Child Protection Information Management Specialist

If you are a committed, creative and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. 

For 60 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Vacancy No : UNICEF/Sudan/2014/026
Post Title : Child Protection Information Management Specialist
Contract type : Consultancy
Duration : 8 months
Duty Station : Khartoum 
Supervisor : Child Protection Social Norms IR manager

PURPOSE

Child protection and child rights based policies and practices still remain highly challenging In Sudan. The notion of children as right-holders and an important target group for development policies and programmes is very limited. This is particularly evident in the precarious protection systems and mechanisms, resulting in many children that are being abused, exploited, abandoned or institutionalized and do not have proper care and protection, which also exacerbated by the multiple and prolonged humanitarian crisis and armed conflict. Persistent harmful practices targeting especially girls and women impeded on the social norms such as FGM/C and early marriage are also rampant. 

The National Council for Child Welfare (NCCW) is mandated for setting policies, plans and programmes according to the general policy of the childhood welfare of the country. Particular mandate is to coordinate efforts to comply, implement and monitor progress on adhering with the provisions of the Convention of the Child Rights and its optional protocols. The strong and effective collaboration between UNICEF and NCCW led to significant gains for the protection of children in Sudan. 

While it is still a major challenge to harmonise routine data collection, local and National tracking system , analysis and reporting of data on child protection issues, UNICEF has been able to support initiates to strengthen information management system for some child protection issues like for example family tracing and DDR MIS. Still remain to have a comprehensive Information Management System (IMS) for the CP issues that are linked to the national tracking system for development indicators. 

UNICEF, therefore, is planning to support the government of Sudan through NCCW to establish a coordinated Information Management System (IMS) that will capture change over time on major child protection indicators. In response to the requirements of building, and creating systems and mechanisms to ensure provision of information responsive to country needs, the objective of the Information Management System will be to contribute to improving availability of timely and quality of data and secure the necessary information to have evidence -based overview of children situation in Sudan. 

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the overall guidance of the Child Protection Specialist/ Social Norm and in coordination with the child protection team, the consultant will provide technical guidance to NCCW and the child protection section actor on child protection information management systems. The consultant will collaborate with related sections within UNICEF and other partners to achieve the following results: The scope of work will include:

• Establish knowledge of CP IMS, GBV IMS, and MRM IMS requirements. This includes establishing key relationships within each of the impacted protection IMS groups.
• Facilitate and build consensus among the related working group, with the support of IT and information management colleagues of UNICEF and NCCW, to agree on a Governance Framework for the project. 
• Finalize the IMS design and TOR for institutional contract with database developer in consultation with IT colleagues.
• Identification of appropriate database development team, and facilitation of database development contract in liaison with IT team.
• Revision of database specifications based on outputs of one day inter-agency Child Protection IMS retreat initially focused on FGM/C, Child Marriage and GBV indicators; and consultation with field and IT colleagues; oversee database development. Interface between IT and database developers and the programme colleagues. Build database using modular approach, so that initial version is deployed with minimum capabilities, and upgraded based on testing and feedback. 
• Plan and initiate the implementation of the project. For example, begin limited pilot testing of reporting form templates, information handling and security protocols. Initiate piloting of database in phased manner. 
• Oversee the pilot roll-out of the CP IMS in select SCCW’s offices – including customization of tools, staff orientation, training, implementation, and system evaluation and feedback. Particular emphasis should be given in the pilot to data analysis, reporting requirements, and use of information for strategic decision making. Document feedback and lessons learned. This will inform the second phase of the project – scaling up and roll-out to all states. 
• Liaise with other protection IMS to develop information sharing protocols and guidance as required. 
• Finalize all tools of Child Protection IMS package, incorporating feedback from pilots -- reporting format templates, information sharing protocols, information handling and security protocols, reports and analysis templates, database, etc.
• Produce guidance manuals, training materials and training programmes – in consultation with the database development team – for staff capacity building to effectively deploy the Child Protection IMS.
• Integrate an effective process for monitoring and evaluation to assess system performance and provide regular feedback loops. This may include designs in electronic system to automatically provide key data on system use.
• Support the Child Protection team in creating a strategy and vision for a cohesive and comprehensive approach to information management; and ensuring synergies with the various initiatives.
• Other tasks as required by the Child Protection section. 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE 

• Master’s degree in Information Management or similar
• At least 8 years of experience in social sector management, with a particular focus on child protection information management systems 
• Fluency in English is essential, working knowledge of Arabic will be an asset

Interested candidates should submit their application, updated CVs, completed UN personal history form (which can be downloaded from www.unicef.org/employ ) to sudanhrvacancies@unicef.org , Applicants should indicate the vacancy number of the post they are applying for.

Closing date: September 24, 2014

• Successful candidate must be willing to serve in field locations temporarily, depending on the needs of the job. 
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
• UNICEF is an equal opportunity employer and qualified females are particularly encouraged to apply.
• UNICEF is a smoke-free working environment. 
• Zero tolerance of sexual abuse and exploitation is our policy.