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Associate Protection Officer

Farchana

  • Organization: UNHCR - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  • Location: Farchana
  • Grade: Junior level - P-2, International Professional - Internationally recruited position
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Legal - International Law
    • Civil Society and Local governance
    • Protection Officer (Refugee)
  • Closing Date: Closed

Before submitting an application, UNHCR staff members intending to apply to this Job Opening are requested to consult the Recruitment and Assignments Policy (RAP, UNHCR/HCP/2017/2 and the Recruitment and Assignments Administrative Instruction (RAAI), UNHCR/AI/2017/7 OF 15 August 2017.

Associate Protection Officer

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The Associate Protection Officer reports to the Protection Officer or the Senior Protection Officer. Depending on the size and structure of the Office, the incumbent may have supervisory responsibility for protection staff including community services, registration, resettlement and education. He/she provides functional protection guidance to information management and programme staff; and supervises protection standards, operational procedures and practices in protection delivery in line with international standards.

The Associate Protection Officer is expected to coordinate quality, timely and effective protection responses to the needs of populations of concern, ensuring that operational responses in all sectors mainstream protection methodologies and integrate protection safeguards. He/she contributes in designing a comprehensive protection strategy and in representing the organization externally on protection doctrine and policy as guided by the supervisor. He/she also ensures that persons of concern are involved with the Office in making decisions that affect them, whether in accessing their rights or in identifying appropriate solutions to their problems. To achieve this, the incumbent will need to build and maintain effective interfaces with communities of concern, authorities, protection and assistance partners as well as a broader network of stakeholders who can contribute to enhancing protection.

FUNCTIONAL STATEMENT

Accountability

- The protection of populations of concern is met through the application of International and National Law, relevant UN/UNHCR protection standards and IASC principles.  
- The protection strategy incorporates a thorough age, gender and diversity (AGD) analysis and reflects the Organization's global, regional and country level priorities.
- The Participation of persons of concern is assured through continuous assessment and evaluation using participatory, rights and community based approaches.
- Protection incidents are immediately identified and addressed.

Responsibility

- Stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment.
- Promote International and National Law and applicable UN/UNHCR and IASC policy, standards and codes of conduct.
- Foster their consistent and coherent interpretation and application through mainstreaming in all sectors and /or in clusters in applicable operations.
- Assist in providing comments on existing and draft legislation related to persons of concern.  
- Provide legal advice and guidance on protection issues to persons of concern; liaise with competent authorities to ensure the issuance of personal and other relevant documentation.
- Conduct eligibility and status determination for persons of concern in compliance with UNHCR procedural standards and international protection principles. 
- Promote and contribute to measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness.
- Contribute to a country-level child protection plan as part of the protection strategy to ensure programmes use a child protection systems approach.
- Contribute to a country-level education plan.
- Implement and oversee Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solutions activities.
- Oversee and manage individual protection cases including those on SGBV and child protection. Monitor, and intervene in cases of refoulement, expulsion and other protection incidents through working relations with governments and other partners.
- Recommend durable solutions for the largest possible number of persons of concern through voluntary repatriation, local integration and where appropriate, resettlement.
- Assess resettlement needs and apply priorities for the resettlement of individuals and groups of refugees and other persons of concern.
- Contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of protection related AGD based programming with implementing and operational partners.
- Contribute to and facilitate a programme of results-based advocacy through a consultative process with sectorial and/or cluster partners.
- Facilitate effective information management through the provision of disaggregated data on populations of concern and their problems. 
- Contribute to capacity-building initiatives for communities and individuals to assert their rights.
- Participate in initiatives to capacitate national authorities, relevant institutions and NGOs to strengthen national protection related legislation and procedures.

Authority

- Intervene with authorities on protection issues.
- Negotiate locally on behalf of UNHCR.
- Decide priorities for reception, interviewing and counselling for groups or individuals.
- Enforce compliance of staff and implementing partners with global protection policies and standards of professional integrity in the delivery of protection services.
- Enforce compliance with, and integrity of, all protection standard operating procedures.

ESSENTIAL MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

- Education: Undergraduate degree (equivalent of a BA/BS) in Law, International Law, political Sciences or related field.
- Job Experience: Minimum 3 years (2 years with graduate degree (equivalent of a Master¿s)) relevant professional experience.
- Excellent knowledge of English and working knowledge of another UN language.

(In offices where the working language is not English, excellent knowledge of UN working language of duty station and working knowledge of English.)

