Child Protection National Consultant / Right of the Child to Live in a Family in Emergencies, Yerevan, Armenia (18 months)

It is a known fact that all types of emergencies significantly affect families’ ability to ensure a protective environment for their children that guarantees their wellbeing and ability to cope with potential crises. Children can easily become separated from their parents, relatives or usual caregivers in emergencies – whether rapid or slow in onset, or resulting from armed conflict, natural disaster or other situations. Lacking the care and protection of their families, unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) are at increased risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Indeed, such children have urgent needs: to be identified, to be provided with appropriate alternative care and to be reunited with family. It is imperative that further family separation is prevented and that an immediate and comprehensive response to the needs of these children is a priority in all emergencies, beginning with preparation for emergencies and prevention of separation. To be effective, these interventions should be implemented as part of a broader child protection response and integrated within an overall protection response.

2020 conflict in and around Nagorno Karabakh, recurrent escalations on the borders of Armenia and geopolitical tensions around the conflict, as well as the displacement of the population of Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia in September 2023 (around 115,000 people, out of which 35,000 children), increased the risk of separation of children from families due to exacerbated vulnerabilities disproportionally affecting families and children, especially those who were already facing difficult situations. To date 30 unaccompanied/separated children from NK have been identified. Over 50% who were initially placed in residential care were subsequently placed in family-type care within the first weeks of the emergency. Other children were placed in the state-run child and family support/crises centres.

To ensure an appropriate and effective response to the emergency, the UNICEF Country Office in Armenia has scaled up its Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPHA) component, supporting the Government and other actors in all directions related to protection of children and their families. To coordinate this unprecedented emergency response the Government of Armenia and UN in Armenia have established a coordination structure comprising of working groups and sub-working groups. Within this coordination structure, UNICEF has been co-leading (together with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs – MLSA) the Child Protection Sub-Working Group (CP SWG). The CP SWG worked to support partners to develop and scale up effective and coordinated emergency interventions to ensure affected children and their families have access to timely, effective and quality child protection services. One of the main protection needs of affected populations identified by the child protection actors were the prevention of family separation, prevention of unnecessary placement into large-scale residential institutions, timely and effective identification of and assistance to unaccompanied/separated children or those at risk of separation, including through family tracing, reunification, referral and placement in family-type care.

While currently the Government and UN agencies, including UNICEF are in a process of transition from humanitarian response to development assistance, the importance of emergency preparedness is not being underestimated, taking into consideration the high probability of further military hostilities in and internal displacement from the borderline communities and settlements, but also other potential emergencies, such as natural disasters (e.g. earthquake) and other (pandemic etc.).

Under the direct supervision of the UNICEF CP Programme Specialist, the Child Protection Consultant on the Right of the Child to Live in a Family in Emergencies (hereinafter CP Consultant) is expected to produce specific deliverables that will contribute to high quality, effective and efficient implementation of interventions and services in the field of the right of the child to live in a family and de-institutionalization of care, with a special focus on prevention of separation of children from families during emergencies. S/he will be responsible for interventions aiming at assessment of the needs, building capacity of social service workforce, support to effective coordination and quality assurance of relevant interventions with implementing partners and other counterparts. CP Consultant will work closely with the members of the UNICEF Child Protection Team, UNICEF partners – including Government, iNGOs and NGOs, and will coordinate with other key UNICEF sectors to support the improvement of quality and coverage/accessibility of services for affected children and their families. The CP Consultant will also contribute to fundraising and project planning activities of the CP Section. Specifically, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• contribute to the implementation of relevant activities included in the UNICEF-Government 2024-2025 workplan and development of new plans as relevant,
• support CP team in the development and/or revision of projects and partnerships as necessary and contribute to quality assurance of interventions in the relevant field,
• provide expertise during the development of secondary legislation on child protection and child rights taking into considerations the findings in the White Paper and other relevant guiding documents with a focus on the rights of the child to live in a family, developed by UNICEF ECARO,
• participate in the works of the National Commission for Protection of Children’s Rights and its relevant working/expert groups and propose possible ways of ensuring children’s participation in the works of the Commission,
• contribute to the implementation of Comprehensive Programme on the Rights of Children for 2024-2029,
• develop recommendations on expansion of the coverage and accessibility of community-based child and family support services,
• provide expertise to awareness raising and communication interventions in the field of the right of the child to live in a family,
• contribute to ongoing assessment, analysis and mapping exercises implemented by UNICEF,
• consolidate available resources and materials, identify key areas for knowledge and skill building and propose relevant interventions,
• assist in the content development and logistical coordination of training sessions, including scheduling, venue setup, and managing training materials for easy accessibility, maintain detailed and accurate records of training sessions, participant attendance, and evaluations, and prepare reports on training outcomes for monitoring purposes,
• travel to regions in order to provide quality assurance, capacity building, liaison, and monitoring of UNICEF-supported interventions,
• prepare quality and comprehensive reports and briefings, when and if it is needed,
• participate in relevant coordination structures and de-brief the CP team,
• contribute to the development of fund-raising proposals, concept notes, and sector reports.