Protection Specialist, Community Voices for Better Protection (CVBP)

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The goal of the Community Voices for Better Protection (CVBP) program is to improve the resiliency of vulnerable populations by promoting more responsive programs in humanitarian and protection settings by increasing understanding of the risks and potential harms people face when seeking, sharing or creating information in their community. The CVBP project will contribute to protection work by mapping out the risks of collecting and sharing information with communities, as part of the wider Communication, Community Engagement and Accountability efforts, including social media engagement, feedback mechanisms, and data collection.

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

The Protection Specialist will provide technical protection mainstreaming expertise, strategic leadership and technical guidance for the implementation of CVBP in three pilot countries, including mentoring country-level Lead Researchers, ensuring global protection standards are incorporated into approaches, finalizing a framework for assessing protection risks within information ecosystems, and maximizing opportunities to share strengths between the program teams. This position will contribute heavily to the design of tools and resources for assessing risks associated with information practices, including potential digital and physical risks. The Protection Specialist will collaborate closely with the Global Protection Cluster and an expert advisory council. This project will collaborate closely with Rooted in Trust, a global project led by Internews that addresses COVID-19 misinformation in 10 countries, and will work closely with the Internews Humanitarian Team, including Humanitarian Technical Advisors.

LOGISTICS

This is a remote-based position. All remote candidates will be considered. However, you must have work authorization in your location that does not require sponsorship from Internews. Additionally, there are locations in which Internews is not able to support fully remote work.

Wherever possible, we work to try to find solutions for international hiring that work for both the company and the candidate. This means that some of the particulars around the offer for a role will be dependent on several factors, and that the benefits and salary structure that apply to a position will ultimately be based upon the candidate’s location and where the role is hired.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so interested candidates are encouraged to apply soon.

OUR COMMITMENT TO FOSTERING A CULTURE OF BELONGING

We are an organization of dynamic, mission-driven individuals who are passionate about our core values and about supporting positive change in the world. We pride ourselves on our commitment to innovation and flexibility. We believe that diverse teams are strong teams and work to support an ethic of belonging, dignity, and justice for all people. Our current team includes a mix of genders, parents and non-parents, and people of multiple races, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are an EEO employer and encourage candidates of all races, genders, ages, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply, and welcome those with alternative backgrounds and experiences.

DAY-TO-DAY TASKS will include:

• Guide the development of tools, methodology, and framework for assessing protection related risks associated with information-seeking behaviors and/or protection-related information gaps in crisis context information ecosystems;
• Complete a literature review of existing protection research, reports and tools related to assessing information risks and their impact and keep up to date with developments in this space;
• Support the Project Manager to identify, hire, and onboard country-level Lead Researchers, and support them to build their research teams (field researchers, data analysts, etc.) and partnerships;
• Develop and deliver onboarding training to research teams and other Internews teams on protection issues and standards, and provide ongoing mentoring to ensure practices are in line with global standards;
• Regularly represent the aims and lessons learned from project in Protection and other relevant humanitarian coordination forums;
• Clearly document challenges and successes from each pilot implementation and lead regular lessons learned workshops to directly inform the improvement of research tools, frameworks, and approaches;
• Coordinate engagement with the Global Protection Expert Panel, ensuring they are informed of project activities and have regular opportunities to engage and contribute to the design and assessment of activities and the framework;
• Actively look for opportunities to collaborate with digital security, rights, and technology experts in the wider organization to incorporate the existing knowledge base, collaborate, and promote best practices from within the project;
• Work with the Humanitarian Knowledge Manager to ensure robust monitoring and evaluation, data responsibility, and information management practices;
• Work closely with the Rooted in Trust Project Director and Technical Advisory Team to provide protection guidance to the project;
• Provide technical protection guidance to the humanitarian team in the development of new programming; and
• In all duties, demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to upholding Internews’ Core Values.

QUALIFICATIONS WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Required

• At least 4 years’ experience in Protection, Gender and Inclusion mainstreaming or stand-alone programming in humanitarian contexts, with at least 2 years of experience leading protection projects in an emergency context;
• Demonstrated understanding of concepts, approaches, and standards for Protection, including PSEA, GBV, Child Protection, disability inclusion, intersectionality, community based and gender transformative approaches;
• A proven track record in leading the design and delivery of protection tools, and technical advisory outcomes;
• Research experience including: qualitative, quantitative, data analysis and data visualization, ethnographic studies and human-centered design research methodologies;
• Demonstrated experience designing training materials, and implementing monitoring and evaluation tools;
• Experience in partner and relationship management in complex humanitarian contexts and/or challenging environments, with a strong understanding of how to work effectively with local authorities, organizations, and community representatives as well as international agencies like the UN, international NGOs;
• A good understanding of information related risks such as digital security, data privacy, mis and disinformation, information literacy, language barriers, and cyber attacks;
• Experience working remotely and managing diverse teams;
• Strong interpersonal communication, organizational, teamwork, facilitation, and presentation skills;
• Proven ability to produce high-quality reports and to work under tight deadlines; and
• Fluency in written and spoken English.

Preferred

Note: Candidates who do not have these preferred qualifications, but who are interested and willing to learn, are encouraged to apply.

• Experience chairing Protection Working Groups or technical task forces will be highly regarded;
• Experience with Accountability to Affected People (AAP) programming a plus; and
• Fluency in Arabic or French a distinct advantage.