Senior Child Protection Specialist

Senior Child Protection Specialist

ChildSAFE Cambodia

1. Background

ChildSAFE is a U.S. Department of State-funded initiative led by Catholic Relief Services that seeks to strengthen child protection systems through improvements in workforce capacity, case management, information systems, data use, and service delivery.

In Cambodia, Palladium will work with relevant government institutions and child protection stakeholders to assess the digital readiness and interoperability of priority child protection information systems and applications (for example, Primero/CPIMS managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY), OSCaR used by NGO case management partners, and the interoperability layer linking them), including current case management workflows, institutional roles, staffing capacity, connectivity, equipment, data quality, cybersecurity and data-protection needs, training requirements, and user-support structures. Drawing on the assessment findings, Palladium will support government stakeholders to develop and validate a practical roadmap, for endorsement by the Royal Government of Cambodia, for strengthening and harmonizing priority digital child protection case management systems, with clear activities, responsibilities, sequencing, resource requirements, and implementation considerations. The work will build on existing investments by MoSVY, UNICEF and other partners in Cambodia’s child protection case management and information systems, and will align with national child protection policy frameworks, including the Child Protection Sector Strategic Implementation Plan and its successor, as well as applicable digital government and data protection requirements.

ChildSAFE Cambodia will be supported by technical personnel with expertise in data and information systems, and assessment methods, together with project coordination, finance, and operational support.

2. Purpose of the Assignment

The Senior Child Protection Specialist will provide the Cambodia team with technical expertise in Cambodia’s social work and child protection ecosystem, including key stakeholders/implementers, case management, referral pathways, safeguarding, and frontline service delivery. Working under the direction of the ChildSAFE Cambodia Country Team Lead and in close coordination with the Senior Digital Systems Specialist, HQ ChildSAFE Project Director, and Senior Digital Advisor, the consultant will lead analysis of the policies, practices, workflows, roles, forms, supervision arrangements, and service-delivery realities that information systems must support. The consultant will ensure that the digital readiness and interoperability assessment and the resulting roadmap are grounded in sound child protection practice, the needs of children and families, and the operational realities of government and partner social workers and case managers.

The consultant will work closely and iteratively with the Country Team Lead, Senior Digital Systems Specialist, designated government counterparts, Catholic Relief Services, UNICEF and other partners supporting MoSVY’s child protection information systems, and project coordination, finance, and operations personnel. The consultant will bring practical knowledge of Cambodia’s child protection system and social work practice; facilitate meaningful participation by government technical counterparts, frontline users, and relevant stakeholders; and regularly test emerging observations and interpretations with the appropriate government counterparts to ensure that the analysis accurately reflects current government policy, terminology, institutional responsibilities, and operational practice. Where documented policy, stakeholder perspectives, and observed practice differ, the consultant will clearly identify and validate those differences rather than independently resolving them. The consultant will translate the resulting child protection findings into clear requirements and recommendations for the assessment and roadmap.

Beyond technical analysis, the Senior Child Protection Specialist will serve as Palladium’s senior technical voice on child protection practice in Cambodia. As delegated by the Country Team Lead, the consultant will represent Palladium in government-led and development partner technical forums, contribute credible, evidence-based perspectives to policy dialogue with MoSVY and other relevant ministries, and build the trust and working relationships needed for government ownership of the assessment findings and roadmap. The consultant will favor co-design with, and knowledge transfer to, government counterparts so that recommendations are owned and sustained by the Royal Government of Cambodia rather than seen as external products.

Role boundary: The Senior Child Protection Specialist will lead analysis of child protection policy, case-management practice, social work workflows, safeguarding, referral pathways, supervision, service delivery, and frontline-user needs, and will provide child protection quality assurance for the assessment and roadmap. In developing this analysis, the specialist will engage designated government counterparts in coordination with the Cambodia Country Team Lead (including representing Palladium in technical working groups and technical-level meetings, as delegated), confirm that interpretations reflect current government policy and practice, and identify any areas that require further validation or senior government direction. The Senior Digital Systems Specialist is accountable for the systems, data, interoperability, infrastructure, privacy, cybersecurity, and other digital analyses and for overall technical integration of the assessment and roadmap inputs. The Country Team Lead is accountable for country-level workplan execution, senior stakeholder engagement, government ownership, and coordination. The Senior Child Protection Specialist will not independently lead software, architecture, interoperability, or cybersecurity analysis, but will work closely with the Senior Digital Systems Specialist to ensure that technical recommendations support safe, practical, and child-centered case management.

3. Scope of Work

3.1 Child Protection and Case-Management Assessment

· Contribute child protection and social work content to the assessment methodology, tools, interview guides, document-review framework, and evidence matrix, aligned with the approved Cambodia workplan.

· Review relevant laws, policies, standards, procedures, forms, training materials, and prior assessments governing child protection case management, referrals, safeguarding, supervision, and service delivery, and discuss their current interpretation and application with designated government counterparts.

· Conduct or support interviews, focus groups, workflow observations, and consultations with government social workers, case managers, supervisors, service providers, NGO partners, and other authorized stakeholders.

· Assess how current policy and practice support identification, intake, assessment, case planning, referrals, service coordination, follow-up, review, transfer, and case closure, including variations across institutions or levels of the system.

· Map the roles of the multi-sectoral and sub-national actors involved in child protection case management and referral, including MoSVY and provincial and district social affairs offices, Commune Committees for Women and Children (CCWCs), sub-national administrations with functions transferred under decentralization and deconcentration (D&D) reforms, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, police and anti-trafficking units, courts, health and education services, and NGO case-management partners.

3.2 Workflow, Referral, and Frontline-User Analysis

· Map case-management and referral workflows, decision points, roles, handoffs, approvals, forms, information needs, and accountability across relevant actors and levels.

· Identify bottlenecks, duplication, gaps, informal workarounds, and differences between approved procedures and frontline practice that affect continuity, quality, timeliness, or safety of services.

· Document the informal tools frontline workers actually use to record and share case information (for example, paper registers, spreadsheets, Telegram or Facebook Messenger groups, and personal phones), the reasons for their use, and the associated safeguarding risks, without judgment, so that recommendations address real practice.

· Assess the reporting burden on NGO case-management partners that report both to government systems and to their own donors, and its effect on data quality and system uptake.

· Assess the practical needs and constraints of frontline users, including workload, staffing, supervision, skills, language, connecti