Associate Protection Officer (Community-Based)

Details

Mission and objectives

Le Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés (HCR) a pour mandat de diriger et de coordonner l’action internationale visant à protéger les réfugiés. Il a pour but premier de sauvegarder les droits et le bien être des réfugiés. Il met en œuvre ses programmes de protection dans le monde entier et sensibilise le grand public à la situation des personnes réfugiées dans le monde. Le HCR Mauritanie fournit protection et assistance à quelque 65 000 réfugiés maliens dans la région aride du sud-est où se trouve le camp de réfugiés de Mbera, et à quelque 9 000 réfugiés urbains et demandeurs d'asile dans les villes de Nouakchott et Nouadhibou. La situation sécuritaire au Mali est toujours instable et des retours à grande échelle ne sont pas attendus. Les Maliens continuent d'arriver en Mauritanie dans le cadre de flux de population mixtes.

Context

The Office of the UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country (www.unhcr.org).The Mbera refugee camp was established in 2012 and currently hosts over 83,000 Malian refugees. A significant number of Malians have also settled over the years in communes outside of Mbera camp: UNHCR has already registered over 8,400 out-of-camp Malians. In view of the scope and size of the refugee situation in Bassikounou, the Refugee Coordination Mechanism (RCM) remains in place and is led by UNHCR. It ensures a humanitarian response that is complementary and coordinated with the Government of Mauritania. Due to the worsening security situation in Mali,continued displacement into Bassikounou and the surrounding areas is anticipated, hence the need for ongoing emergency preparedness while, at the same time, building the resilience and self-reliance of the current refugee population of nearly 90,000. UNHCR’s strategy is oriented towards the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, with the organization responding to lifesaving needs and at the same time engaging with development actors to build resilience in the refugee and host communities. The Government of Mauritania, which maintains an open border for people seeking international protection, has likewise committed itself to a generous policy of inclusion for Malian refugees who are able to access healthcare, education and employment opportunities on par with nationals.UNHCR continues to strengthen commnituy based protection in Mbera camp, building capacity of both partners and community structures to ensure effective monitoring of the overall protection environment.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of Senior Protection Officer, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: • Be fully informed about community structures and the protection and security situation of the population of concern and develop strong links with a cross-section of members of refugee/Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)/stateless communities, using an Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) approach; • Through relationships with persons of concern and network of partners stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment and provide advice to senior management. Ensure that the perspectives, capacities, needs and resources of the persons of concerns are reflected in the protection strategy, planning processes and operations plan addressing the specific protection needs of women and men, children, youth and older persons, persons with disabilities, minority groups such as sexual minorities and persons living with HIV/AIDS; • Ensure through direct action and advocacy with more senior protection staff that the necessary resources are allocated to enable community work to identify and address protection and assistance gaps; • Assist in supporting consultative process with government counterparts at local levels, partners and persons of concern to develop and implement integrated strategies that address the key protection priorities, including, for example, child protection, education and SGBV, and solutions approaches; • Provide technical guidance and support to UNHCR and partners and implement and oversee Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on all community-based protection related issues • Support the design, implementation and evaluation of protection centered and solutions oriented programming with implementing and operational partners guaranteeing that community-owned activities are integrated; • Support communities in establishing representation and coordination structures • Promote confidence building and conflict resolution among populations of concern, authorities and host communities; • Maintain protection presence through regular field missions and reports, making direct contact with persons of concern, host communities, local authorities and partners. In operations applying the humanitarian cluster system, contribute to ensuring that the response of the Protection Cluster is grounded in an AGD-compliant strategy which covers all assessed and prioritized protection needs of the affected populations; • Support the Operation's work to ensure the protection strategy is fully integrated into the Country Operations Plan, the UN Development and Assistance Framework (UNDAF), the Humanitarian Country Team’s common humanitarian action plan where applicable; • Contribute to the Protection team's information management component which: provide disaggregated data on populations of concern and their problems; researches, collects and disseminates relevant protection information and good practices to enhance protection delivery and provide technical advice if necessary; • Ensure participatory, community-based protection and AGD approaches are included in, strategies and plans in the country operation; • Ensure community understanding of UNHCR's commitment to deliver on accountability and quality assurance in its response; • Support persons of concern to develop structures that enhance their participation and protection. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities; • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible. Results/Expected Outputs: • Effective and timely support is provided to the formulation of a clear and coherent protection and solutions-oriented strategy, which incorporates a thorough age, gender and diversity analysis and reflects the Organization’s global, regional and country level priorities. • AGD sensitive analysis of community risks and capacities provides the essential basis for all of UNHCR’s work. • The participation of persons of concern is assured through continuous assessment and evaluation using participatory, rights and community-based approaches, which inform protection and assistance programming and ensure that UNHCR meets its commitments to accountability to persons of concern. • National protection capacities are improved through direct engagement, research and advocacy with all relevant external interlocutors. • Protection incidents and needs are immediately identified and addressed through direct intervention, advocacy and public exposure. • The development of capacity through coaching, mentoring and formal on-the-job training, when working with (including supervising) national staff or (non-) governmental counterparts, including Implementing Partners (IPs); • Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed