Background:
CRS is seeking a System Strengthening and Partnerships candidate for an anticipated multi-county child development, care, and protection project. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen national systems that protect vulnerable children, support families, and improve early childhood development through locally led and sustainable approaches. The project will improve outcomes for vulnerable children by strengthening child protection systems, supporting families and caregivers, advancing integrated early childhood health and development, and reducing reliance on residential care.
Job Summary:
The Advisor acts as the subject matter expert, providing technical advice, guidance, and support to strengthen child protection, care, and development systems in Kenya. Through application of specialized technical expertise, the staff will support project implementation, systems strengthening, capacity development, and learning efforts to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families. The staff contributes to improving policies, practices, service quality, and sustainable system change through collaboration with government, civil society, faith-based, and community stakeholders.
Roles and Key Responsibilities:
- Serve as the project’s subject matter expert for child protection and care system strengthening within Kenya. Provide technical guidance on child protection systems, care reform, case management, alternative care, social service workforce strengthening, and related reforms, in coordination with the global technical counterpart and drawing on senior consultants and resource partners with specialised expertise as needed.
- Ensure child protection and care system strengthening approaches reflect current evidence, national standards, safeguarding principles, and country context.
- Analyze the government child protection information management system (CPIMS), with relevant resource partners, from the perspective of high-quality care and support operationalization uptake of recommended improvements.
- Develop child protection competencies and training materials; facilitate training of trainers in coordination and collaboration with partner government and support the rollout and quality of training for health, social service, and community actors.
- Informed by action plans developed with national and targeted subnational public authorities, provide technical support to child protection authorities and other relevant actors to meet national standards, promote supportive supervision, and strengthen implementation quality.
- Work with the Project Director, global technical counterpart, resource partners, other project, MEAL, and implementation teams to align child protection and care system strengthening approaches with Early Childhood Development, family strengthening, alternative family care, parenting, Household Economic Strengthening, and violence prevention.
- Maintain relationships with key project, technical, and partner stakeholders to support coordination, exchange, and shared problem-solving.
- Advise on integration and alignment of government-led data collection systems and relevant CPIMS data into the project’s MEAL system, in collaboration with resource partners where relevant.
- Facilitate safe and inclusive reflection processes with government, civil society, faith-based, community, and implementation stakeholders to interpret results, share practice-based learning, and identify adaptations.
- Review child protection and care system strengthening data, propose program adaptations, and share relevant findings and learning with country, global, and technical stakeholders as appropriate.
- Monitor national and subnational issues that may affect child protection and care system strengthening results and recommend mitigation measures as needed.
- Incorporate and monitor the use of safeguarding and protection best practice in child protection and care system strengthening interventions, in coordination with the Safeguarding Advisor where applicable, and support safeguarding action planning with subawardees as relevant.
- Contribute to reporting, documentation, technical knowledge sharing, and relevant networks.
- Write and present analyses of milestone results and contribute to donor reports, programmatic updates, learning products, briefs, and project communications.
- Participate actively in relevant in-country and global child protection, care reform, and system strengthening working groups, networks, and fora.
- Support partner staff, government counterparts, people with lived experience, and other relevant stakeholders to engage in relevant fora, providing technical preparation and coaching as needed.
Required/Desired Foreign Language: Ability to clearly communicate in written and spoken English and Kiswahili. Knowledge of the local language of the county is an added advantage.
Travel Required: The Staff will be expected to travel 70% of the time within the project areas of operation as needed.
Supervisory Responsibilities: None
Key Working Relationships:
- Internal: Anticipated project staff, Health, Education and Social Services Unit, and CRS Kenya MEAL Unit
- External: Local Implementing Partners, GOK, interfaith networks, faith-based organizations, Careleavers, relevant private sector entities, local communities, beneficiaries, donors and other stakeholders.
