analysis, including representing the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group in multi-sectoral needs assessments and joint analysis of need, at national and subnational levels.

- Analyse needs assessment data and work collaboratively with the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group partners to create analytical products, including an HNO based on evidence-based information.

Strategic response planning

- Lead and coordinate strategic planning, response prioritization and the development of the sectoral response plan that is based on the HNO and aligned with national priorities, policies and plans.

- Ensure all programme delivery modalities (in-kind, cash, voucher and services) are given equal consideration in the strategic response planning and establish and implement systematic measures for supporting their consideration and use.

- Provide technical expertise and advice to AoR/ Sector/ Working Group partners to ensure activities are relevant, appropriate and in line with national priorities and communities' needs.

- Ensure that the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group response plan is updated regularly according to evolving needs and that it establishes indicators by which performance of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group can be measured.

- Engage with OCHA and other AoRs/ Clusters/ Sectors/ Working Groups to contribute to the development of the HRP, advocating for a response that reflects and addresses the concerns of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group.

Resource mobilization and advocacy

- Support and coordinate the mobilization of adequate resources to ensure the effective functioning of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group and its response and subsequent handing over and establishment of medium to long term capacities when the cluster approach is deactivated.

- Monitor, analyse and communicate information about the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group’s financial situation and resource mobilization and identify appropriate actions to address gaps or constraints.

- Advocate for improved sectoral outcomes, by developing an advocacy strategy, networking with advocacy allies, influencing stakeholders' decision-making.

Implementation and monitoring

- Monitor, evaluate and report on the coverage, equity, quality and progress of the response against the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group strategy, priorities and agreed results.

- Plan and support gap and coverage analysis to identify spatial and temporal gaps, overlaps and coverage of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group humanitarian response.

- Monitor AoR/ Sector/ Working Group adherence to IASC cluster approach principles, relevant humanitarian and sectoral agreements, standards, initiatives and guidelines and support partners to make improvements.

Operational peer review and evaluation

- Lead the annual cluster coordination performance monitoring (CCPM) exercise and annual review and contribute to other sectoral and humanitarian evaluations as appropriate.

Accountability to affected populations

- Be accountable to the affected population by establishing inclusive and consultative feedback mechanisms, creating meaningful opportunities for the involvement of the affected population in the response and encouraging partners to operate accountably.

- Ensure the inclusion of cross cutting issues (age, disability, gender, gender-based violence (GBV) mitigation and response and HIV & AIDS) in AoR/ Sector/ Working Group activities throughout the HPC.

- Establish and implement systematic measures for supporting inclusive work practices and processes.

- Adhere to child safeguarding and PSEA policies including procedures for challenging and reporting incidents and ensure other members of the coordination team comply.

Strengthen national and local capacity

- Encourage participation of local and national actors in AoR/ Sector/ Working Group activities and strategic decision-making, removing barriers to access.

- Lead the development of a capacity assessment and capacity strengthening strategy for AoR/ Sector/ Working Group members and oversee implementation and harmonization of initiatives.

- Lead early warning, contingency planning, and emergency preparedness efforts for the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group, ensuring adequate participation in inter-cluster early warning, contingency planning and emergency preparedness activities.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.

Experience:

A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in child protection and social development planning & management is required with experience at an international level preferred. Experience in child protection programme management related areas in another UN system agency or organization is considered an asset.

Experience in humanitarian contexts is required. Experience in development contexts is an added advantage.

A minimum of two years of experience in the Child Protection AoR/ Sector/ Working Group coordination is desirable.

 Experience in effective leadership and management of teams to deliver results in high stress/risk environments is desirable.

Language Requirement:

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language, in particular Arabic, is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

This is required for all posts requiring a higher education degree. “UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

The VA is open to all (internal and external candidates)

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.