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UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

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For every child, the right to Commitment

How can you make a difference?

The UNICEF Maldives and Sri Lanka Country Offices is transitioning into a Multi-Country Office (MCO) structure effective 1 January 2027. The MCO will combine strengthened technical capacity with sustained national presence and relationships in Maldives, enabling more strategic upstream engagement, policy influence and systems strengthening for children. A strategic shift of the Maldives CPD is that child protection outcomes will increasingly be delivered through strengthened technical support, systems strengthening, and strategic partnerships under the Multi-Country Office structure. The Child Protection Officer will contribute to the implementation and monitoring of child protection programmes, strengthening coordination with government and key stakeholders, facilitating evidence-informed programming, and supporting capacity development initiatives that enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of child protection systems in the Maldives, more specifically to the violence against children and justice for children in contact/conflict with the law. The Child Protection Officer reports to Child Protection Specialist who is at Level 3.

Purpose of the Position

UNICEF Maldives is looking for a dedicated Child Protection Officer reporting to the Child Protection Specialist. The Child Protection Officer supports UNICEF's efforts to ensure that every child is protected from violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and has access to child-friendly justice systems. The incumbent provides technical, operational, and administrative support across all stages of the programme cycle, contributing to the design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of child protection programmes. Through a particular focus on violence against children and justice for children, the Child Protection Officer helps drive quality programme implementation and the achievement of sustainable results that improve the lives of children and adolescents.

Key Accountabilities :

Under the supervision and guidance of the Child Protection Specialist, the Child Protection Officer contributes to the effective implementation of UNICEF Maldives’ child protection programme, helping to create a safer and more protective environment for children. This role is ideal for a motivated professional seeking to make a tangible impact by supporting the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of programmes that address violence against children and strengthen child-friendly justice systems, ultimately improving the lives of children and their families across the Maldives.

The key accountabilities are:

Support to programme development and planning
Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results
Technical and operational support to programme implementation
Networking and partnership building
Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Download File Child Protection Officer Level 2.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Education: A university degree in one of the following fields is required: international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.
Work Experience: At least 2 years of relevant work experience in Child Protection and in social development planning and management in child protection related areas or any other related field is required.
Skills: Experience in Child Protection Programming, Experience in Applying technical expertise, Planning, and Organizing is required.
Language Requirements: Proficiency in English and Dhivehi is required.

Desirables:

Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.
Experience in child safeguarding, supporting government, development and humanitarian contexts, analyzing, learning and researching, justice for children, prevention of violence against children, social services, programme management, systems strengthening is an asset.
Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is either a role with direct contact with children, a role that works directly with identifiable children's data, a safeguarding response role, or an assessed risk role. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) apply.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, fraud, corruption and other forms of serious misconduct. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference, safeguarding and background verification checks. These checks may include verification of academic credentials and employment history, screening against relevant United Nations misconduct databases, and requests for misconduct disclosures from current and former employers, professional associations, other relevant organizations and participating organizations under inter-agency safeguarding initiatives, including the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS), where applicable. Appointment, selection and continued engagement are subject to the satisfactory completion of all required checks. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information and consent to enable UNICEF to undertake these checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments are conditional on the selected candidates willingness to comply with current or future vaccination requirements, should UNICEF mandate it for personnel. Failure to comply with such requirements, where applicable and without a duly approved medical exemption from the relevant UN authority, will result in the cancellation of the selection or may lead to other administrative measures, including separation from service.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

Visa residence requirements: i.e. UNICEF shall not facilitate the issuance of a visa and working authorization for candidates under consideration for positions at the national officer and general service category.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

Child Protection Officer (Juvenile Justice) (NO-2), FT, #137957, Male', Maldives, APR - Maldivian nationals only