Senior WPE Manager

Background/IRC Summary:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a private, non-political, non-profit, and non-religious organization. For over 90 years, we have been providing humanitarian assistance to communities affected by conflict and natural disasters in more than 40 countries. Since 2008, the IRC has been active in Myanmar, delivering humanitarian assistance in areas such as health, protection, water, and sanitation, specifically targeting families impacted by conflict and natural disasters.

Job Overview/Summary:

The IRC’s Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) program currently operates in various locations across Rakhine State, first established in Sittwe in 2014. The IRC implements its WPE core programming activities to address gender-based violence (GBV) through case management and psychosocial support services, and to address the root causes of GBV through prevention-focused activities that draw together activists and communities to push for change. The IRC strives to promote and support women’s and girls’ social and economic empowerment, as well as integrate WPE and GBV prevention and response with other sectors, e.g. health, for multi-sector, holistic interventions that are responsive to target communities’ needs. The IRC partners with local NGOs/CSOs and women’s groups to provide women protection and empowerment services in IDP and host communities in Rakhine state.

The Senior WPE Manager will oversee all IRC WPE programming in Rakhine State, ensuring quality technical programming, overseeing all program management, leading the design of new programming and providing strategic leadership on behalf of women and girls through active participation in humanitarian coordination and advocacy. Program oversight includes teams across five townships operating in both camp and villages in Rakhine state, and requires travel to program sites for supervision, monitoring and support. She/he will provide technical oversight for all prevention and response activities to ensure quality, confidential and tailored service delivery directly as well as through partners. This includes the start-up of new programming through direct and mobile service delivery as well as GBV prevention interventions, as well as other targeted women and girls social, economic, and sexual and reproductive health empowerment activities.

She/he will provide overall program management including of budgets, operational and spending planning and tracking, monitoring and evaluation and reporting. The Senior WPE Manager oversees quarterly and annual narrative and financial reports to the donor including ensuring program M&E is carried out and well-coordinated. The position requires a personal commitment to advancing women’s issues and working on behalf of women and girls in the community. 

The Senior WPE Manager will report the WPE Deputy Coordinator for all technical, operational and coordination activities. The Senior WPE Manager will work closely with IRC Health, Protection, WASH, and other program teams as required, as well as local partners, I/NGOs and UN agencies to improve service delivery and support complementary and where appropriate, integrated programming.

This position supervises directly three WPE Managers and a WPE M&E Manager in Rakhine. Through these staff, the Senior Manager supervises the rest of the Rakhine WPE team including Senior Program Officer, Program Officer, Senior Officer (Partnership and Capacity Strengthening Officer), Senior Case Workers, Case Workers, Senior Outreach Workers, Senior Adolescent Girl Workers, WPE Community Facilitators as well as community volunteers. 

Key objectives include:

• To oversee training and capacity building of WPE staff in GBV concepts and skills.
• To plan and oversee basic case management and psychosocial activities for survivors of GBV.
• To support the continued development of a referral process for GBV survivors, including identification of gaps in service provision.
• To oversee outreach activities designed to provide communities with information on where women and girls can access GBV services.
• To oversee technical capacity building of sub-grant partners and ensure ethical service delivery through direct service provision and remote case management programs.
• To contribute to the country specific GBV strategy and contribute to positioning IRC as a leader in Myanmar.

Major Responsibilities:

Technical Quality

• Support adherence to the GBV guiding principles and other international standards to ensure quality of design and implementation of all WPE activities.
• Ensure response work, including case management and psychosocial interventions, adheres to best-practice principles when working with survivors of GBV.
• Assess and analyze GBV risks in Rakhine states to develop a holistic program based on understanding of women and girl’s needs.
• Ensure that ethical and sound data collection and information management systems are in place for analysis, planning, evaluation, and advocacy.
• Work with the program staff to ensure that field experiences are documented, used for learning, and to advocate on behalf of the communities with which we work.
• Train IRC and partner staff on various GBV concepts.
• Train and provide continued capacity building to local women’s organizations and community-based staff.
• Oversee remote case management GBV hotline service.
• Design increased case management provision and community outreach with local women’s groups and sub-grant partners.

Staff Supervision & Development

• Recruit and support the hiring of staff, in coordination with human resources and others.
• Mentor and support staff professional development to foster a positive team spirit, encourage innovation, and quality programming.
• Identify training needs for GBV staff, and initiate capacity development plans to meet those needs, in collaboration with the Training Manager.
• Provide guidance and technical support to teams through regular field monitoring visits.
• Oversee WPE staff and program integration into health programs.

Grants Management

• Prepare and maintain/update detailed work plan(s) that support and work towards achieving program outcomes.
• Provide accurate and regular narrative and financial reports, as well as document results and maintain detailed records of program activities for timely submission, as required by IRC policies.
• Conduct and draft needs assessment reports and other internal reports as required by Senior Management or as appropriate under the circumstances.
• Draft program briefing materials and respond to requests for program information from IRC Regional Management, IRC HQ, donors, Myanmar Government and others.
• Contribute to develop of concept notes, proposals and strategic plans related to the WPE sector in Myanmar.

Coordination & Representation

• Liaise and coordinate with other UN and NGO partners, partner organizations and beneficiaries in planning and emergency response.
• Liaise regularly and work closely with program, operations and finance staff both in the field and in Yangon to coordinate program planning.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with relevant stakeholders including community leaders and other implementing partners.
• Regularly attend GBV sub-cluster meetings in the field and advocate on behalf of women and girls.
• Regularly attend relevant cluster and coordination meetings in the field and advocate on behalf of IRC’s areas of program.

Other

• Ensure all activities are carried out in accordance with IRC Operational policies.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.