Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF has been working in Liberia for close to 30 years, turning our vision for children into practical action.
With our child-focused mandate, country presence and operational capacity, we support the Government of Liberia and other partners to help every child reach their full potential.
The goal of our current country programme for 2013-2019 is to:
Make sure that every child and adolescent has access to basic education and a variety of post-basic education and improved learning outcomes.
Improve the health, nutrition and welfare of children and women on an equitable basis.
Increase access to the basics of life – safe water, sanitation and hygiene
Protect the poorest and most vulnerable children and women from all forms of violence.
Our interventions are supported by a robust monitoring and evaluation system that helps us track and improve results for children. Behaviour change communication is a key strategy across all our programmes, while advocacy and resource mobilization ensure that policies and funding are in place to bring about positive change for children in Liberia.

Context

Liberia is a youthful country. Children under the age of 15 make up 42 per cent of its population while 63 per cent is under 25. This gives the country a great task at hand: to protect its young people from harm while giving them the space and opportunity to develop and lead the country forward. Yet, most of Liberia’s children, adolescents and youth are trapped in a cycle of violence, poverty and deprivation, experience violence, struggle to get educated, and find it difficult to find decent employment. Violence against children and adolescents, especially girls, is rampant, including rape, abuse, harassment and exploitation. In 2015, 89 per cent of reported rape survivors were children, with 39 per cent 12 years or younger. Sexual harassment in schools in the form of ‘sex for grades’ and ‘sex for school fees’ is common. Violent discipline is also a widely accepted practice, while at least 31 per cent of children (2-14 years old) were engaged in some form of labour.
Harmful cultural and traditional practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) are among the worst forms of violence practiced against children in Liberia. Birth registration, which is the first critical first step towards safeguarding lifelong protection for a child, is out of reach for many children in Liberia. The country has one of the lowest levels of birth registration in the world: less than one quarter of all births are registered. When vulnerable children and adolescents come into conflict with the law, they are often exposed to even more violence and distress.
In terms of environmental challenges, waste management poses a serious issue in Liberia. For example, in the capital city, Monrovia, plastics constitute 14.2 per cent of the waste. With poor or limited waste management systems, communities grapple with plastic pollution, resorting to burning or burying garbage. This situation exacerbates health risks for children and adolescents, including respiratory problems and air pollution-related diseases.
A key priority in Liberia is to stop the violence that children experience every day. We collaborate with the government, civil society and development agencies to strengthen community-based protection and response services to prevent all forms of violence against children or provide assistance should it occur. To help adolescents fulfil their potential, UNICEF supports the government to provide life skills and vocational training, and to protect adolescents, especially girls, from abuse, sexual violence and harmful traditional practices.
This United Nations Volunteers (UNV) assignment is part of UNICEF’s child protection systems strengthening, UNICEF’s climate action in line with the Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan 2023-2030, and UNICEF’s priorities for Adolescents programming, among others.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Chief, Child Protection Section or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Child Protection Officer will work on below tasks:
a) Climate Action and Child Protection
• Coordinate the timely implementation of climate related projects, ensuring linkages with child protection, education and child and survival sections.
• Identify new opportunities, including research and document the linkages between climate change and child protection.
• Seek and promote relationships between UNICEF and government institutes, civil society organizations, academia, and other stakeholders for climate action and adolescent empowerment programming.
b) Innovation
• Build the capacity of young people and stakeholders to support the implementation and delivery of innovative strategies and programmes for the child protection sector.
• Identify and implement opportunities for the marginalised adolescents in Liberia to engage and collaborate with other adolescents from other countries to lead scalable innovative actions.
c) Communication and advocacy
• Lead the development and implementation of communication and outreach/advocacy plans, with a specific focus on assets collection and production.
• Work with the communications team to capture the best practices, success stories and shed light on the impact of the activities while ensuring the acknowledgment of donors.
• Act as the communication focal point in the Child Protection section to generate data and manage knowledge inform decision making, programme design and communications.
d) Knowledge management
• Periodically update the child protection data (dashboards) in preparation of concept notes, proposals, and donor reports.
• Undertake any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.