Women's Protection and Empowerment (WPE) Coordinator

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and 26 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. The IRC has been operating in Thailand since 1975 and currently provides assistance to displaced persons in Tak, Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi and Mae Hong Son provinces.

Job Overview/Summary:

IRC’s program for Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) improves and expands community-based services to women, girls, and survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) in the seven refugee camps. The program supports and strengthens community-based efforts to respond to and prevent violence against women and girls through comprehensive and holistic programming, including GBV case management and psychosocial support. This program coordinates a network of women and girl centered organisations that ensure a comprehensive and multi-sectoral response for GBV survivors, increasing the safety and power of women and girls through promoting community leadership and provision of technical training on GBV core concepts.

Under the direct supervision of the Deputy Director of Programs (DDP), and the overall guidance of the Country Director, the WPE Coordinator will be responsible for overseeing and coordinating WPE programming in IRC field sites in Thailand. This includes providing technical oversight across all field sites of implementation and expansion of WPE programs in new project sites. The WPE Coordinator will be responsible for all aspects of WPE and gender violence-based strategy development, program and proposal design, implementation, standardization, and evaluation of all WPE-related activities within the IRC Thailand country program. In addition, the WPE Coordinator will be primarily responsible for coordinating with other non-governmental organizations (NGO), United Nations (UN) agencies and Community Based Organization (CBO) to strengthen the safety and resilience of women and girls, and gender-based violence response sector border-wide. In addition, this role will look into cross border strategies to improve health and safety outcomes for women and girls and oversee quality start up of WPE programs such as Girl Shine and SASA!.  The primary focus is on program quality, with program progress being monitored and evaluated against quantifiable benchmarks.

Major Responsibilities:

Program Oversight and Implementation

·Provide technical support, leadership, guidance and oversight of IRC Thailand’s WPE program, including GBV case management, PSS for women and girls, Women and girls safe space design, SASA!, Girl Shine and EMAP.

·Identify gaps in the WPE programs and work with the team to develop innovative approaches and mechanisms to address them.

·Conduct regular field visits to assess program quality and progress toward objectives, facilitate collective problem solving with staff and other stakeholders to address challenges, and identify opportunities for expansion and improvements in WPE program efficiency and quality.

·Working with the M&E Coordinator, develop and maintain a monitoring & evaluation plan and framework for all WPE programming, ensuring ethical and systematic processes of data collection, analysis and information sharing.

·Proactively work with other IRC programs in Health (sexual reproductive health and mental health and psychosocial support), Economic Recovery and Development, and Protection to identify areas and opportunities for collaboration, design integrated proposals, and collectively implement projects that multiply positive outcomes for the people we serve.

·Oversee the development of improved tools/capacity for empowerment of women and girls, and prevention and response to GBV, for IRC and partner organizations

Grants Management and Reporting

·Lead and support field-based WPE program managers and officers to develop, implement and monitor WPE interventions and programs that are based on approved grants. These included, but not limited to reviewing progress and targets, preparing work plan and program spending plans, and reviewing internal and external reports prepared by the managers.

·Ensure the most efficient use of resources by preparing sound project budgets, monitoring project budgets against expenditure, and ensuring appropriate adjustments by providing support and oversight to program managers on programmatic spending.

·Work with Program Unit to develop strong and coordinated project monitoring and evaluation systems in the WPE sector, including systematic data collection, storage and dissemination tools; and support capacity building of IRC partners to improve monitoring capacity and data quality.

Program Development

·With guidance from the DDP and in coordination with the WPE Technical Advisor, support new program designs, monitoring and evaluation and preparation of work-plans with clear objectives and achievable benchmarks, reflecting strategic long-term and short-term priorities.

·Coordinate and participate in the development of new proposals and initiatives in accordance with the country program Strategic Action Plan (SAP) and provide regular input to SAP processes.

·Support senior management staff in developing a country sector strategic plan for Thailand, ensuring that program growth is aligned with country strategic plans. This includes collaboration with the Myanmar country program as required.

·Actively contribute to broader strategic planning processes in Thailand, ensuring that WPE interventions and related initiatives are taken into account.

Partnerships and Coordination

·Proactively develop and maintain effective working relationships with other key stakeholders, including donors, government actors, UN agencies, international and local NGOs, and other relevant actors working on violence against women and girls (VAWG); maintaining IRC as a key contributor to addressing VAWG and WPE issues in Thailand.

·Actively participate in national level coordination meetings and working groups and lead oversight of efforts to promote coordination and collaboration between IRC partners, including regular WPE and protection coordination meetings and other similar fora.

Staff Management and Development

·Supervise and provide on-going support to WPE senior manager(s) and WPE managers in the IRC Thailand field offices and mentoring them to do the same with the WPE officers they supervise.

·Support staff by creating and maintaining a work environment that promotes teamwork, trust, mutual respect, and empowers staff to take responsibility. Approve and manage all leave requests to ensure adequate coverage.

Key Working Relationships:

Work Experience:

·Minimum of five years of experiences working in gender-based violence, protection of women and girls, gender equity (or equality), trafficking of women and girls in conflicted areas,

·Minimum of three years in management / supervision position.

·Proven experience in implementing programs grounded in theories of feminism, trauma-informed theory, healing centered engagement, or social work

·Demonstrated successful experience in capacity building, project design, monitoring and evaluation and budget management.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

·Demonstrated ability to foster strong collaborative partner relationships - based on principles of mutual trust and respect, mutual accountability, reciprocity, inclusion and transparency – with all program partners, with an ability to promote a common project vision among a wide array of diverse partner organizations; and demonstrated expertise in supporting and managing local partners to promote program sustainability, effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness.

·Experience working in partnership with local and community-based partners in service delivery.

·Strong budget management skills and experience in managing grants and projects.

·Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written and ability to manage sizeable multi-cultural team delivering assistance involving a wide array of program stakeholders.

·Strong writing and analytical skills, including ability to communicate technical matters to a range of audiences.

·Competent in Windows, MS office programs, emails and relevant health database (HMIS, DHIS etc.).

·Fluency in spoken and written English required, additionally Burmese and/or Thai language valued.

·Able to travel regularly along the Thailand-Myanmar borders and able to travel to refugee camps and other project areas on a regular basis.

Working Environment: The position will be preferably based in the IRC office in Mae Sot, Tak province, with extensive travel to the refugee camps and the Thailand-Myanmar border area.  

All applications will be treated confidentially and not returned. The IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, national origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, age, marital status or physical or mental disability. The IRC is an equal opportunity employer.                  

This is National post