Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) Assistant

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 192-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.”   The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

The IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

The IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.

The IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas.  The IFRC also has country cluster delegation and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

The Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) department supports and advocates community engagement regarding IFRC operations and ensure the accountability of the assistance and support provided by the delegation towards the community they assist. Through feedback mechanisms and the principle of ‘information as aid’, the CEA unit ensures accountable response by including the community at various steps of the response.

Under the supervision of the Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) Team Leader, the CEA Assistant will support the CEA team with activities conducted with the Turkish Red Crescent Society (TRCS) and IFRC to ensure timeliness and effectiveness of the deliverables and activities. This includes communication with communities, participation and feedback systems, behaviour and social change communication, and evidence-based advocacy.   

The CEA Assistant works under the direction and guidance of the IFRC CEA Team Leader. As a member of the CEA team, he/she will work closely together with the TRCS CEA and other teams such as M&E, Outreach and Referral, Field, etc.

Technical support to the team and operation:

• Support assessments to be transparent, participatory and accountable, capturing people’s information needs and trusted and preferred communication channels
• Liaise with CEA officers to support activity design, data analysis and reporting as needed
• Work with CEA officers in preparation of relevant research and systematic monitoring and evaluation of the EQ programme.
• Support CEA Officers in developing training materials, workshop arrangements, field visit arrangements, hold meeting minutes.
• Accompanying CEA Officers in field visits for activity support.
• Support the digitalization and documentation of CEA outputs and activities.
• Contribute to the primary data management, analysis and interpretation stages of the qualitative data that is collected within the context of the EQ Programme for both internal and external reporting purposes, as needed.
• Support the CEA Officers in the coordination and collaboration with other stakeholders, including TRCS, government authorities, UN agencies, NGOs and other partners to facilitate feedback mechanism implementation, integration and capacity building.
• Supports the implementation  of  appropriate  community  engagement  initiatives  to  support  the  prevention  of  sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), sexual and gender-based violence and survivor-centred approaches (in coordination with PGI and HR).
• Prepare and update the CEA products on a timely manner (dashboards, rumour tracking bulletins,etc.)
• Other relevant tasks that can be assigned by the Supervisor.

Required:

• University degree Social Sciences such as Sociology, Political Science, International Relations, Public Administration, Communication Sciences, etc. 

Required:

• At least one years of experience working in community engagement and accountability initiatives, community-based protection, communication for development or social mobilisation in Turkey for a humanitarian or development organisation, especially within refuge, asylum and migration contexts, besides good understanding of refugee reprotection and knowledge about the stakeholders actively working in the humanitarian sector in Turkey 

Preferred:

• Experience of working as part of a team responding to complex humanitarian emergencies 

Required:

• Good planning skills, with the ability to identify areas for improvements in operations through the integration of CEA approaches and activities
• Good understanding of – or training in – current developments in the field of communication with communities, behavioural and social sciences, or community engagement and accountability, community media
• Good knowledge of protection, gender and diversity issues
• Team player, with the ability to coordinate and engage others and build good working relationships with internal and external partners
• Good knowledge of the socio-cultural background of affected populations and capacity to practice political and cultural sensitivity
• Strong written, presentation, facilitation and training skills
• Willing to travel extensively to support field operations
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and networking skills
• Fluently spoken and written English and Turkish

Preferred:

• Understanding of and/or experience with Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies
• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic)