Terre des hommes Foundation – Helping children worldwide (Tdh), is the leading Swiss foundation for children’s aid, with its headquarters in Lausanne, and registered in Iraq with the No 2178598. Tdh aims to create a positive impact on children's lives in almost 40 countries around the world, through its Health, Access to Justice, Migration and Child Protection transversal programmes.

Tdh started its operations in Iraq in December 2014, responding to needs of children and youth between the age group of 9-22 years, affected by the ISIL -driven crisis of 2014-2017 working across 12 districts within 5 governorates (Anbar, Kirkuk, Ninewa, Baghdad & Salah al-Din), providing emergency assistance in child protection, juvenile justice, education and WASH.

In the long-term, through its Multi-year Country Strategy 2022 – 2024 and its long term Vision for the Country Programme, Tdh plans to reinforce and expand interventions due to the persistent overwhelming needs of children, youth and families through a NEXUS approach, responding to the protracted humanitarian needs while contributing to achieving durable solutions for the most vulnerable and at-risk population groups in the sectors of Child Protection, Education, WASH and Access to Justice for children, youth and women.

General description of the position:

Reporting to the Child Protection and Education Project Manager, the Child Protection and Education Officer is responsible for supervising and coordinating a number of Child Protection and Education program activities, including Case Management, Psychosocial Support, Community Outreach, formal and non-formal education and school rehabilitations in line with climate change activities. Responsibilities include direct management of a team consisting of 2 social workers, and indirect support to Volunteer teachers. The post holder is expected to provide on-going technical support, mentoring and guidance to the project team to ensure child protection and education activities in the project locations are carried on a timely basis ensuring the high quality of the response.

Responsibilities & Tasks

Team & Human Resource Management

• Provide appropriate training, mentoring, coaching and technical guidance of the team under her/his responsibility.
• Participate in ensuring a positive working environment and good team dynamics (solve out potential conflicts) and follow the staff under his/her direct responsibility on a regular basis.
• Follow up staff attendances, leaves and provide monthly attendance sheets to her/his manager to facilitate the payroll process.
• Regular/Bi-daily field visits to support the staff in the field in Baghdad, Anbar and Diyala.
• Management of the Community Centre in Anbar to host educational activities and awareness sessions.
• Ensure the quality of weekly, monthly, and quarterly activity reports for the targeted location, with the ability to support other teams within project locations.
• Ensure the database and SoV related to the achievement are updated in coordination with the MEAL team.
• Daily and Weekly follow-up for the movement plan related to the direct team in coordination with the Logistics team.
• Close coordination with the line manager and HR/Admin Department: participate in revision of staff performance appraisals, follow up on attendance records of staff and volunteers.

Education

• Liaise with humanitarian actors and government authorities for coordinated and harmonized education programming in the project areas.
• Regular liaising with the supported schools’ management and the PTAs/SMC.
• Supervise and provide technical support to the project team members for the quality implementation of the educational activities.
• Manage and update the monitoring tools used for the project on a regular and timely basis.
• Deliver training sessions to formal teachers and community/school-based committees (such as TICC training, stress management, basics of child protection, safeguarding, CoC, etc.)
• Ensure that the monitoring and evaluation session with DoE and school personnel are practised in school as part of teacher development.
• Ensure that the integration of climate resilience activities and initiatives into educational activities begins with schools to develop an appropriate response to the situation.
• Supervision of remedial, early education, and literacy activities conducted by the team at targeted locations according to the project's requirements.
• Coordinate with the Project Manager on new educational approaches and integrate them into the school, such as blue schools and smart education.

