Gender-based Violence (GBV) Specialist - Buea

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded on 16 November 1945. UNESCO’s office in Yaounde was established in 1991 as a cluster office but with a regional status in the sector of Communication and Communication covering countries of West and Central Africa. In January 2014, the Office was transformed into a Multisectoral Regional Office covering 10 countries: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tomé e Principe. The Yaounde Office has the mandate to implement programmatic activities and projects within UNESCO’s areas of competence: Education, Culture, Science, Communication, Information, Social, and Human Sciences. The UNESCO Regional Office in Yaounde is actively represented in the United Nations’ Country Team (UNCT) in Cameroun and in other countries of the region that it covers, cooperating actively as well with Peace Keeping missions in the region. UNESCO also participates all UNCT working groups; Governance, Communication, Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDPN), etc., and is a member of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT).
The Yaounde office implements programmes and activities in all thematic areas (youth and civic engagement, gender equality, marginalized communities, media pluralism, cultural diversity, artificial intelligence, employment) and pursuant of the 2014 2021 Medium Term Strategy, which contributes to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, and sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, sciences, culture, communication and information.

Socio-political issues in and about the Anglophone region of Cameroon had been a matter of contention since independence in 1960 and 1961. Violence erupted in 2016 in the North-West (NW) and South-West (SW) regions, which forms the English-speaking regions, prompting security clampdowns. The crisis shifted into armed conflict with the proliferation of non-state armed groups (NSAG) and deployment of military forces to the regions. This situation has led to multiple civilian casualties and continues to have serious consequences on livelihoods and living conditions of the affected populations, in particular women and young girls. In late 2017, and in response to the violence and loss of life, humanitarian organizations were reporting that families were fleeing the two affected regions. Displacement was further compounded by limited access to education for children due to a ban and attacks on schools by the non-state armed groups.
While many areas of the NW/SW are stabilizing, others remain affected by instability creating a complex context mixing development, stabilization and humanitarian needs. In such a situation, the population continues to bear the brunt of old and new violent incidents, as either targeted directly, either living with the trauma and the consequence of having been a target in the past; or even being affected by the consequences in their society, families and communities, today or in the recent past.
In response to this complex situation, UNFPA has been working with government authorities, UN sister agencies and non-governmental organizations on the prevention and response to GBV as well as delivery of a comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (GBV) services to the affected population. UNFPA is delivering a response package that includes assisted delivery, obstetric care, family planning, GBV coordination, clinical management of rape, psychosocial support (PSS), case management, establishment of safe spaces for women and girls, and GBV prevention. Since 2024, UNFPA in collaboration with GIZ and under the EU/BMZ funding, has started implementing women eh! Program aiming to reinforce local capacities in GBV prevention and response.

Under the overall guidance of the UNFPA Country Representative, the Deputy Rep-resentative and the direct supervision of the GBV Coordinator, the UN Volunteer Gender-based Violence (GBV) Specialist will work closely with the GBV team in the implementation of this program activities and liaise with the sexual reproductive health (SRH) and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) team on cross-cutting issues. The GBV specialist will contribute to the Country Programme as a whole, with a specific focus on humanitarian activities and more precisely on ECHO funded intervention; and to effectively demonstrate UNFPA’s role in humanitarian response. The National UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
• Ensure that the minimum standards for Prevention and Response to Gender-based Violence are implemented in our direct programs, with our implementing and operational partners
• Provide guidance and support to implementing and operational partners on Hu-manitarian Guiding Principles, GBV Case Management, PSEA, Safe Referral and other key responses to GBV in the humanitarian setting
• Participate and represent UNFPA in humanitarian GBV related meeting and li-aise with partner organizations as appropriate
• Undertake analysis of trends, gaps and challenges in addressing major issues in GBV in emergency settings; provide regular feedback to the Humanitarian Team on changing humanitarian dynamics at the regional level
• Monitor, evaluate and report overall achievements of technical indicators in the UNFPA GBV program, including data in both the development and humanitarian settings
• Assist in advocacy by preparing relevant documentation, (i.e. project summaries, conference papers, donor profiles and participating in donor meetings and public information events) as assigned by the humanitarian coordinator
• Report monthly on progress on all GBV programmes in the regions to the Hu-manitarian Coordinator, which include updates on the situation and emergency human security issues
• Perform other relevant duties and assist with other GBV tasks as required from the country office, the regional office and other entities

. Results/Expected Output:

• Ensure quality and timely safe access to life-saving and integrated GBV ser-vices for GBV survivors in target crisis-affected areas of North West, South West and North West and South West Regions.
• Strengthen capacity of service providers and communities for GBV/SRH pre-vention, risk mitigation, including Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)
• Strengthen GBV coordination through information sharing, capacity build-ing, advocacy and synergy among the actors