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Protection Coordinator

Yaoundé | Buea | Maroua | Kumba | Kousseri

  • Organization: IRC - International Rescue Committee
  • Location: Yaoundé | Buea | Maroua | Kumba | Kousseri
  • Grade: Mid level - Mid level
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Protection Officer (Refugee)
    • Managerial positions
  • Closing Date: 2024-12-14

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.
Background:
International Rescue Committee (IRC) is an apolitical, non-profit, and non-religious humanitarian or-ganization that provides assistance to refugees around the world. IRC implements programs to pro-mote durable solutions for displaced persons, refugees and host communities through public health, sanitation, shelter, rehabilitation, and education projects. IRC has been serving refugees since 1933 and is present in 40 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well as through a resettlement support program in the United States. IRC is an organization committed to freedom, human dignity, and self-reliance. This commitment translates into well-planned resettlement assistance, emergency global relief, rehabilitation, and advocacy for refugees.
The IRC started operations in Cameroon in 2016 to respond to the increasing concerns for people affected by violence linked to Boko Haram, in the Far North of the country. Assistance to displaced populations extends across the Far North, notably Mayo Sava, Mayo Tsanaga and Logone & Chari through two field offices in Kousseri and Maroua. This includes delivering lifesaving pro-gramming to increase access to water and improving hygiene practices in vulnerable displaced and host communities, cash programming to enable economically disadvantaged families to meet basic needs and improve food security. This includes both education and child protection services to address children’s learning and safety needs and priorities. IRC also delivers protection programming to address gender-based violence for women and girls and support to victim of human right violation.
Following the increasing crisis in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon, the IRC ex-panded its operations into the South-West region in August 2018 and into the North-West in 2019. The IRC is delivering lifesaving humanitarian assistance to internally displaced populations, with field bases in Buea, Kumba and Manyu.
IRC Cameroon country program is now implementing its ‘Strategy 100’ strategic plan, through which we aim to provide the best possible impact for some of the most vulnerable boys, girls, women, and men affected by the humanitarian crises. In all that we do, we strive to deliver through IRC’s core val-ues of Integrity, Accountability, Service and Equality.
Job Overview/Summary:
Under the supervision of the Deputy Director of Programmes in Cameroon, the Integrated Protection Technical Coordinator⸱ will be responsible for the vision, strategy, design, monitoring and quality of protection programmes in line with best practice and internationally recognised donor requirements. He/She will make frequent visits to field sites.
The role of Protection Coordinator will include technical capacity building and supervision of staff and partners engaged in the implementation of protection activities. The Coordinator will lead the design, development and context analysis of new protection-focused projects. In line with IRC Cameroon's emphasis on integrated programming, the Protection Coordinator will work closely with other in-country technical coordinators such as the Senior Managers Education and Health, as well as the Economic Recovery and Development, Health and Nutrition, Water Hygiene and Sanitation, Grants Coordinator and the Monitoring and Evaluation Department.
The Coordinator will be supported by IRC technical advisors (TAs) at regional level to ensure effective and high quality delivery of all child protection education (CP), state of rights ( PRoL) and women's protection and empowerment (WPE) activities.
Main responsibilities
Strategic Planning
  •  Provide strategic direction, leadership and overall technical support to the Protection and Rule of Law, WPE and CP programme that is needs-based, context sensitive, responsive, coherent, integrated and operationally achievable. Contribute to the achievement of the outcomes of the IRC Strategic Protection Action Plan;
  • Develop, in line with the IRC’s Strategic Action Plan, concept notes for donors with a view to proactively increasing the Protection Programme portfolio.
  • Conduct regular protection context analyses and data analysis to inform programme development and advocacy work.
  • Encourage partnership between the three protection components, cross-cutting protection, women's protection and empowerment, and child protection, in order to improve the quality of programming and a holistic approach to meeting the protection needs of target populations.
  • Promote and assist IRC's other programming sectors by integrating cross-cutting protection;
  • Identify, monitor and report on unmet needs and explore IRC's potential to respond to these needs within the parameters of the Strategic Action Plan and IRC's sectoral priorities;
  • Ensure alignment and coherence with IRC's relevant national, regional and global strategies.collaboration with team members and clients.
Programm and Quality
  • Ensure that projects and activities are of high technical quality, meet humanitarian standards, provide broad protection, are aligned with the IRC Results and Evidence Framework, and meet community accountability requirements.
  • Proactively identify, assess, monitor, and implement measures to reduce or control risks that may impact program delivery, quality, or compliance.
  • Proactively assess the quality of programming and identify, propose, and implement measures to improve program quality, including capacity building, training, development of tools and resources
  • Contribute to the implementation, integration, and compliance with donor requirements in collaboration with core coordinators, as well as finance, human resources, and supply chain departments
