International COP

For this assignment, I was particularly interested in Unicef, Save the Children, and Academy for Professional development.  I chose Unicef because of the multiple focus areas that they provide.  It is a very multi-faceted organization that has an overall vision to advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.  The job opportunity that I am particularly interested in is Child Protection Specialist (Child Rights & Child Justice) which requires the skills and experience of:

Having an advanced university degree in a related technical field.

Candidate has to have eight years of relevant work experience at the national and international levels in a relevant field.

Fluency in English. Knowledge of one or more languages of the regions an asset.

Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking.

Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently achieves project goals.

Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment.

Has good leadership and supervisory skills; co-ordinates group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear.

My second organization of choice is Save the Children.  The purpose of this organization is to assist when disaster strikes around the world.  The organization is there to save lives with food, medical care and education and remains to help communities rebuild through long-term recovery programs. As quickly and as effectively as Save the Children responds to tsunamis and civil conflict, it works to resolve the ongoing struggles children face daily.  It was pretty interesting to find out the many ways to give funds to children in need.  They had the option of Wecare.com which allows you to shop online and shopping through certain websites gives a donation of funds to the organization.  I thought that was especially cool.

A position of interest is the Director, Food, Division of Humanitarian Response position.  It is located in Washington, D.C.  The purpose of this position is to provide leadership and oversight to the food programming and logistics functions of Save the Children US.  The incumbent will coordinate with cross-functional units dealing with commodity management, logistics, and emergency food aid programs so that they are most effective.  S/he will also, on behalf of SC members and SCI, consolidate and build a strategic relationship with the World Food Program.  The function is also responsible to ensure rapid provision of technical assistance to emergencies in the area of food programming and logistics   I chose this because I have never had the opportunity to see what emergency response is about and this would give the perfect opportunity to give back to those who experience disaster. 

The skills and requirements needed to perform this job are:

12 years humanitarian experience, a combination of field and headquarters positions

4 years responsibility for high level relationship building with UN, government donor, or similar entity

Prior management responsibility for headquarters team

Involvement in logistics and food aid programming, with at least 2 working with World Food Programme resources

Master’s degree in related field

Strong understanding of international donor arena and relationships.

Ability to work collaboratively across departments and in teams.

Good representation skills

Tolerance of ambiguity and demonstrated ability to optimistically work for positive change in an environment of rapid organizational change

At this present moment I am not qualified but it seems like a very exciting and very hands-on position to be in.

The last organization I chose to learn more about is Academy for Educational Development.  The vision of FHI 360 envisions a world in which all individuals and communities have the opportunity to reach their highest potential. The Mission is to improve lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions for human development.  I chose this organization because it focuses on a wide array of practice areas to understand complex issues. 

A position of interest in this company is a technical advisor who is responsible for increasing access to and use of quality family planning services across select urban and peri- urban areas in four focus West African countries -  Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Togo.

Job Requirements are:

Background in clinical and community-based FP services delivery approaches; working with governments, NGOs, private sector

Experience testing and adapting services delivery models and approaches to a variety of context and organizations

Experience building capacity at individual and organizational level

Experience in policy analysis, developing and implementing advocacy plans/strategies

At least 10 years of experience in a senior technical position for a public health and/or FP/RH project;