Senior Technical Advisor, Safeguarding, RAI

Background:

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 28 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.

Job Overview:

Safeguarding is at the core of IRC’s mission – to do no harm and ensure that the IRC’s clients and staff are protected from sexual violence, exploitation, and abuse. It sets out deliberate action taken to ensure the safety, dignity and protection of clients receiving aid and workers delivering it. Safeguarding covers sexual harrassment and other forms of sexual violence that may be experienced by staff, regardless of who perpetrates it, and the exploitation and abuse, including physical, verbal, emotional, mental, economic and sexual, of adult and child clients by persons working for or associated with the IRC.

The Senior Technical Advisor, Safeguarding will be responsible for supporting RAI’s resettlement, asylum, and integration program areas in their efforts to integrate safeguarding best practices into program design and implementation. They will work in close collaboration with colleagues across SGU, Safety & Wellness, HR, Duty of Care, GEDI and CRRD-VPRU:

Major Responsibilities:

Risk Mitigation: Technical guidance and support for safeguarding best practice in program design/implementation across sectors

• Lead the development of best practices for mitigating safeguarding risks related to different types of programming utilized across RAI offices
• Work closely with RAI technical unit staff to incorporate safeguarding standards into all program models across the resettlement, asylum, and integration technical areas
• Advise RAI technical and programs staff on the incorporation of safeguarding standards and measures into program area policies and procedures
• Create tools and build capacity of technical unit teams to conduct safeguarding risk assessments across program area portfolios
• Collaborate with technical units to disseminate best practices in safeguarding to program area staff across RAI department
• Develop and make available audit tools to be used by program offices to assess alignment between policy/program design and practices at site level
• As needed, review funding proposals and project designs to ensure safeguarding best practices are integrated into design and monitoring and evaluation strategies

Client engagement around safeguarding prevention and responsiveness around reporting needs

• Lead development of best practices for engaging clients on safeguarding awareness across all sectors of RAI programming
• Lead development of best practices for client responsiveness around reporting safeguarding violations
• Ensure best practices related to engaging clients around safeguarding awareness and reporting models are integrated into both technical and business processes
• Design monitoring and evaluation strategies for client engagement around safeguarding awareness and responsiveness and ensure integration into regular reporting channels across RAI programming
• Partner with CRRD Governance unit to ensure alignment with global best practices

Respectful engagement with partners to ensure optimal safeguarding practices adopted

• Lead development of best practices related to assessing partner capacity in safeguarding, ensuring respectful dialogue toward optimal alignment between IRC policies/practices and partner policies/practices
• Partner with CRRD Partnerships technical unit to ensure alignment with global best practices
• Engage with technical unit leaders, AMU, and program office leaders

Internal Collaboration as part of IRC global safeguarding strategy:

• As a critical role leader in the IRC’s global safeguarding strategy, participate in regular coordination and alignment meetings with colleagues from SGU, DOC, HR, RAI leadership, and CRRD.

• Collaborate with RAI technical and business leaders to define clear division of responsibility, information dissemination models, and accountability between actors

• Engage with RAI Safety and Wellness team, SGU, and RAI Senior Officers for Protection and Social Work in a regular community of practice

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: VP, Technical Excellence (RAI)

Position directly supervises: N/A

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Regular communication and collaboration with Regional Safeguarding Advisors and Director of Safeguarding in SGU, HR, Duty of Care and Regional Directors in GEDI. Close collaboration with Safeguarding Senior Technical Advisor- CRRD.

External: Participate in external interagency Safeguarding coordination and learning networks, as appropriate, in coordination with SGU advisors.

Job Requirements:

Education: Master’s/post-graduate degree in public health , social work, humanities or other relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.

Work Experience: A minimum of 5 years of experience in safeguarding (or another relevant sector), ideally within a humanitarian or international development organization. Experience in technical tools and materials development, monitoring and evaluation is highly desired. Experience in strategy development and working across sectors or disciplines is highly desired.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies: Demonstrated ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action, and experience leading on program design, monitoring and evaluation. Must have proven experience of working directly with survivors of violence. Must have strong and effective communications skills, and the ability to present a broad array of information to inform and influence diverse audiences in multi-cultural environments. Demonstrate commitment and capacity to renew and maintain standards with best practices in the field.

Language Skills: Fluency in English required; proficiency in another language (Dari, Pashto, Ukrainian, Spanish) is highly desired.

*Working Environment:***Up to 20% travel may be required. This position is open to all U.S. based candidates.

All staff are required to adhere to THE IRC Way Standards for Professional Conduct and the IRC country employment policies.

Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirement

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement: In accordance with IRC’s duty to provide and maintain a workplace that is free of known hazards and our commitment to safeguard the health of our employees, clients, and communities, IRC requires new hires to furnish proof of vaccination against COVID-19 in order to be considered for any in-office or hybrid positions. All IRC US offices require full vaccination to attend any in-office functions (e.g., meetings, trainings).

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity: IRC is committed to building a diverse organization and a climate of inclusivity. We strongly encourage applications from candidates who can demonstrate that they can contribute to this goal.

Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $120 per month, dental starting at $7 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.