Job Overview/Summary:
The IRCโs Global Surge Team (GST) is a roster of esteemed and highly qualified humanitarian professionals who deploy on short notice to non-emergency and emergency contexts to support the IRCโs mission. Members of the GST provide specialist support where talent is most needed for short-term deployments of up to three months. The GST is a flexible employment opportunity for staff, requiring members to be available for deployments only 50% of the year (with opportunities for additional deployments if incumbent is interested).
The Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) works to reduce peopleโs risk of violence, support their recovery, and promote transformative work for a future free from violence. The unit houses expertise in Child Protection, Protection and Rule of Law, and Womenโs Protection and Empowerment to support women, children and other at-risk groups through prevention programs that help stop violence before it happens, and violence response programs that ensures lifesaving services for people affected by violence. We work closely with health, economic resilience and education colleagues to provide integrated and holistic, client centred care.
Protection Technical Advisor (TA) will provide technical support in the design and development of protection programs for the assigned countries/ regions to ensure the most appropriate, effective, and safe delivery of assistance for populations who face protection risks. The Protection Technical Advisor will also train colleagues on a range of protection program approaches. Moreover, the position holder will lead or support selected global and country-led initiatives to extend scale and quality in line with IRCโs Safety Outcome Strategy. The selected candidate should also have familiarity with the operational aspects of protection, including service delivery for individuals who have experienced violence, individual and community level violence prevention programming; as well as with supporting the strengthening of social welfare systems in fragile contexts.
The role will be directly supported by the Violence Prevention and Response Unit at the IRC.
Specific Responsibilities:
The Protection TA will spend at least 80% of their time delivering technical assistance in-person and remotely to country colleagues focused on protection programming program design, implementation and learning support. This is a primarily programs-focused position with the central responsibility concentrated on program quality. It is expected that the TA will travel approximately 40% of the total time to country programs to support program quality and capacity strengthening in person. This may also mean deployments in emergency response and may be on short notice. 20% of the work is spent on internal strategic work to improve scale and quality of protection programming globally, at the discretion of their supervisors. The Technical Advisorsโ specific responsibilities are as follows:
Program Design & Business Development: You will support country programs to design winning submissions and generally position IRC for continued success in our technical domains. Depending on the nature of the deployment, this can include: Leading or substantially contributing to the development of proposal theories of change and log frames Analyzing relevant information including available M&E and client responsiveness data, to prepare for design meetings/conversations or supporting in-country colleagues to do this Advising on program modalities and strategic partnership development based on evidence, scale considerations, and how we can best support, complement, and reinforce local systems Advising on and/or providing hands-on support on assessments, including application and contextualization of technical standards Leading or participating in project design meetings for all relevant proposals (remotely or in person) Reviewing and validating design meeting decisions around technical design quality, including alignment of narratives, log-frames, and budgets, to IRC standards and outcomes Promoting and supporting design collaboration with partners and clients Promoting and supporting safe, inclusive, and transformative (SIT) project design Participating in and leveraging IRCโs profile in donor meetings Contribute to the design, development, and implementation of high-quality protection activities within other sectors (such as health, education, livelihoods) Implementation Support: You will support country program staff and other key stakeholders in implementing technical interventions: Supporting country programs and other stakeholders with recruitment and training of country staff Assessing program quality and inform improvements, providing follow up support to country programs and field teams, as needed Collaborating with country program colleagues to monitor and analyze key indicators to inform periodic review, program adaptation, and course-correction, as needed Providing technical leadership in-country and/or capacity strengthening through ongoing mentoring, coaching, and trainings with country program focal points Knowledge & Learning: You will support continuous sectoral learning and IRC technical leadership: Documenting learnings from program activities and sharing takeaways and opportunities across relevant communities of practice Collaborating with the Quality in Emergencies (QiE) team and Emergency Unit (EmU) counterparts during emergency classifications to support country programs to assess, design and implement high quality programming in acute emergency situations Collaborating with other technical advisors within the region to promote integrated programming leadership Refreshing the sectoral evidence-based in collaboration with global and regional staff to influence approaches Contributing to the delivery of VPR Technical Unit strategic priorities `Maintaining currency with sectoral best practices through continual learning and developmentKey Working Relationships:
Position Reports to: Deputy Director, Violence Prevention and Response Unit (day to day line management will be provided by relevant Regional or Country leadership when on deployment). The position is part of a global practice areas and is expected to be a full member of the relevant technical team.
