Integrated Protection Coordinator

The IRC opened the country program in Mali in 2012. Our programs span the range from humanitarian relief to early recovery activities, focusing on child protection, education, economic wellbeing, nutrition, health, water and sanitation. We work both in the north, central and south of Mali. Conflict and drought have displaced hundreds of thousands both within Mali and in neighboring countries. The security situation in the north remains fragile. Nevertheless the needs of IDPs and host communities affected by conflict are widespread and the issue of humanitarian access is a continuous process. The IRC works in the north and central of Mali to provide essential WASH, Education, Economic Wellbeing, Protection, Health and Governance programs in the most remote areas. The post is designed to contribute to enhance the capabilities and build the resources of populations to prevent and mitigate crises, manage change and enhance self-reliance and resilience.

Scope of work

Under the supervision of the Deputy Director of Programs at Head Office - Mali, the Protection Coordinator will be responsible for the vision, strategy, design, monitoring, and quality delivery of the protection programs in Mali in line with internationally recognized best practices and donors’ requirements. He/She will be based in Bamako with frequent visits to the field sites.

The Integrated Protection Coordinator role will also include technical capacity building and supervision of national staff and partners engaged in the implementation of the IRC Mali’s Protection activities. The Coordinator will lead the design, development and context analysis of new projects focused on Protection. In accordance with IRC Mali’s focus on integrated programming, the Integrated Protection Coordinator will work closely with in-country Coordinators such as Education, Economic Recovery and Development, Health and Nutrition, Wash, Grants Coordinator as well as with the Design Monitoring and Evaluation Department. The Integrated Protection Coordinator will be supported by Technical Advisors (TAs) based at IRC HQ to ensure effective, high quality delivery of all CP, PRoL and WPE activities.

Major Responsibilities

1. Program Strategy and Business Development

• Provide strategic direction, leadership and overall technical support to the Protection Rule of Law (PRoL), Women program Empowerment (WPE) and Child Protection programming, ensuring it is rights and needs-based, context-appropriate, responsive, coherent, collaborative, and operationally feasible.

• Contribute to the delivery of IRC’s Strategic Action Plan outcomes for Safety.

• Proactively grow the Protection portfolio in line with the Strategic Action Plan, through development of concept notes and proposals to existing and new donors.

• Lead the contextual protection needs and data analysis on a regular basis to inform program development and advocacy work

• Promote joint work across the three protection streams of Women’s Protection and Empowerment, PRoL and Child Protection as well as the Economic Recovery and Development sector and Environmental Health to enhance the quality of programming and a holistic approach to addressing the protection needs of the target populations.

• Promote and assist the other IRC’s programming sectors with the integration of protection (protection mainstreaming).

• Identify, monitor and report unmet needs. Explore the potential of the IRC to address those needs within the parameters of the Strategic Action Plan, sector priorities and IRC’s ‘cash first’ approach.

• Ensure alignment and coherence with relevant IRC country, regional and global strategies.

2. Program Management and Quality

• Ensure projects and activities are of high technical quality, meet humanitarian standards, mainstream protection, in line with IRC’s Outcomes and Evidence Framework strategic objectives, and respond to community and monitoring feedback.

• Proactively identify, assess, monitor and implement measures to reduce or control risks that may impact program delivery, quality or compliance.

• Proactively assess quality of programming and identify, propose and implement measures to enhance program quality, including capacity building, training, tools and resources development

• In collaboration with program, finance, HR and Supply Chain departments, provide oversight on program planning, implementation, integration and donor compliance.

• Lead assessments and context-appropriate research aimed at generating a strong evidence base for IRC protection programming, as well as informing IRC advocacy.

• Liaise with CP, PROL and WPE Technical Advisors to ensure relevant support, tools and resources are being provided and integrated into programming to support quality programming.

• Provide active technical support to protection (CP, PROL, WPE) programs as well as current peace building programming with protection component.

• Liaise with the DM&E Department to support M&E activities for the protection program, map lessons learnt and identify opportunities for evaluations and quality improvement.

• 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.

3. Staff Management & Development

• Recruit qualified team members, when needed, and support and supervise the teams to achieve program goals and maximize national ownership and leadership.

• Coach, train, and mentor staff with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and providing professional development guidance

• Supervise and mentor staff, including communicating clear expectations, and in partnership with the direct line supervisor, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely performance feedback, and contribute to the annual and mid-year performance reviews.

• Provide constructive feedback and counsel on appropriate career paths and professional development.

• Promote and monitor staff care and well-being; approve and manage all leave requests to ensure adequate coverage.

• Offer leadership support for successful adherence by staff to IRC’s Global HR Operating Policies and Procedures.

• Adhere to and act in accordance with the IRC Global HR Policies and Procedures, and communicates through word and example a high standard of compliance with all applicable policies and regulations.

4. Grant Monitoring & Reporting

• 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.

• Ensure that proper M&E systems are in place.

• Ensure that all internal and external reporting requirements are met, of high quality and are submitted on time.

• Ensure regular Information Management Systems quality update( GBV/IMS, CP/IMS etc)

5. Representation, coordination and advocacy

• Engage actively in protection coordination mechanism (clusters, working groups) and maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders and protection coordination structures members in Mali, including consortium members coordination, NGO, UN, and technical and government actors.

• Identify and feed in advocacy opportunities together with the Deputy Director for Programs and based on information coming from the field.

• Together with the DDP, work closely with IRC’s advocacy and media teams, and the Violence Response and Prevention Technical Unit for the launch and dissemination of research reports and findings.

• Support the DDP in building donors and fundraising advocacy, relationship and trust by providing technical view and knowledge of the country program.

• Together with the DDP, contribute to the advocacy efforts of IRC Mali and the West Africa Region through analysis of the policy environment and trends.

• Support the greater sharing and use of research and learning within IRC’s program sectors, including by contributing to program development and design, to ensure interventions are responsive to needs and informed by a sound understanding of the environment(s) in Mali.

• Upon request by the Senior Management Team, support organizing and facilitating field visits for partners, donors and others interested in IRC’s protection programming in Mali.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in humanitarian assistance, social work, human rights, international law, social science or related field.

• Five years’ experience implementing Protection programming ( CP, GBV, PRoL) in an emergency or complex context and demonstrate understanding of the relevance of international humanitarian law and human rights law to humanitarian action

• Professional practical experience in program implementation in the field of protection monitoring, community-based protection and/or access to justice , Gender Based Violence and Child Protection in conflict-affected areas; applied experience in case management is an asset

• Ability to manage up and across and to influence others to mainstream protection across units

• Strong team and people leadership, management, organizational and development skills

• Strong program and budget management skills including planning and reporting across multiple grants

• Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representation and liaison with external parties

• Works well in and promotes teamwork, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure effectively and productively

• Fluent in French, English is a plus.

This is a limited accompanied position.

Professional Standards

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

https://rescue.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/1/home/requisition/13822?c=rescue