Case Management & Legal Support

• Ensure that the case management and legal support system for children and adults is aligned with the Inter-agency Case Management Guidelines, adheres to the inter-agency standardised operating procedures and tools.
• Ensure that Social Workers thoroughly follow the case management steps, ensuring that each step is properly implemented and documented in the individual’s file.
• Conduct weekly supervision meetings with all Social Workers, providing technical advice on legal cases.
• Map existing specialized services and make sure that the referral pathway is up-to-date to facilitate beneficiaries’ access.
• Ensure data is collected systematically and accurately, and logically presented to the line manager.
• Supervision of the child registration process within the school for those who have completed their civil documentation, in coordination with the DoE and schools.
• Under the supervision of the line manager and based on the assessment’s findings, design an array of age and gender appropriate psychosocial interventions for children, adolescents and caregivers.
• Support the Social Worker to draft a weekly activity schedule and revise it regularly to make it adaptable to the evolving needs on the ground and according to the logistical needs and constraints.
• Ensure that signs of mental health and psychosocial distress are identified, registered and cared for in a timely and quality manner through referrals when appropriate.
• Train the Social Workers on basic concepts of case management and referral pathways in order to timely refer cases of individuals at risk or affected by protection concerns.
• Conduct an initial assessment of the protection risks,climate resilience and concerns in his/her area of responsibility with an aim of defining contextually relevant community mobilisation strategy.
• Under the supervision of the line manager and based on the assessment’s findings, design an array of age and gender appropriate social events, educational programmes, awareness-raising sessions and climate change events.
• Ensure close supervision of daily community outreach activities, support the staff in prioritising interventions if needed, overcoming challenges and seeking synergies with other actors.
• Provide daily guidance and support to the staff, suggest changes, updates and improvements of relevant awareness raising, psychosocial, and educational activities when needed.

Psychosocial Support

Community Outreach

Child Protection

• Promote and ensure project activities are in line with child protection and humanitarian principles.
• Regular contact with the child protection committees and working on enhancing their capacity.
• Ensure the Tdh Child Safeguarding Policy and Child Protection Minimum Standards are mainstreamed through all the programmatic activities.
• Report serious cases of abuse committed against children to the Child Protection and Education Project Manager with respect to confidentiality.

Coordination & Representation

• Work in close collaboration with Tdh partners and other key actors.
• Coordinates with other Tdh sectors to ensure implementation of standardized activities and with other departments (programme and support).
• Participate in forums and meetings held at site level in their/field of expertise, when relevant and necessary.
• Build trust and establish relationships with government stakeholders, particularly school management, DoE, MoE, and the Youth Ministry, Sportouth, and Sport.

Other

• Fully comply with the Tdh Code of Conduct and ensure the Child Safeguarding Policy is upheld at all times.
• Ensure adherence to Tdh standards and quality requirements in all the project activities.
• Adhere to and ensure the team under her/his responsibility follows Tdh's administrative and logistical regulations and procedures.
• Any other tasks as requested by the Line Manager.
• Ad hoc requests as approved by the Line Manager.

Required Competencies: This function requires the mastery of Personal, Social and Leadership Competencies*(PSLC),** Technical and Methodological Competencies (TMC) and Management and Strategic Competencies (MSC)*

• Language Skills: Fluent in the languages spoken in the assignment location. Knowledge of English is an advantage.
• Education Degree: University degree in Social Work, Social Studies, Human Rights, or any other related discipline.
• Work experience: At least 5 years in Child Protection, Case Management, SGBV, or Social Work, with 3 years in a management role related to CP and Education.
• ToT and Expert training for Teachers in Crisis Context (TiCC), climate change package, or additional Education training.
• Knowledge & skills: Good analytical and writing skills.
• Computer skills: Good knowledge of the MS Office software.
• Other: Knowledge of child protection systems in Federal Iraq/Good capacity building and supervisory skills, / Previous experience in child protection case management is highly desirable. Acquaintance with the Child Protection Minimum Standards, good knowledge of the Inter-agency Guidelines for Case Management and Child Protection

Values:

• The post holder must know, implement and promote humanitarian principles and specifically child protection principles and information management principles.
• The post holder is polite, respectful, honest, punctual (and respects deadlines), creative, pacifist, proactive, committed and – during office hours – non-political. S/he is in constant exchange with colleagues and supervisors, communicates problems and enriches discussions. S/he is willing to enhance their own capacities and is open to contributing to all topics Tdh is working on, actively participating in the implementation of a comprehensive programme

If you think you're a suitable candidate for the position, please submit your application via email (CV and CL):

irq.erb.recruitment@tdh.ch