Child Protection Technical Advisor

Background/IRC Summary:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Unit provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice.

The Technical Unit has three central objectives that we work towards:

1. Guide program design to achieve outcomes by incorporating the best available evidence and centered on clients
2. Build technical capacity of country program staff to implement, measure and continuously improve programs
3. Influence the IRC, peer agencies and donors to use proven interventions and generate new evidence to achieve change in peoples’ lives

TE is comprised of five technical Units, all of which have deep expertise in their respective sectors: Education, Economic Recovery and Development, Governance, Health, Violence Prevention and Response Unit.

The Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) works to reduce clients’ protection risks and support their recovery from violence and promote transformative work for a future free from violence. The unit houses expertise in the fields of Child Protection, Protection and Rule of Law (ProL), and Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) to support women, children and other at-risk groups through violence prevention programs that help stop violence before it happens and violence response programs that ensures lifesaving services for people affected by violence. VPRU has programs across countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Specific Responsibilities:

The Child Protection Technical Advisor (TA) will support IRC’s programs in Asia region, and will spend at least 80% of their time delivering technical assistance in-person and remotely to country operations. The Technical advisor is part of country support team whose primary role is support to country operations focused on a specific region. The remaining 0-20% of their time is spent on internal team priorities and strategy advancement, influence, advocacy, research, and other internal initiatives at the discretion of their supervisor. Technical Advisors’ specific responsibilities are as follows:

Guiding program design:

• Support country program staff to design programs and projects, ensuring that they are:
  • Aligned with the IRC’s Strategy100, which includes supporting country program staff with contextualizing outcomes and the theories of change, and selecting interventions based on the best available evidence and the local context;
  • Responsive to client needs and preferences
  • Based on sound context and gender analysis
• Help define approach to teaming / partnering with other organizations
• Support selection of indicators for country programs

Engaging in business development:

• Review technical quality of proposals, including review of technical activities and ensuring alignment to IRC’s outcomes
• Input into go / no go decisions on proposals
• When necessary, write technical narratives of proposals
• Provide input on budgets required for project delivery
• Engage with donors and do outreach in support of country programs

Building technical capacity of country program staff to ensure ongoing program quality and innovation:

• Work with country program colleagues to help analyze data that inform periodic review and course correction as-needed
• Share cross-context learning with country program staff across the region
• Conduct technical training and ongoing technical coaching for country program staff, including on IRC outcomes, theories of change, evidence and indicators
• Review and share program-specific tools / resources / curricula and work with Technical Unit specialists to contextualize and adapt global and country-specific materials
• Support senior country program staff recruitment and onboarding

Influence the IRC, peer agencies and donors to use proven interventions and generate new evidence:

• Present IRC research findings across contexts and relevant conferences

Representation and Thought-leaderships:

• Lead on child protection M&E tool development and support the child protection sector in advancing thinking on M&E.
• Participate in VPRU initiatives as required in line with action plan, including VPRU task teams and other regional coordination meetings.
• Represent IRC in various working groups and task forces of the CP Alliance as well as other IA groups as required.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Child Protection Senior Technical Advisor

Position directly supervises: This position could potentially supervise or mentor one specialist team member and on occasion consultants and/or interns.

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Regular communication with other Technical Advisors and teams in Education, Health, Economic Recovery & Development, Governance, Airbel, and gender equality diversity and inclusion unit teams. Close relationships with regional and country program teams. Interacts with IRC internal departments, including business development, external relations and advocacy departments as needed to support country operations.

External: Serve as IRC program representativein outside regional meetings and global meetings and academic forums with donors, other non-governmental organizations, inter-agency groups and foundations.

Job Qualifications:

Education: Master’s/post-graduate degree in Social science, Social work, international development, child rights or relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience is required. The technical advisor is encouraged to participate in ongoing training courses to enhance their skills and current knowledge and expertise.

Work Experience: A minimum of 6 – 8 years in implementing and/or managing Child Protection programs is required, preferably within a humanitarian, international development setting. Experience in technical tools and materials development, monitoring and evaluation, and research is highly desired. Experience in strategy development and working across sectors or disciplines is highly desired.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies: Demonstrated expertise in program design, monitoring and evaluation, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action. Strong verbal and written communication skills. Demonstrated commitment to renewing and maintaining expertise with current best practices.

Language Skills: Fluency in English required; proficiency in Urdu, Pashtu or Bengali is desirable.

Working Environment:** Up to 40% travel may be required. This position is remote and will be based in one of the IRC Offices.

All IRC staff are required to adhere to THE IRC Way Standards for Professional Conduct, the IRC country employment policies and Gender Equality Diversity and Equality Principles of the IRC.