Protection Officer, P3, (Roster) Amman, West Bank, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon

Org. Setting and Reporting

UNRWA, the largest United Nations operation in the Middle East with over 30,000 employees working across five areas of operation, is looking for highly committed personnel wishing to make a change.

If you are looking for a rewarding opportunity to make a tangible difference for one of the most vulnerable communities in the world, UNRWA would like to hear from you.

The Protection officer reports to Protection Team Leader. She/he is responsible for leading and coordinating UNRWA’s protection response in the area under her/his responsibility. She/he is particularly assigned to the strengthening Humanitarian Principles (HP) initiative, and responsible for ensuring that humanitarian principles are mainstreamed into core programmes in an effective, efficient, ethical, and politically sensitive manner, and that institutional capacity development takes place to embed protection into service delivery at all levels of operations.

Responsibilities

General duties for Protection positions:
- Provides support to the integration and mainstreaming of UNRWA policy and standards on protection and humanitarian principles in programmes, including but not limited to Education, Health, and Relief and Social Services and to other related initiatives in UNRWA Programmes. Provides technical support and policy advice on existing procedures in respect of agreed themes and activities.
- Organizes quarterly humanitarian principles integrated assessments in the areas under their responsibility.
- Supports the development and delivery of Protection related training and knowledge building, including the development of a training strategy based on clearly defined standards and competencies.
- Supports the coordination of protection activities in the field office both internally with programmes and other departments and externally with other protection partners including UN agencies and NGOs.
- Supports fundraising, formulation, and implementation of field protection programmes initiatives; and leads the project management of Protection projects (proposal writing, reporting, budget management, monitoring, and evaluation).
- Undertakes protection monitoring of key protection threats and risks through regular field missions to gather information and data and documents alleged violations of international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law as a basis for informing programmatic and advocacy responses in line with UNRWA policies and procedures.
- Undertakes advocacy on protection issues with a range of different stakeholders (authorities, donors, diplomats, etc.) including providing contextual and substantive briefings on UNRWA operations and protection issues, and highlights advocacy concerns as needed including civil-military coordination.
- Develops and maintains effective external relations and coordinates with any relevant task forces. Establishes community relations in at-risk communities in area of operations, including by engaging with UNRWA staff, local authorities and representative bodies, community-based organizations, and non-governmental organizations.
- Guides and supervises protection staff, supporting their planning and performance management, and capacity development

Additionally, the incumbent is expected to perform technical duties related to one of the following programmatic areas depending on the suitability of her/his profile.

Disability and Inclusion Officer:
- Coordinates with internal and external actors to conduct regular mapping and assessment of disability inclusion and accessibility of UNRWA services, including through conducting the integrated assessments.
- Develop strategies and action plans to ensure the inclusion and access of persons with disability to UNRWA services, in addition to the development of M&E tools.
- Provide inputs on the disability mainstreaming portion and associated budget component of project proposal
- Conducts surveys, research and needs assessment to identify problems facing persons with disabilities and provides appropriate recommendation(s); and follows up their implementations and keeps track of data trends available on persons with disabilities

Gender Officer:
- Assumes primary responsibility for Gender / GBV / PSEA programmes management and implementation on the field level, including ensuring thematic inclusion and compliance with project proposals
- Supports fundraising, formulation of and implementation of field GBV / PSEA programmes initiatives responding to protection needs, and monitors the protection environment, identifying trends and suggesting interventions.

Child Protection Officer:
- Plans for and leads the roll out and implementation of the Child Protection policies and standards in the Field Office, including updating and following up on the implementation of a multi-sector child protection work plan across departments and programmes,
- Provides expert advice and support to the Field Office on child protection issues to increase the capacity of the Agency with respect to child protection.
- Oversees the collection and documentation of accurate and timely data on child rights violations and, where necessary, oversees the development of analysis on trends and patterns for internal and external reports, presentations, or briefing notes
- Drafts other key guidance documents on child protection and provides input into other relevant guidelines, SOPs, procedures, and processes as needed, and to ensure the development and maintenance of child protection information management collection in close cooperation with the Field Protection Officer / Senior Area Support Officer
- Develops close working relationships and strategic partnership with and represents UNRWA at a range of child protection system actors including national authorities, UN agencies and NGOs,
- Monitors child protection referrals across programmes in coordination with Information Management staff and programmes colleagues, ensuring that such systems are child friendly.

Competencies

UN Core Values of Integrity, Professionalism and Respect for Diversity, and Core Competencies of Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results apply by default. Default managerial competencies may apply.

