Readvertised: National Consultant - Senior Child Rights Advisor (6 Months - Part-Time)

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

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For every child, the right to empowerment

The Government of The Gambia has demonstrated strong commitment to promoting, protecting, and fulfilling the rights of all children, as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), and other relevant international and regional human rights instruments to which The Gambia is a State Party. The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare (MoGCSW) serves as the primary government institution mandated to lead the development, coordination, and implementation of child rights policies, programmes, and legislative frameworks across the country. Following the Concluding Observations issued by the CRC Committee in February 2025, the Ministry is also leading the development and operationalization of a roadmap for their implementation.

Despite significant progress in advancing children’s rights in The Gambia, numerous challenges persist, including gaps in the legislative framework, weak coordination mechanisms among duty bearers and rights holders, limited capacity within government institutions to effectively implement child rights programming, insufficient integration of child rights principles across sectors, and inadequate monitoring and accountability systems to track the realization of children’s rights. These challenges underscore the critical need for sustained technical expertise and strategic guidance within the Ministry to accelerate progress toward the full realization of children’s rights in accordance with international standards and national commitments.

In recognition of these needs, upon request of the MoGCSW, UNICEF The Gambia will support the placement of a Senior Child Rights Advisor at the Ministry on a part-time consultancy basis. This strategic placement aims to strengthen the Ministry’s technical capacity to advance child rights across all spheres of law, policy, and practice, ensuring that The Gambia fulfills its obligations under international human rights law and that every child in The Gambia enjoys their inherent dignity and fundamental rights without discrimination. Following initial capacity building efforts that are targeting critical staff, it will also contribute to mainstreaming child rights across the different areas of the Ministry.

How can you make a difference?

The overall objective of this consultancy is to provide sustained, high-level technical assistance and strategic advisory support to the MoGCSW to advance the realization of children’s rights in The Gambia through strengthened policy frameworks, institutional capacity, inter-sectoral coordination, and rights-based programming approaches.

Specific objectives:

• Providing authoritative technical guidance on the development, review, and implementation of policies, and strategies, in alignment with the CRC, ACRWC, and international human rights standards, while mainstreaming child rights in the priority areas of the Ministry.

• Enhancing coordination and collaboration mechanisms among government ministries, departments and agencies, civil society organizations, development partners, traditional and religious leaders, children and young people, and other stakeholders engaged in child rights promotion and protection

• Building sustainable capacity within the Ministry and partner institutions through training, mentoring, technical support, and knowledge transfer on child rights frameworks, rights-based approaches to programming, and international human rights standards and mechanisms.

• Strengthening the internal institutional capacity of the Ministry by reviewing and improving internal processes, organizational structures, and operational policies to ensure they are aligned with child rights principles.

• Strengthen the capacity of the Ministry to advocate for adequate and equitable resource allocation for child rights programmes.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: [ToRs - Child Rights Expert.docx.pdf](https://unicef-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/mjayesowe_unicef_org/IQD8lx_F_BLxQJ57_TOANRq_AcQOCveMT5kjdi4ZriHlqak?e=v