***For National Officer positions, very good knowledge of local language and local institutions is essential.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS & COMPETENCIES

- Diverse field experience desirable.
- Good IT skills including database management skills.
- Completion of the Protection Learning Programme, RSD- Resettlement Learning Programme. C001L2 - Accountability Level 2
C002L2 - Teamwork & Collaboration Level 2
C003L2 - Communication Level 2
C004L2 - Commitment to Continuous Learning Level 2
C005L2 - Client & Result Orientation Level 2
C006L2 - Organizational Awareness Level 2
M003L2 - Judgement and Decision Making Level 2
X001L2 - Analytical Thinking Level 2
X004L2 - Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Level 2
X007L2 - Political Awareness Level 2

Before applying to this position, we strongly encourage colleagues to read the country specific FAQs information leaflets which can be found  on the Intranet under Staff Resources > Duty of Care. The information leaflets are specifically designed to answer some of the key questions potential applicants might have before deciding to apply. 

The complexity of this position requires that the incumbent possesses good idea of conflict resolution in addition to good communication and diplomatic skills in order to work with all stakeholders from different backgrounds.  Further basic legal background of the incumbent would be useful where limited access to justice and insufficiency of justice capacity in Eastern Chad is a problem that affects both the refugees and the local population.
Given the considerable and diverse work load, it is important that the applicant be motivated, hard-working, organized and fluent in French (written and spoken), as all communications within the office and with external partners such as Government and humanitarian agencies are conducted in French. Working knowledge in English, especially written, is also required as more and more reports, internal as well as external, are requested in English. Since 2003, the political stability in South Sudan has considerably deteriorated following the war and the inter-ethnic clashes in the Darfur region. This situation led to the forced displacement of thousands of people from the Darfur to the East of Chad.
From that time, almost 313,000 refugees originating from Darfur in Sudan have been living in the 3 Sub Offices of Chad in the East (Iriba, Gozbeida and Farchana)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
The UNHCR Sub-Office in Farchana leads the actions of the Field Office in Hadjer Hadid and Field Unit in Abeche. The Sub-Office contributes to the provision of international protection and assistance for over 120,389 registered refugee¿s f living in 4 camps under the authority of the Farchana Sub-Office. (Breijing, Treigine managed from Hadjer Hadid Field Office, Farchana and Gaga camps managed from Farchana Office).
The SUB OFFICE has 60 national and 11 international staff members that work for the entire operation of Farchana

Chad is among the most complex UNHCR operations in terms of security, environment and logistical context. Farchana is located at over 1000 km from Ndjamena the capital city, 120 Km from Abeche the largest city in Eastern Chad, 57 km from Sudanese border, and 25 km from Hadjer Hadid field office.
Farchana has a small airport exclusively used for UNHAS Flight to link Abèche with the other Sub offices in East of Chad. The environment is characterized by unforeseen trends related to these factors. The risk of common criminality and banditry ¿ fuelled by poverty, social unrest and high levels of unemployment continues to be one of the main threats to the physical integrity of UNHCR staff. UNHCR staff are always reminded the need to strictly respect all norms of security (UNDSS).
Although a tripartite agreement has been signed between the two Governments (CHAD / SUDAN / UNHCR) on the voluntary repatriation of refugees , the political situation remains unstable and unpredictable in Sudan and therefore, the possibility of voluntary repatriation of refugees to their country rests very limited Farchana is classified in E duty station category in terms of working and living conditions.  Farchana is characterised by very basic infrastructure as well as leisure and recreational facilities. Also, very limited health facilities are available locally. The office has established guest houses for the international colleagues and private accommodation is not possible.
The weather conditions for Eastern Chad are very harsh and arid from October to June, from June to September the situation changes dramatically with the arrival of the rainy season where the dirt roads become impracticable with the dry river beds (Wadi¿s) impassable for periods of between several hours to several days. The lack of water, and unavailability of basic infrastructure facilities such as roads which impact on timely delivery of quality humanitarian services to the beneficiaries.
R&R cycle 8 weeks. Chad is among the most complex UNHCR operations in terms of security, environment and logistical context. The environment is characterized by unforeseen trends related to these factors. The risk of common criminality and banditry ¿ fuelled by poverty, social unrest and high levels of unemployment continues to be one of the main threats to the physical integrity of UNHCR staff. UNHCR staff are always reminded the need to strictly respect all norms of security.
Cultural sensitivity and good security and safety awareness are important elements as Chad is a non-family duty station and there are constant threats to one¿s safety and security. There are no banking facilities in Farchana. The nearest bank facility is at Abeche located at 120 km from Farchana where we happen to have most of the banks operating in Chad (BCC, ECOBANK, SGTB, ORABANK  AND WESTERN UNION)
These Banks have visa ATM machines.

Please note that the closing date for all vacancies in the September 2017 Compendium is Monday 6 November 2017 (midnight Geneva time).

This vacancy is now closed.
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