Child Protection Officer

**Job no**: 564011

**Contract type**: Temporary Appointment

**Duty Station**: Kuala Lumpur

**Level**: NO-1

**Location**: Malaysia

**Categories**: Child Protection

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

**For every child, **_[insert tagline]_**

Together with the Malaysian government and others who are truly passionate about child rights, UNICEF works in Malaysia to ensure every child has the opportunity to grow healthy and happy; live safely; and achieve their full potential.

With the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the 12th Malaysia plan as our guides, we endeavor to change minds, change policies, and in turn change the lives of all children in Malaysia.

**How can you make a difference?**
- 1. Leading UNICEF’s programme on Positive Parenting in Malaysia, with a focus on scale-up
- Serve as UNICEF's focal point in the National Parenting Consortium, collaborating with government agencies, International Organizations and CSO Partners
- Oversee the implementation of the parenting workplan, ensuring timely execution and alignment with project objectives.
- Explore strategic approaches to scaling up positive parenting programming through partnerships with government, private sector, and CSO partners. This includes implementing a scale-up plan for the Positive Parenting Initiative with various government agencies.
- Lead on Gender Transformative Parenting approaches, including by working with the National Parenting Consortium in adapting and integrating UNICEF’s Global Gender Transformative Positive Parenting Modules into Malaysia’s existing Positive Parenting Curriculum (Naungan Kasih), - Jointly with UNHCR and partner organisations, lead in adapting and pilot testing the modules with a refugee community in Malaysia.
- Lead UNICEF's advocacy efforts in promoting positive parenting nationwide through various channels.

2. Support UNICEF programming to end child marriage, with a focus on Advocacy Initiatives and Legal Reform
- Design and implement an advocacy strategy at the national and state levels, based on existing evidence and in consultation with key partners, to address the issue of child marriage.
- Collaborate with the Gender Specialist to finalize an internal child marriage strategy at the UNICEF CO level.- Develop comprehensive advocacy messages on child marriage, considering diverse perspectives including the Syariah perspective.- Enhance the advocacy and social and behavior change capacity of civil society organization partners to effectively address child marriage.- Identify opportunities to support the government in implementing the National Strategy Plan, which focuses on addressing the root causes of child marriage.- Explore and provide support for initiatives related to child marriage within refugee communities.3. Serve as Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Focal Point within the Child Protection Team, with a focus on leading a formative research on Violence Against Children
- Collaborate with colleagues specializing in Social and Behavior Change, conduct formative research on Violence Against Children, including reviewing the research design, data collection, analysis, and generating recommendations.
- Establish a Technical Working Group/Steering Committee consisting of experts, stakeholders, and partners to contribute inputs and provide oversight for the formative research.
- Lead and manage the implementation of the research conducted by an external contractor, ensuring its alignment with the programming priorities set by UNICEF Malaysia.

4. Other duties:

- Support to programme development and planning through research, analysis, and documentation, as well as facilitating the establishment of goals and strategies, executing programme transactions, and preparing materials for review and approval processes.
- Managing and monitoring programme implementation, collaborating with colleagues and partners to address implementation issues, participating in monitoring and evaluation exercises, ensuring compliance with resource allocation and organizational standards, reporting on identified issues for resolution, and preparing inputs for programme and donor reporting.
- Networking and partnership building by establishing and maintaining relationships with government counterparts and stakeholders, sharing information and knowledge.

**To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have**- A university degree in one of the following fields is required: social work, international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.-
- A minimum of one year of professional experience in socia