Integrated Protection Coordinator

The mission of the IRC is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. The IRC serves people forced to flee from war, conflict and natural disaster and the host communities that support them, as well as those who remain within their homes and communities.

Working in coordination with the humanitarian community, IRC currently addresses the needs of war-affected Syrians from several operational bases in the region. Our activities focus primarily on the supply of vital medications and medical equipment, non-food items, water and sanitation, education and child protection and form part of an over-arching humanitarian response in the region that seeks to assist refugees, IDPs and war-affected Syrians survive conflict and displacement.

In northeast Syria the IRC implements health, basic needs, livelihoods, women’s protection, and protection programming.

Job Overview/Summary

The Integrated Protection Coordinator leads the IRC’s efforts to meet conflict-affected people’s safety and protection needs, reducing risk and responding to cases of violence, coercion and deprivation, as well as mainstreaming protection throughout the IRC and partners’ response in northeast Syria (NES). This includes Protection, GBV and CP case management, structured and non-structured psychosocial support, protection monitoring and information provision, legal awareness, protection mainstreaming and training, women’s empowerment activities, child protection committees, women committees and other outreach activities. Protection is a signature part of the IRC’s strategy over the next couple years. The Integrated Protection Coordinator will set and manage a clear direction, drive forward implementation and ensure robust and effective management and oversight to best meet the needs and aspirations of local communities and accountability to stakeholders.

Major Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic direction, leadership and overall technical and management support to protection and rule of law, women’s protection and child protection programming in northeast Syria, ensuring it is needs-based, context-appropriate, responsive, coherent, collaborative, and operationally feasible and in line with the NES Strategic Action Plan outcomes for Safety.

• Lead a comprehensive assessment of opportunities for greater cross-sector integration within IRC’s program units, and develop/review the workplan for reaching integration goals, both with respect to programs implemented directly by IRC as well as those delivered in partnership; as required, support development of cross-sector SOPs, tools, training modules, etc.

• Promote joint work across the three teams (CP, WPE and PRoL) to enhance the quality of programming and a holistic approach to addressing the needs of family members.

• In collaboration with program, finance, HR and Supply Chain departments, ensure smooth management, implementation, integration and compliance of project work plans and budgets (budget forecasting, spending plans, procurement plans and expenditure), with best use of resources across activities and delivering on time, to scope and within budget.

• Ensure projects and activities are of high technical quality, meet humanitarian standards, mainstream protection, align with IRC’s Outcomes and Evidence Framework, and respond to community and monitoring feedback

• Ensure that all internal and external reporting requirements are met, that reports are of a high quality and are submitted on time

• Through direct liaison with the Supply Chain Coordinator, ensure timely procurement of supplies and materials in compliance with donor and IRC rules and regulations through timely planning, specifications development and collaborative relations with Supply Chain colleagues

• Proactively identify, assess, monitor and implement measures to reduce or control risks that may impact program delivery, quality or compliance

• Engage and maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders and coordination structures relevant to northeast Syria in Iraq and locally including NGO, UN, and technical and government actors

• Ensure alignment and coherence with IRC country, regional and global strategy, local Health and Economic Wellbeing programs, and cross-border responses from other hubs

• Liaise with Technical Unit advisors to ensure relevant support, tools and resources are being provided and integrated into programming.

• Proactively continue to grow the northeast Syria protection, women’s protection and child protection portfolio through development of concept notes and proposals to existing and new donors, maintaining a coherent strategy across IRC’s areas of intervention in Syria.

• Lead assessments and context-appropriate research aimed at generating a strong evidence base for IRC protection programming, as well as informing IRC advocacy.

• Work closely with IRC’s advocacy and media teams, and the Violence Response and Prevention Technical Unit for the launch and dissemination of research reports and findings.

• Support the greater sharing and use of research and learning within IRC’s program sectors, including by contributing to program development and design, to ensure interventions are responsive to needs and informed by a sound understanding of the environment(s) in Syria

• Identify, monitor and report unmet needs. Explore the potential of the IRC to address those needs within the parameters of the Strategic Action Plan and sector priorities.

Staff Management and Development

• Coach, train, and mentor staff with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and providing professional development guidance

• Supervise and mentor direct-report staff, including communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely performance feedback, and providing documented annual and mid-year performance reviews.

• Provide constructive feedback and counsel on appropriate career paths and professional development. Support the development of business development skills and responsibility among the integrated protection team, with a particular focus on national staff.

• Promote and monitor staff care and well-being; approve and manage all leave requests to ensure adequate coverage.

• Offer leadership support for successful adherence by staff to IRC’s Global HR Operating Policies and Procedures.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Senior Integrated Protection Coordinator

Position directly supervises: Senior Women’s Protection and Empowerment Manager, Senior Child Protection Manager, Senior Protection and Rule of Law Manager

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Program Implementation and Quality Director, Deputy Country Director – Programs, WPE, CP, PRoL Technical Advisors, Economic Recovery and Development Coordinator, Health Coordinator, MEAL Coordinator, Field Director, Supply Chain Coordinator, HR Director.

External: Whole of Syria coordination structures including the NES PWG, technical working groups, INGOs

Job Requirements

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in humanitarian assistance, social work, human rights, international law, social science or related field. Advanced degree preferred;

Work Experience: 5 years’ experience implementing similar programming in an emergency or complex emergency context and demonstrable understanding of the relevance of international humanitarian law and human rights law to humanitarian action;

Professional experience in program implementation in the field of protection or human rights in conflict-affected areas.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Demonstrable knowledge of and commitment to child protection, and women’s protection, empowerment and gender-based violence; Previous work on Protection Rule of Law, CP and GBV programming important.

• Applied experience in case management;

• Ability to manage up and across and to influence others to mainstream protection across units;

• Strong team and people leadership, management, organizational and development skills;

• Strong program and budget management skills including planning and reporting across multiple grants;

• Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representation and liaison with external parties;

• Works well in and promotes teamwork, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure effectively and productively;

Language Skills: Fluent in spoken and written English; Arabic and/or Kurdish a strong advantage.

Working Environment:

The position will be based in Hassakeh, in Northeast Syria with regular travel to program field sites in the areas of operation within Syria. The position will also include travel to Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and other regional hubs for coordination as needed. Hassakeh is currently a medium security risk environment. Shared housing will be provided. Accommodation in the field sites is in shared housing or IRC approved hotels and the security risk is medium.

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.