Gender & Protection Senior Officer

GENDER & PROTECTION SENIOR OFFICER

National Position

Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behavior at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and committed to promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. Oxfam expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment through our code of conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us.

Oxfam in Algeria – Sahrawi Refugee Camps

For over 40 years, Oxfam has been carrying out projects of humanitarian assistance and development in the Sahrawi refugee camps in South-West Algeria, close to the city of Tindouf. In collaboration with local partners and the financial support of various international donors, Oxfam’s activities are structured around four main axes:

1. Food security: distribution of fresh food, and micro and sustainable agriculture.
2. Resilience and capacity-building, with a specific focus on youth.
3. Sustainable WASH, access to water for affected populations, and resilient infrastructure.
4. Activities of advocacy and communication.

Purpose:

The Gender & Protection Senior Officer will work closely with program staff and Oxfam partners to ensure that protection coordination and gender mainstreaming are properly addressed as cross-cutting theme in all aspects of program implementation. These objectives are to be ensured through regular field visits with program staff, community meetings and awareness raising activities among communities in the Sahrawi refugees camps in southwestern Algeria

Location: Based in the Sahrawi Refugees camps in Tindouf, Algeria with travel to Algiers, Tunisia and to other Oxfam country missions as needed.

**Reports to:**Country Representative-Humanitarian Program Manager (CR/HPM), with matrix management from the North Africa Gender Justice Program & Policy Lead.

Other Relations and interactions: Program teams in Tindouf and Algiers, Regional Protection Advisor, and Regional Gender Justice Coordinator.

**Languages needed:**English and Arabic essential,Spanish and French are highly desired.

• Salary based on Oxfam’s salary scales (depending on relevant experience)
• Full-time fixed-term contract of one year; contract is renewable depending on funding.
• This is a national position with local contract.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Gender & Protection

• Conduct, gender and vulnerability assessment and identify cases for assistance according to pre-defined criteria.
• Ensure regular consultation with the communities (collecting data on gender and protection), which would support gender and protection analysis.
• Liaise with protection service providers including UN agencies, (UNHCR, UNICEF) international and local NGOs, and women’s rights organisations.
• Develop a training policy on basic protection & gender and deliver training sessions for Oxfam staff and partners.
• Explore options to collaborate more closely with women rights organisations and assess their interest in training.
• Analyse existing barriers to access protection services in the camps.
• Works closely with Program staff and partners, to implement and monitor project plans and activities related to gender mainstreaming and raise any issues of gender concern with the program team and partners.
• Develop indicator matrices to monitor the protection ecosystem within the area of intervention, and align these with Oxfam in Algeria’s priorities, and with similar tools at the sub-regional and regional levels.
• Ensure Protection components are on track, including the development of protection monitoring and community-based committee’s tools (ie. community and household levels questionnaires). These components include community-based committees and residual individual protection assistance.
• Propose new activities according to identified needs and suggest solutions for problems encountered with activities.
• Ensure rollout and compliance with Oxfam’s key standard operating procedures.
• Ensure dissemination of clear and reliable information on service provision and other pre-selected key topics.
• Partake in business development activities, and lead on BD, in close coordination with the Oxfam’s Fundraising and Compliance Manager, for future protection projects and activities.

Reporting

• Conduct information sessions and report feedback (comments, suggestions) to the Humanitarian Program Manager and North Africa Gender Justice Program & Policy Lead on issues of concern with recommended areas of intervention.
• Report on special needs cases following discussion with beneficiaries and advise on type of assistance.
• Submit weekly and monthly activity plans, reports and recommendations for assessed persons and identified beneficiaries.
• Review project and activity reports to ensure that the reporting language is gender sensitive.
• Prepare monthly and quarterly inputs on gender mainstreaming, gender section in the Sit Rep, success stories, cases studies, etc.
• Work closely with the Funding and M&E departments to ensure gender analysis are conducted at the proposal development stage and support mainstreaming of gender sensitivity in various studies across Oxfam programs.
• Do a mapping of relevant actors and protection services available – formal and informal.
• Support research leading to gender equality programs, campaign and policy change.

