Child Protection Technical Advisor - FCDO-IPS-II

Job Purpose

The Child Protection Technical Advisor will provide strategic and technical leadership to ensure the quality, effectiveness, and compliance of child protection programing under the Integrated Protection Services (FCDO-IPS-II) project across six provinces (Herat, Badghis, Farah, Nangarhar, Kunar and Ghor).

The Advisor will support War Child UK and its implementing partners (WASSA, AWEC, AWUDO and RSDO) to design, implement, and monitor high-quality child protection interventions aligned with international standards and national coordination mechanisms.

The role will focus on strengthening community-based protection systems, supporting case management and psychosocial programing, building the technical capacity of partners and frontline staff, and ensuring that protection services remain inclusive, survivor-centered, and responsive to the needs of vulnerable children, adolescents, and families. This position is open to both international and Afghan candidates; however, preference will be given to qualified Afghan nationals.

Job Description

The Duties and responsibilities may include but not limited to:

1. Technical Leadership and Program Quality

• Provide strategic technical guidance to ensure high-quality child protection programming across the project locations.
• Ensure alignment of program activities with global child protection standards, humanitarian principles, Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) and Child Protection Sub-Cluster guidance.
• Overal lead and supervision to contextualization and quality implementation of War Child’s Evidence-Based Methodologies (TeamUp, BeThere and SEEDS).
• Review and strengthen technical tools, guidelines, and SOPs for child protection service delivery.
• Ensure integration of child protection with MHPSS, case management, and referral pathways. 

1. Partner Technical Support and Capacity Strengthening

• Provide continuous technical mentoring and coaching to implementing partners and their field teams.
• Design and deliver training on child protection, safeguarding, case management, psychosocial support, and survivor-centered approaches.
• Strengthen partners’ technical capacity to independently coordinate and manage protection services.
• Support partners in improving governance, systems, and operational capacities related to child protection service delivery.

1. Program Design, Planning and Adaptation

• Contribute to designing and developing proposals, concepts, program planning, technical strategy, and implementation frameworks.
• Support development of workplans, technical guidance, and implementation tools.
• Ensure protection programing adapts to contextual changes and operational constraints in Afghanistan.
• Provide recommendations to improve program effectiveness and impact.

1. Quality Assurance and Monitoring

• Support the development, tracking and reviewing of indicators, monitoring tools, and quality benchmarks for child protection programing.
• Conduct regular field monitoring visits to assess program quality and provide technical feedback.
• Work closely with MEAL teams to analyze program data and ensure evidence-based decision making.
• Ensure documentation of lessons learned and best practices.

1. Coordination and Representation

• Actively represent War Child in relevant technical coordination platforms and clusters including the Child Protection Sub-Cluster, Child Protection Area of Responsibility, and protection working groups.
• Strengthen coordination and referral pathways with relevant humanitarian actors and service providers.
• Facilitate technical coordination among implementing partners to promote harmonized approaches.

1. Safeguarding and Do-No-Harm

• Ensure safeguarding and child protection policies are integrated and implemented across all program activities.
• Support partners to strengthen safeguarding systems and child protection risk mitigation measures.
• Promote accountability to affected populations and strengthen community feedback mechanisms.

1. Reporting and Documentation

• Provide technical inputs to donor reports, program documentation, and learning products.
• Support preparation of technical briefs, guidance notes, and program reviews.
• Document lessons learned, innovations, and good practices to inform future programing.

Our Values

• Accountable to Children: Children can rely on us to respond to their voices and to treat them with respect and dignity.
• Transformative: Highlights our commitment to making real and sustainable improvements in the lives of children and communities, rather than simply continuing current practices.
• Equitable Justice: Emphasizes fairness, inclusion, and addressing inequality, especially for marginalized children and communities.
• Integrity: Integrity refers to ethical behavior, professionalism, and honesty in everything we do.

Experience and mandatory criteria:

• Minimum bachelor’s degree in social science, Child Protection, Law, Humanitarian, Psychology, International Development, or a related field.
• Minimum 7–10 years of professional experience in child protection programing in humanitarian or fragile contexts.
• Demonstrated at least 3-5 years' experience in technical advisory roles or program leadership in protection programs.
• Strong experience working with international, national NGOs and local partners and supporting organizational capacity strengthening.
• Proven experience in case management systems, community-based protection, and MHPSS programing.
• Experience working in complex humanitarian contexts, preferably in Afghanistan or similar environments.
• Strong knowledge of international child protection standards and humanitarian protection frameworks.
• Experience with Evidence-Based or Evidence-Informed methodologies in psychosocial and child protection programing.
• Strong analytical, training, and facilitation skills.
• Ability to provide strategic guidance and technical mentoring to partners and program teams.
• Excellent coordination and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strong report writing and documentation abilities.
• Fluency in English required; knowledge of Dari or Pashto is desirable.
• Strong commitment to safeguarding, accountability, and humanitarian principles.

How to Apply

Pre-employment checks
Employment with War Child will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• a satisfactory police record check and a clear vetting and Due Diligence check
• receipt of three satisfactory references
• Due to the emergency nature of the role, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the vacancy may close before the deadline.

Submission Guideline:

• Fill in your information, and attach your documents before the closing date.
• Applications of national staff submitted without a valid National ID will not be considered for shortlisting.
• Applications after the closing date will not be accepted.
• Please note that there is no telephonic inquiry and only shortlisted applicants will be contacted for written test/interview.