Age Inclusion Specialist

Location: Jerusalem or Ramallah

Department: Inclusive Humanitarian Action Team

Reports to: Response Manager

Contract Type: Full-time, fixed term contract for 12 months, renewable subject to funding availability

About HelpAge

HelpAge International works with partners and a diverse global network of more than 170 organisations over 90 countries, supporting millions of older people to live safe, dignified, and healthy lives. Through our partnership and collaborations, we work to ensure the inclusion of older people across society and strive to deliver a just and fair world for everyone, whatever their age.

About the Portfolio / Department

HelpAge’s global humanitarian work is led and supported by the Humanitarian Portfolio (team) which sits within HelpAge’s global team. The team works remotely, and currently comprises eight geographically focused Humanitarian Programme Managers (HPMs), 1.5 Portfolio Support Officers and seven Advisers: Advocacy, Health, Protection and MHPSS, Humanitarian Inclusion, Cash and Markets, Capacity Strengthening, and Age-Inclusion. The Humanitarian Lead also directly manages HelpAge’s Ukraine Country Director and oversees HelpAge’s largest humanitarian programme in Ukraine. The Humanitarian Portfolio works closely with other global departments: Healthy Aging and Care, Society for All Ages, Income Security, Media and Communications, Operations, Business Development, Finance, Human Resources, and Regional Representatives for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, Middle East and Eurasia.

Key areas for impact/influence and responsibilities

These outline the broad areas of responsibility in the role, but in collaboration with your humanitarian colleagues you will be able to shape and design specific activities that are relevant at any point in time. We want you to work creatively to deliver impact and respond to relevant opportunities.

This role should promote the meaningful participation and involvement of older persons with and without disabilities including Older People Associations (OPAs) to make their voices heard. This role should identify and support opportunities for more meaningful engagement of humanitarian actors with OPAs to ensure their needs are met in humanitarian responses.

As an Age Inclusion Specialist, you will have a coordination and a technical role as outlined below:

Specific Responsibilities:

• Assist the Protection Cluster to develop context relevant activities and to implement these activities in accordance with the jointly defined strategy and workplan.
• Map, coordinate, and actively engage with local organisations specialized in age inclusion.
• Promote the active engagement of interested humanitarian actors to include older people and people with disabilities in the response planning throughout the inter-agency cluster mechanism.
• Create linkages with other clusters and working groups including WASH, Health and CCCM to provide proactive support and guidance to operationalize inclusion.
• Support the protection cluster in the implementation of the ‘Emergency Protection Responder’ approach.
• Participate in relevant coordination and cluster meetings.
• Review programmes of HelpAge partners and provide technical support as needed.

Technical Role

• Monitor and analyse the protection situation of older persons and identify areas for programme and advocacy response.
• Map and assess the inclusion of older people in the assessment and planning of humanitarian action.
• Support and monitor the data collection exercises, assessments, and surveys through promoting the use of age inclusive tools.

Good practices

• Map ongoing activities/good practices and lessons learnt on age inclusion in the oPt humanitarian response.
• Take proactive responsibility by staying informed about development and good practices in age inclusion and mainstreaming.

Training

• Develop a capacity building workplan in line with the priorities of the cluster.
• Design and create relevant training and deliver them across the protection and other clusters and to relevant partners at field level.
• Provide technical inputs to documentation, training modules, tools and other resources produced by the protection cluster and other actors.

Mainstreaming

• Focus on mainstreaming inclusion into humanitarian coordination mechanisms, in addition to advocating for the rights of older persons with and without disabilities.
• Observe the implementation of humanitarian programs to identify gaps and needs related to the inclusion of older persons with and without disabilities.
• Collaborate with other actors engaged in mainstreaming and accountability to affected persons.

Skills and experience required

• Field and programmatic experience in humanitarian work in conflict/peacebuilding environments in a variety of contexts.
• Previous experience working in oPT.
• Strong understanding of intersectional analysis and age and gender transformative actions.
• Strong working knowledge of the humanitarian coordination system and humanitarian architecture and experience working with partners and other international stakeholders (UN, INGOs).
• Protection and inclusion background including experience in inclusion of at-risk groups ideally in humanitarian context- and older people, and persons with disabilities.
• Fluent Arabic, in addition to good written and spoken English.
• Strong interpersonal and representation skills and previous experience of networking with other humanitarian organisations.
• Proven experience in capacity strengthening.
• Ability to work in a fast paced and stressful environment.
• Ability to work legally in oPT.

Key Behavioural Competencies

At HelpAge International, we believe in the importance of empowering our people to be change makers and leaders at all levels. We expect our people to embrace and live our values, challenging themselves every day to identify issues that are most important to older persons and their communities, and to make an impact that matters.

In addition, as an HelpAge employee you are expected to:

Working Collaboratively with Others: Work collaboratively, building mutual trust and respect, with external organizations and partners to achieve our strategic aims and objectives; being accountable for the work we do together.

Adaptability and Flexibility: Adapt to new directions or opportunities arising within the organisation and in our work area; being flexible in our role, constantly using the feedback to learn more and evolve further.

Supporting and Facilitating Change: Lead behavioural and cultural change through embracing a supportive, collaborative and highly inclusive environment where everybody feels supported, respected and engaged.

Extend HelpAge’s Reach and Impact: Extend HelpAge’s reach and impact by creating and identifying new business development opportunities and building relationships with new partners.

Diversity and Inclusion: Lead and promote a culture of including the voices of older people across our support, convening and thought leadership roles, in a way that is transformative, empowering and highly inclusive of those marginalised by gender, economic status, disability and other factors of discrimination.

Leading Others (for managers): Demonstrate strong leadership to own unit/department and manage people in a well and reputable manner. Create an atmosphere of trust and an enabling environment where staff can contribute their best and develop their potential.

Safeguarding

HelpAge International is committed to safeguarding the communities with which we work, our partners, staff and any others who we come into contact with. The post holder will also be responsible for:

• Preventing harm and abuse from our people, operations and programmes to anyone that encounters our work.
• Reporting all safeguarding incidents you see, hear, hear about or suspect, using our internal reporting mechanism.
• Complying with all safeguarding framework policies and practices.
• Completing mandatory training courses relating to our safeguarding policy framework and complying with HR vetting procedures.

SAFER RECRUITMENT

All employments at HelpAge International will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include misconduct disclosure schemes and terrorism finance checks.