Ukraine Regional Response Child Protection Advisor (MHPSS)

Background

Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, War Child began responding through a local partnership model in Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Ukraine. Within the first six months of the response, War Child and its partners reached over 800 frontline workers with MHPSS or CP training, and over 25,000 individuals with PSS services, ECD activities, child protection messaging, or vouchers to support basic needs.

War Child works entirely through a local partnership model and as such this role will have a strong focus on empowering and building capacity within War Child’s partners. The focus of the role will be strongly within Ukraine, with added support to Hungary, and to a lesser extent, Moldova, within the first year, collectively representing no more than 50% of the Regional Advisor’s time. The focus is expected to shift towards Ukraine towards the end of 2023.

About You

As Ukraine Regional Child Protection Advisor you are responsible for strengthening our child protection programming with a particular focus on our Mental Health and Psychosocial competencies in War Child’s country programmes in the Ukraine regional response (Ukraine, Moldova, and Hungary) As the Regional advisor you contribute to the development of country strategies, act as War Child’s external engagement for technical advisory fora for Child Protection and MHPSS, lead competency building (structured learning, coaching) for War Child’s partners, and provides surge support for partners on programmes.

The Regional Advisor reports directly to the Country Representative within Ukraine and the Head of Humanitarian Programming for work in neighbouring countries. They collaborate with Programme Managers, but also closely with the global Programme Quality team, Regional Education Advisor, as well as the Programme Quality Team at the global level.

The Challenge

Creating Child Protection quality standards and ensuring adherence to them

• Ensure that standards are adhered to in countries in line with War Child’s Thematic guidelines, M&E framework and other relevant policies
• Support partners in the Ukraine response to develop, monitor and implement evidence-based Child Protection and MHPSS programming.
• Guide Child Protection and MHPSS inputs into country and global strategies, policies and guidance

Capacity building on MHPSS within the Child Protection programme

• Lead training in the region, being flexible with a number of modalities, including F2F training, online courses, mentoring and on-the-job mentoring, adapting to the situation at hand.
• Proactively coordinate and provide opportunities for cross-country MHPSS knowledge acquisition, capacity and competency development.
• Share and disseminate relevant technical material among countries.
• Attend and contribute to coordination initiatives for Child Protection in the region, and contribute to the development of regional initiatives focused on Child Protection and more specifically MHPSS.

Support a culture of evidence-based programming

• Liaise with MEAL Coordinator to produce Child Protection assessments and evaluations for programmes.
• Gather lessons learnt from countries Child Protection programs, including documentation and dissemination of new knowledge, and ensure these are shared and actions for change & improvement are initiated.
• Coordinate with War Child’s global Programme Quality Team and R&D Department to share lessons learned and follow up on development of Child Protection (core) interventions.

External representation and funding mobilization

• Represent War Child in relevant regional and/or international Child Protection and MHPSS technical fora, including relevant regional donor meetings.
• Actively scoping out new partners and opportunities for War Child.
• Support fundraising efforts to expand programs in the region, drafting inputs into concept notes based on evidence gathered, monitored and analyzed in countries, and managing programme design.

Your Profile

Essential

• Higher Education in Social Sciences, International Development, Psychology or related fields
• Extensive experience, progressively responsible, working on Child Protection and MHPSS programming (within Child Protection and/or Education) in a humanitarian setting.
• Excellent technical understanding of established international standards on Child Protection and MHPSS for children and caregivers.
• Experience of preparing concept notes for fundraising.
• Understanding of M&E processes and methodologies relevant for Child Protection and MHPSS within Child Protection programming.
• Extensive experience of competency and capacity development, including facilitating, coaching and supporting learning across multiple stakeholders
• Fluency in English.

Desirable

• Fluency in Ukrainian or Russian highly desirable; fluency in Hungarian desirable.
• Experience working in Eastern Europe context.

Location

It is highly preferable for this position to be based in Ukraine. Other War Child locations may be considered in the case of a strong fit candidate.

Flexibility to undertake frequent travel within the region is essential.

The Organisation
War Child is a dynamic organization. We try to keep an informal ambiance within our office, with a lot of room for creativity, inspiration and self-initiative from employees. We practice what we preach: dynamic, innovative, integrity focused, and a drive to reach the highest possible results against the lowest possible costs. War Child Holland offers a challenging job in an inspiring workplace.

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates are invited to apply before 9th May 2023. Make sure to upload your English CV (maximum of two pages) and cover letter here:

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

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Safeguarding

War Child is committed to humanitarian values, standards and norms and we expect the same from job applicants. War Child is especially committed to safeguarding the children and youth we support and doesn’t tolerate any form of abuse. Because we want to prevent and deter any actions that place children and youth at risk, conduct references are an important part of our recruitment procedure. As part of the selection process, War Child will request standardized references in accordance with the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and a recent Criminal Records statement.

Equal opportunity

War Child has a dream that every child lives in peace - no matter who or where they are. That’s why we pride ourselves on being an equal opportunity employer. We promote diversity and belonging in everything we do and select our potential new colleagues without regard to gender, race, colour, religion, nationality, disability, age or sexual orientation.

Application process

To ensure that we spend as much of our resources on the support of children and youth, War Child needs to operate as efficiently as possible. This means we can only process job applications received through our websites.

If we appoint a suitable candidate before the given closing date, the vacancy will be removed from our websites. In this case, any responses received after removal will not be processed. Sometimes the closing date of a vacancy is extended. If so, and you have not yet heard from us, your application will remain active.