BACKGROUND
Since 1979, Afghanistan has experienced continuous armed conflict. The IRC began work in Afghanistan in 1988, launching relief programs for persons displaced by the invasion of the Soviet Union. The IRC continued to provide aid under Taliban rule and expanded community development projects. The organization now works with thousands of villages across nine provinces, with Afghans making up more than 99% of IRC staff in the country. As Afghanistan works to recover from ongoing conflict and natural disasters, the IRC supports by: working with local communities to identify, plan and manage their own development projects; provide safe learning spaces in rural areas; provide uprooted families with tents, clean water, sanitation and other basic necessities; and helps community members access employment. The Violence Prevention and Response Unitin Afghanistan covers Protection and Rule of Law (PRoL), Child Protection and Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) with a cross cutting focus on gender equality in both programming and organizational practice.
JOB SUMMARY
The WPE Deputy Coordinator will lead the IRC’s WPE programs in establishing services to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls (VAWG) across 2-3 provinces, with the potential to also support a WPE mobile response embedded within an emergency team and advise emergency teams in Afghanistan to reduce the risks women and girls face when accessing short term emergency response programs. S/he will be responsible for providing management and technical support to the WPE team providing direct services; overseeing the management and operations of spaces for women and girls, such as a hospital facility or safe healing and learning space (SHLS); providing life-saving interventions and services including, GBV case management, psychosocial support, risk reduction activities, community outreach and engagement, and SRH services (including clinical care for survivors of sexual assault). The WPE Deputy Coordinator will work in close collaboration and coordination with the Health cluster, women’s organisations, child protection team, and the GBV sub cluster. S/he will be based in Kabul with regular travel to project sites and provide continuous remote technical support to the WPE teams to ensure that all interventions are implemented to meet international best practices. S/he will be responsible for budget and program development throughout the project cycles. The WPE Deputy Coordinator is responsible for the supervision of one WPE Manager and ensuring capacity building.
MAJOR RESPONSABILITIES
Program Quality
•Oversee and manage the day to day implementation of WPE programming across across 2-3 locations to ensure they meet international standards of practice for women-, girl- and survivor-centered support and services.
•Start-up WPE in two locations, including finalising project sites and ensuring a WPE team is hired and trained;
•Initiate GBVIMS within the country program;
•Provide technical guidance and support to the WPE team to establish and strengthen safe space operations and improve the provision of quality case management and psychosocial support services to meet the needs of women and girls;
•Lead on needs-based capacity development (training, learning sessions, and on-the-job mentoring) for the WPE team in critical areas of practice;
•Lead in the development of quality age-appropriate psychosocial interventions at the women and girl Centres and safe spaces that promote healing and strengthen supportive social networks;
•Work with the Integrated Protection Coordinator in the design and implementation of activities that specifically target adolescent girls grounded in evidence-based methodologies;
•Ensure that ethical and sound data collection and information management systems are managed appropriately and are functioning in all sites;
•Ensure that formal referrals pathways are used and adhered to by the WPE team, and any issues found are reported to the GBV sub-sector coordination group to address;
•Ensure regular collaboration and communication with the health team counterparts to ensure best practice across both sectors and strong internal safe and confidential referrals.
Finance, Budget and Grant Management
•Monitor the timely implementation, financial management and quality reporting of the Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) programming, in compliance with donor requirements.
•Provide technical guidance and project implementation guidance for WPE programs
•Promptly identify and recommend solutions to technical, programmatic, spending and procurement issues in WPE programming
•Ensure that all interventions are in compliance with the IRC’s program strategy, national policies, and GBV Minimum Standards
•Work closely with operations and grants to coordinate to ensure quality, timely, implementation and development of programs, including providing oversight over the budget versus actual, indicator tracking tools, and other grant management tools used by the IRC; participation in monthly grant review meetings; and regular monitoring of internal program purchase request tools
•Undertake regular field monitoring visits to assess progress and identify technical quality issues and/or other implementation issues, provide solutions and implement modifications as required
•Provide input into program design and needs analysis for new Child Protection programming
•Assist in writing and reviewing WPE proposals in coordination with Integrated Protection Coordinator
Staff Supervision & Development
•Provide technical ongoing support and mentoring to the WPE Managers, Officers, and support them to do the same for the WPE staff they supervise, to enable them to successfully perform in their positions.
•Conduct regular performance appraisals on progress with the WPE Officers, providing timely and constructive feedback to develop their professional practice.
•Support opportunities and make space for the female WPE staff to regularly meet, self-organise and build strong, supportive peer networks and solidarity with each other, creating a community of feminist grounded VAWG practice between them.
•Maintain open and professional relations with all team members, promoting a strong, respectful team spirit, ensuring effective communication, and opportunities for debriefing.
•Ensure staff well-being and care is prioritised and is an integral part of weekly/monthly work plans.
Coordination, Representation and Advocacy
•Proactively build strong working relationships at the site levels with other international and national actors/organisations and UN agencies (i.e.: WASH, shelter, food/NFI) for advocacy on ensuring specific measures are put in place to reduce risks of violence against women and girls in line with Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines for response and prevention of GBV in humanitarian settings; ensure that all advocacy points are communicated in a timely manner to the Integrated Protection Coordinator for field and national level advocacy;
•Attend GBV sub-sector coordination meetings or related task forces / working groups at the request of the Integrated Protection Coordination.
Other
•Consistently and proactively monitor/assess the safety and security of field teams, promptly reporting concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaising with other external parties as required to maintain/enhance the security environment.
•Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.
Key Working Relationships
•Position Reports to: Integrated Protection Coordinator
•Position directly supervises: WPE Manager
•Indirect Reporting: WPE Senior Officers x 2
•Other Internal and/or external contacts:
oInternal: Child Protection, Health team; WPE TA
oExternal: UN agencies, INGOs, NGOs, community groups and other partners