  • Support context assessments to generate a strong evidence base for IRC protection programming, and support IRC advocacy.
  • Liaise with PROL, CP and WPE technical advisors to ensure that relevant support, tools and resources are provided and integrated into programming.
  • Provide active technical support to the Protection teams (CP, PROL, WPE).
  • Liaise with the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer to support the monitoring and evaluation activities of Protection programmes, map lessons learned and identify opportunities for evaluation and quality improvement.
  • Conduct regular monitoring visits to the field to assess progress and identify technical quality issues and/or other implementation challenges, provide solutions and implement necessary changes.
Team Management and Development
  • Contribute to the recruitment of qualified staff for the program as needed and support teams to achieve program objectives and maximize skill transfer and leadership.
  • Train and mentor staff to build technical capacity, share knowledge within the team, and provide professional development guidance.
  • Supervise and coach staff, including communicating clear expectations and in partnership with the direct supervisor, setting performance goals, providing regular and timely feedback, and contributing to annual and mid-term performance reviews.
  • Support management actions for successful staff adherence to IRC’s global HR operating policies and procedures.
  • Adhere to and act in accordance with IRC’s Global HR Policies and Procedures, and communicate by word and example a high level of compliance with all applicable policies and regulations. Project Implementation and Reporting
  • Conduct regular monitoring visits to the field to assess progress and identify technical quality issues and/or other implementation problems, provide solutions and implement necessary corrective actions.
  • Ensure proper and appropriate implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems
  • Ensure that all internal and external reporting is adhered to, that reports are of high quality and are submitted on time.
  • Ensure regular updating of the quality of information management systems (GBVIMS, 5W etc.).
Partnership
  • Lead IRC efforts to develop a network of local civil society and government partners in the protection field. Position IRC as a partner of choice.
  • Identify, engage and build long-term strategic partnerships with local actors, fostering collaboration on strategy, program design and development, and capacity sharing.
  • Contribute to the review of partner, IRC (based on partner feedback) and partnership performance, particularly for successes, challenges and learnings, fostering continued partnerships beyond the sub-award project cycle. Representation, Coordinnation and Advocacy
  • Actively engage in protection-related coordination mechanisms (clusters, working groups, etc.) and maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders and protection coordination structures in Cameroon, including NGOs, UN, technical and government actors. 
  • Identify and nurture advocacy opportunities with the Deputy Director for Programs and based on information from the field.
  • Support the DDP in donor identification and fundraising, relationship building and trust by providing technical insight and knowledge of the country program.
  • At the request of the management team, support the organization and facilitation of field visits for partners, donors and others interested in IRC protection programs in Cameroon.
Key Working Relationships
  • Superviser: Deputy Director for Programs
Direct Supervision:
  • Technical Supervisees: Protection Specialists & Project Managers
Indirect Supervision:
  • Protection Programs Team
Other Internal and/or External Contacts:
  • Internal: Other Program Area Coordinators, PRoL Technical Advisor, Child Protection Technical Advisor, WPE Technical Advisor, Field Coordinator, Supply Chain Coordinator, Finance Controller, Deputy Director of Operations, Human Resources Coordinator, Grants Manager, and Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator.
  • External: Protection Working Groups, INGOs, UN Agencies
Minimum Qualifications:
Job Requirements
  • Advanced degree in humanitarian assistance, humanitarian work, human rights, international law, social sciences, or a related field.
  • Five years of experience in implementing protection programmes (CP, GBV, PROL) in an emergency or complex situation and a proven understanding of the relevance of international humanitarian law and human rights law to humanitarian action
  • Professional practical experience in implementing programmes in the field of protection monitoring, community-based protection and/or access to justice, GBV and Child Protection in conflict-affected areas; applied case management experience an asset
  • Ability to manage and lead others to integrate protection across units
  • Strong leadership, management, organizational and team and people development skills
  • Strong program and budget management skills, including planning and reporting on multiple grants
  • Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representing and collaborating with external parties
  • Easy to integrate and work as a team, comfortable in a multicultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure effectively and productively
  • Fluency in spoken and written French and English
___________________________________________________________________________
The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

Female candidates are strongly encouraged 

Application Deadline: 14 December 2024


Standard of Professional Conduct:The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.

Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.
We do our best to provide you the most accurate info, but closing dates may be wrong on our site. Please check on the recruiting organization's page for the exact info. Candidates are responsible for complying with deadlines and are encouraged to submit applications well ahead.
Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify.
Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.