Children Deprived of Liberty Taskforce Lead

JOB TITLE: Children Deprived of Liberty Taskforce Lead
TEAM/PROGRAMME: Syria Country Office/Advocacy and PolicyLOCATION: Syria (Damascus preferred Qamishli optional)

GRADE: 2
Type of Contract: Fixed Term 1 years

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting the country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:
The Coordinator on Children Deprived of Liberty will serve as the primary convener of the Children Deprived of Liberty taskforce and will also advocate on the issue of children held in detention and in camps across Northeast Syria. The taskforce will draw on existing collective advocacy activities with UN agencies INGOs Coordination Forums and rights actors as relevant. The recent Detention Center Humanitarian Assessment and Save the Childrens NES Stakeholder mapping exercise indicate an increasingly receptive advocacy environment with local authorities in Northeast Syria including the Democratic Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria and its military branch the Syria Defense Forces (SDF). In addition recent developments have shown that many of the organizations working on these issues have been increasingly willing to participate in joint private advocacy with key stakeholders such as the Coalition to Defeat ISIS and member states known to have linkages to children held in the camps and detention centers.

SCOPE OF ROLE:
The Coordinator will capitalize on these advocacy developments and advance a child-rights driven advocacy and programming agenda through tasks including but not limited to:
Establishing leadership and coordination of the Children Deprived of Liberty Taskforce
Convening regular meetings among Taskforce members as a forum to share information and plan strategic advocacy efforts.
Planning and Coordination of an annual meeting on Children Deprived of Liberty with taskforce members and stakeholders (donors member states)
Leading information management sharing and data collection efforts including follow on detention center assessments and linkages to legal experts
Regular interfacing with local regional and international stakeholders to raise awareness on children deprived of liberty legal frameworks and alternatives to detention
Coordination with agencies working on returns and repatriations for Syrian Iraqi and TCN children and families; including information and best practice sharing
Facilitating civilian-military engagements between the Anti-ISIS Coalition and other actors as needed (TBC with HCT organization).
Establishing linkages with global forums focusing on issues of children deprived of liberty and ensuring that global and international level advocacy takes place in these forums for this population of children.

Reports to: Head of Policy and Advocacy

Staff directly reporting to this post: n/a

Budget responsibilities: TBC

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)
Accountability:
Holds self accountable for making decisions managing resources efficiently achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved
Ambition:
Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team) takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages others to do the same
Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children engages and motivates others
Future orientated thinks strategically.
Collaboration:
Builds and maintains effective relationships with their team colleagues other members and external partners and supporters
Values diversity sees it as a source of competitive strength
Approachable good listener easy to talk to
Creativity:
Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
Willing to take disciplined risks
Integrity:
Honest encourages openness and transparency

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
The ideal candidate will possess the following qualities:
Bachelors/Masters Degreen in a relevant field (public policy international relations or development political science law human rights or social sciences)
Minimum 10 years of experience of working with INGOs in senior positions related to advocacy policy or child rights
Experience in child rights governance programming with strong knowledge of legal structures related to conflict detention and child rights
Previous experience in developing coordination mechanisms
Experience in advocacy and policy work with an emphasis on coordination
Experience working in the Syria Response with knowledge of existing structures
Ability to communicate in Arabic English
Additional job responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.
Equal Opportunities
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.
Child Safeguarding:
We need to keep children safe so our selection process which includes rigorous background checks reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.
Safeguarding our Staff:
The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy.
Health and Safety
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.