Position directly supervises: N/A
Other Internal and/or external contacts:
Internal: Close, regular relationships with country teams and regional colleagues; as well as with colleagues in the VPRU Technical Unit. Regular communication with Technical Advisors from other Technical Units, such as education, ERD, health, research, evaluation and learning and other relevant technical teams. Interaction with IRC internal departments, including business development, procurement, and finance, external relations, and advocacy departments.
External: As requested, serve as IRC program representative in outside regional and global meetings, e.g. Protection focal point for regional or country, coordination mechanisms, with donors, online forums, other non-governmental organizations, inter-agency groups and foundations.
Job Qualifications:
Education: Masterโs/post-graduate degree in social work, law, humanitarian affairs, or other relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Work Experience:
A minimum of 7 years implementing and/or managing humanitarian protection programming in diverse crisis or post-crisis settings in at least two of the following sub-sectors: child protection, womenโs protection and empowerment and n peace justice and rule of law.. Experience providing technical support and guidance to a diverse team, including an ability to oversee staff in cross-cultural settings and at a distance. Experience in two or more of the following programming areas: , GBV prevention and response, prevention and response to violence against children programing, protection of civilians, access to justice including through legal assistance in crisis settings, family strengthening and caregiver support programs, MHPSS programming, womenโs social and economic empowerment, responsive information programing and protection advocacy. Experience aligning operational humanitarian protection work with social protection and social welfare, justice and rule of law systems including engaging with national human rights commission and ministry of justice is also an asset.Demonstrated Skills and Proficiencies:
Knowledge of global trends across the protection sector Experience navigating the humanitarian system, including the humanitarian principles, protection coordination (at country and regional) and global models for both individual and community level social welfare and justice/legal protection services delivery. Demonstrated assessment, data collection and analysis skills, including protection risk analysis and incorporation of gender, age, and disability analysis into assessments. Expertise and operational experience in one or more of the following areas: child protection, womenโs protection and empowerment, protection of civilians, justiceand rule of law programming Knowledge of guidelines of major institutional donors (e.g , ECHO, GFFO, FCDO, Sida etc.). Proven track record in developing funding proposals and budgets for a range of donors. Demonstrated ability to work across departments, functions, and sectors to build strong working relationships with colleagues, and external partners. Strong program/technical, project design, planning, reporting, monitoring, and evaluation skills. Strong communication, influencing, support and training skills to serve IRC country teams well. Excellent social skills involving listening to, interacting with, and communicating clearly with people from diverse nationalities and backgrounds, and senior level internal and external partners, with a high degree of integrity. Working productively and proactively in remote team and management structures. If needed, flexibility to work adjusted hours, as appropriate to accommodate for different time zones. Demonstrated dedication to a Do No Harm approach, gender equality, diversity, and inclusion. Experience with remote and face-to-face training, facilitation and engagement tools, and familiarity with mobile monitoring tools. Strong analytical and conceptual skills, with the ability to think and plan strategically.Language Skills: Fluency in English and at least one additional IRC language (Arabic, French or Spanish), more than one additional language is preferred.
Working Environment: Up to 40% travel is expected.
STANDARDS FOR PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY:
The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.
IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants based on merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability.
We offer benefits that help promote an empowering work environment, including parental leave, medical insurance, counseling services, gender-sensitive security protocols, and more, depending on the country where the selected candidate will be based.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.