- Leading and Supervising
- Relating and networking
- Persuading and influencing
- Building trust
- Planning and organizing

For guidance on how to prepare for competency-based interviews: https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=AYI

Education

A university degree from an accredited educational institution in public or business administration, social sciences, international humanitarian assistance, law, international relations, or a related discipline, with a focus on international rights, international humanitarian law and/or refugee law.

Work Experience

At least six years of progressively responsible relevant experience in international organizations, in the humanitarian sector is required

At least two years of work experience where primary responsibilities include work related to the application of humanitarian principles is required.

Unless already serving as an international staff member in the UN Common System, a minimum of two continuous years of relevant international experience outside UNRWA, and outside the country(s) of which the candidate is a national or holds citizenship, a passport or a national identity number is required.

Previous work experience in refugee settings, preferably with international organizations, such as UNHCR, UNRWA or ICRC, or other relevant international non-governmental organizations is required.

Knowledge of activities of UNRWA operations and services is desirable

In-depth knowledge of Middle Eastern geo-political realities and their socio-cultural implications is desirable.

A university degree from an accredited educational institution is required in public or business administration, social sciences, international humanitarian assistance, law, international relations, or a related discipline, with a focus on international rights, international humanitarian law and/or refugee law

Languages

Fluency in spoken and written English (required)
Working knowledge of Arabic (desirable)

Assessment

Evaluation of qualified candidates may include an assessment exercise which may be followed by competency-based interview.

Special Notice

This is a selection exercise for creation of roster to fill future needs for positions in the areas of expertise related to Protection and Humanitarian Principles.

Type of Contract and Duration: Fixed-term one year project funded with the possibility of further extension subject to availability of funds, need and performance.

Only applications that have been fully completed in UNRWA's online e-recruitment system Inspira will be considered and no late applications will be accepted. The Personal History Profile (PHP) should be completed with full work experience under the experience tabs as per the requirements in the Job Opening.

Gaza and Syria are non-family duty stations.

UNRWA welcomes applications from qualified candidates with disabilities.

UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states, regional bodies, business foundations and individual contributions. The mission of UNRWA is to help Palestine refugees achieve their full potential in human development under the difficult circumstances in which they live.

For more details on UNRWA, please visit: https://www.unrwa.org/

United Nations Considerations

Staff members are subject to the authority of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA and to assignment by him or her.

UNRWA is committed to achieving gender parity at all levels of staffing under the current UN-wide gender agenda and strongly encourages applications from qualified applicants from under-represented groups.

At UNRWA, the paramount consideration in the recruitment and employment of staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, with due regard to geographic diversity. All employment decisions are made on the basis of qualifications and organizational needs. UNRWA is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. Reasonable accommodation for applicants with disabilities may be provided to support participation in the recruitment process when requested and indicated in the application.

UNRWA Considerations
UNRWA staff are expected to uphold the highest standards of efficiency, competence, neutrality, impartiality and integrity. This includes respect for and commitment to human rights, diversity and non-violent means of dealing with all kinds of conflict. Only persons who fully and unconditionally commit to these values should consider applying for UNRWA jobs. Candidates will not be considered for employment with UNRWA if they have committed violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have been involved in the commission of any of these acts. Candidates who have committed crimes other than minor traffic offences may not be considered for employment. The Agency may disqualify applicants who have separated for reason of misconduct, who left a UN Agency while misconduct processes were pending, or who appear on the UN Sanctions List.
UNRWA is a non-smoking work environment.

Applicants are urged to follow carefully all instructions available in the online recruitment platform, inspira. For more detailed guidance, applicants may refer to the Manual for the Applicant, which can be accessed by clicking on “Manuals” hyper-link on the upper right side of the inspira account-holder homepage.

The evaluation of applicants will be conducted on the basis of the information submitted in the application according to the evaluation criteria of the job opening and the applicable internal legislations of the United Nations including the Charter of the United Nations, resolutions of the General Assembly, the Staff Regulations and Rules, administrative issuances and guidelines. Applicants must provide complete and accurate information pertaining to their personal profile and qualifications according to the instructions provided in inspira to be considered for the current job opening. No amendment, addition, deletion, revision or modification shall be made to applications that have been submitted. Candidates under serious consideration for selection will be subject to reference checks to verify the information provided in the application.

Job openings advertised on the Careers Portal will be removed at 11:59 p.m. (New York time) on the deadline date.