Job requirements:

• University degree in gender studies, law, international relations, social sciences, human rights, social work, or any other relevant areas.
• A minimum of two years experience in a similar role at a senior level preferably in a conflict zone or a difficult context.
• Strong conceptual and practical understanding of gender and protection issues and approaches in humanitarian and conflict contexts, including the constraints, sensitivities and risks associated with such work.
• Excellent command of English and Arabic. Spanish and/or French is a plus.
• Knowledge of the social context and challenges in promoting gender equality and equity.
• Proven experience in the provision of technical advice and effective support to field programs, and skills in staff and volunteer development, mentoring, and training, including receiving and giving advice remotely.
• Strong commitment to the values of equality and diversity, and understanding of gender and protection standards, key sectoral issues and processes including advocacy for gender and protection.
• Demonstrable understanding of gender and protection work – including when it applies to violence, abuse and harassments within organizations – and ability to implement relevant policies and activities.
• Excellent influencing and negotiation skills. The ability to work independently as well work as a team player – supporting staff and volunteers is essential.
• Proven analytical skills and strategic thinking, ability to apply professional and ethical standards to data collection and analysis processes.
• Critical thinker and capacity to operate in a multidisciplinary and multicultural context.
• Ability to demonstrate openness and willingness to live and work in a hardship duty station.

Key Attributes:

• Ability to demonstrate sensitivity to cultural differences and gender issues, as well as the commitment to equal opportunities.
• Ability to demonstrate an openness and willingness to learn about the application of gender/gender mainstreaming, women’s rights, and diversity for all aspects of development work.
• Commitment to Oxfam’s safeguarding policies to ensure all people who come into contact with Oxfam are safe.

Organizational Values:

• Accountability – Our purpose-driven, results-focused approach means we take responsibility for our actions and hold ourselves accountable. We believe that others should also be held accountable for their actions.
• Empowerment – Our approach means that everyone involved with Oxfam, from our staff and supporters to people living in poverty, should feel they can make change happen.
• Inclusiveness – We are open to everyone and embrace diversity. We believe everyone has a contribution to make, regardless of visible and invisible differences.

Key Behavioral Competencies:

Decisiveness

We are comfortable to make transparent decisions and to adapt decision making modes to the context and needs.

Influencing

We have the ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organization. We spot opportunities to influence effectively and where there are no opportunities and we have the ability to create them in a respectful and impactful manner.

Humility

We put ‘we’ before ‘me’ and place an emphasis on the power of the collective, nurture the team and play to the strengths of each individual. We are not concerned with hierarchical power, and we engage with, trust and value the knowledge and expertise of others across all levels of the organization.

Relationship Building

We understand the importance of building relationship, within and outside the organization. We have the ability to engage with traditional and non-traditional stakeholders in ways that lead to increased impact for the organization.

Listening

We are good listeners who can see where deeper levels of thoughts and tacit assumptions differ. Our messages to others are clear and consider different preferences.

Mutual Accountability

We can explain our decisions and how we have taken them based on our organizational values. We are ready to be held to account for what we do and how we behave, as we are also holding others to account in a consistent manner.

Agility, Complexity, and Ambiguity

We scan the environment, anticipate changes, are comfortable with lack of clarity and deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways.

Systems Thinking

We view problems as parts of an overall system and in their relation to the whole system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcome or event in isolation. We focus on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. By consistently practicing systems thinking we are aware of and manage well unintended consequences of organizational decisions and actions.

Strategic Thinking and Judgment

We use judgment, weighing risk against the imperative to act. We make decisions consistent with organizational strategies and values.

Vision Setting

We have the ability to identify and lead visionary initiatives that are beneficial for our organization and we set high-level direction through a visioning process that engages the organization and diverse external stakeholders.

Self-Awareness

We are able to develop a high degree of self-awareness around our own strengths and weaknesses and our impact on others. Our self-awareness enables us to moderate and self-regulate our behaviors to control and channel our impulses for good purposes.

Enabling

We all work to effectively empower and enable others to deliver the organizations goals through creating conditions of success. We passionately invest in others by developing their careers, not only their skills for the job. We provide freedom; demonstrate belief and trust provide appropriate support.