Protection & Rule of Law Coordinator

Kabul

Organization: IRC - International Rescue Committee
Location: Kabul
Grade: Mid level - Mid level
Occupational Groups:
- Legal - Broad
- Legal - International Law
- Managerial positions
Closing Date: Closed

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. Integrated Protection in Afghanistan covers Protection and Rule of Law (PRoL), Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE), and Child Protection (CP) with a strong focus on ensuring gender equality in both programming and organizational practice.

Job Overview/Summary:

The Protection Coordinator will be responsible for overall leadership, coordination and technical support to maintain and expand IRC's Protection and Rule of Law programming in Afghanistan working closely with colleagues from other sectors and organizations towards the best outcomes for clients. This role has a strong focus on capacity building and system strengthening, with approx. 15-20% of time dedicated to strengthening up PRoL national leadership, systems and technical tools in country. The Coordinator is responsible for overall management of Protection Rule of Law staff, under the direct management of the Deputy PRoL Coordinator. They are responsible for providing any and all support necessary to ensure successful implementation of Protection sector programming, and ensuring a strategic vision for the ongoing development and implementation of the programming. The Coordinator also plays a key role in program development through contributions to new concepts and proposals, including design and writing of technical proposal sections, with support from the IRC Technical Unit and relevant departments of the Afghanistan country program and HQ. The Coordinator is responsible for building the capacity of key staff to enable them to take greater responsibility for overall management of the PRoL portfolio.

The Protection Coordinator is responsible for five key objectives:

•Program Quality and Implementation: Plan and execute effective deployment of Protection programming to support quality protection monitoring, information dissemination, referrals, case management, community based protection, emergency cash, mental health and legal services as well as the IRC Afghanistan’s Protection mainstreaming program;

•Capacity Building: Built the capacity of the Deputy PRoL Coordinator and other national protection colleagues, to boost the overall capacity of the PRoL team, and capacity for localization at a high technical and operational quality.

•Integration: Ensure program quality and integration of Protection program within the broader IRC Afghanistan portfolio, in particular in coordination with Protection and Child Protection colleagues;

•Representation: Represent IRC inside Afghanistan at strategic meetings and events in close coordination with the Senior Management team and Advocacy colleagues;

•Partnerships: Establish and strengthen productive relationships with relevant organizations and networks, technical experts, government agencies and donors within Afghanistan in coordination with the Senior Management team and other Program Colleagues as relevant.

•PRoL team capacity building: Recruit, train and supervise the Protection and Rule of Law team in order to build their capacities both in term of Project/Programme management and technically on protection and rule of law programming. Focus heavily on strengthening technical and operational quality of PRoL department, staff. This will include system strengthening, technical tool development and rollout, and implementation tracking.

Major Responsibilities:

Program quality and Implementation

•Ensure that all interventions are in compliance with the IRC’s protection mainstreaming framework, international law and protection standards and national policies.

•Supervise the execution of relevant M&E systems and ensure regular follow-up on monitoring data relevant to Protection programs;

•Support the implementation of the Afghanistan Strategic Action Plan by ensuring that program activities align and contribute to achieving selected pathways of the prioritized signature and core sub outcomes.

•Provide a sound technical basis for the consolidation and harmonization of protection monitoring, information dissemination and community based protection programming across field sites, with an emphasis on maintaining and improving program quality.

Integration

•Lead and support integration and collaboration of PRoL programming across other IRC sectors, including Child Protection, Women’s Protection and Empowerment, Economic Recovery and Development, Education and Early Childhood Development.

Representation

•Forge connections with key government counterparts at the ministerial level, UN, I/NGOs, human rights actors, municipal and other sub-national government actors.

•Represent the IRC in field and national level and strategic meetings involving protection actors such as protection working group meetings, inter-agency coordination meetings, and bi-lateral meetings.

•In collaboration with the Senior Integrated Protection Coordinator, provide input for advocacy purposes and support achievement of advocacy goals, as need.

Partnerships

•Oversee IRC’s relationship with implementing partner(s) specific to Protection interventions where relevant.

•Continuing to support the expansion of partnerships across Afghanistan to include direct service provision by partners and support to these interventions by IRC;

Grant Monitoring and Business Development

•Support and ensure donor compliance, including appropriate and timely spending of grants to achieve program goals, grant reporting contributions, use and distribution of supplies and resources.

•With the Deputy PRoL Coordinator, lead the development of new business concept notes and proposals for the continuation and expansion of Protection programming in Afghanistan;

•Ensure the submission of timely, accurate and well written donor reports and other reporting requirements for all Protection programming in Afghanistan;

•Work closely and coordinate with IRC other technical units, logistics, finance and grant staff to ensure timely and compliant program activities and expenditures; including active participation in grant opening/closing and review meetings and participation in bids opening and review.

•In collaboration with the Deputy PRoL Coordinator, the Sr PRoL Manager and PRoL Managers, ensure smooth management of project work plans and budgets (budget forecasting, development of spending plans and budget follow-up), timely recruitment, and accurate reporting in accordance with IRC and donor regulations;

Staff Management and Development

•Provide clear technical support, supervision, training and mentoring to the Protection and Rule of Law team, including training needed to build specialized skills in relevant program areas.

•Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions;

•Coach, train, and mentor staff with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and providing professional development guidance, especially the Deputy PRoL Coordinator and the Sr PRoL Manager

•Develop and implement staff capacity building plan to ensure quality Protection programming across programming teams and other IRC programming;

•Conduct timely and quality performance evaluations and give regular and constructive feedback to staff through the year to ensure a culture of accountability.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Senior Integrated Protection Coordinator

Position directly supervises: Deputy Protection and Rule of Law Coordinator

Indirect Reporting: Protection Rule of Law Technical Advisor

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Grants Department, IRC Program Coordinators, in particular Protection and Child Protection, but also Education and Economic Recovery and Development, Supply Chain, HR, Research Evaluation and Learning Technical Unit, Regional Advocacy Department, Advocacy Advisor, MEAL Advisor, Country Director

External: Coordination bodies, peer and partner agencies, donors

REQUIREMENTS

•Advanced university degree in Law, Human Rights or a related field.

•3-5 years experience implementing protection programming including experience in emergency or post-conflict project management

•Demonstrated experience using international human rights standards in protection programming

•Demonstrated experience designing and implementing M&E systems

•Strong strategic thinking and proposal writing skills

•Strong leadership, staff and budget management and capacity building skills.

•Excellent communication skills, cultural sensitivity, flexibility, ability to improvise, team player.

•Ability to live and productively work under stress and in insecure and harsh environments while maintaining a sense of humor.

DESIRED

•Experience in implementing programming that utilizes ICT, including in the collection and management of qualitative and quantitative data.

•Previous experience in Afghanistan or another similar hardship location.

SPECIFIC SECURITY SITUATION/HOUSING

The Protection Coordinator will be based in Kaboul, Afghanistan with travel throughout the country. The candidate should be prepared to implement programming in remote and insecure environments. This is a non-accompanied position. The Coordinator will live in shared housing.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.

#LI-GR2

This vacancy is now closed.
However, we have found similar vacancies for you: