Gender and Protection Coordinator, Myanmar at Lutheran World Federation

Gender and Protection Coordinator, Myanmar

Position type and closing date

Location: Sittwe, Rakhine State

Single posting

Closing date for applications: 17 December 2021

Contract duration: 1 year, with a possible extension

Lutheran World Federation (LWF) World Service

LWF World Service is the humanitarian and development arm of the Lutheran World Federation. We are a widely recognized, international, faith-based organization working in over 20 countries. We seek to bring people of all backgrounds together in the common quest for justice, peace, and reconciliation in an increasingly complex and fragmented world.

A commitment to the human rights of every individual, regardless of their status, guides our work, actions, and operations. We are particularly known for our timely, compassionate, and professional humanitarian work, and for our field presence in hard-to-reach areas. Our work is people-centered and community- based. Above all, we work with the most vulnerable, and in order to claim and uphold their rights, we engage proactively with local government and community structures.

For additional information, please see www.lutheranworld.org/WorldService.

Purpose of the position

The position is based in Sittwe, Rakhine state. Under the direct supervision of the Area Coordinator and in close collaboration and coordination with the Programme Coordinator, Country Representative, Yangon-based Advocacy and Gender Coordinator, and other staff, the Gender and Protection Coordinator will manage assigned projects and components thereof, including work planning, budgeting, leadership / mentoring, monitoring and reporting. The work largely involves overseeing gender and protection programming in Rakhine State, but also includes country programme-level leadership and project implementation as called upon and as workload allows.

The incumbent is also responsible for supervising and building the capacity of the National Protection Coordinator, GBV Officer, Empowerment Officer, Protection Officers, Case workers, and Incentive Workers supporting IDPs and host communities to achieve and sustain protection outcomes for all women, girls, and children in accordance with national laws, UNHCR and LWF policies, approaches and guidelines, and the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in emergencies (CPMS).

The incumbent is responsible for the overall delivery of outcomes related to the women empowerment, protection of people-at-risk (women, girls, children, and PSNs) including prevention and response to all forms of abuse and exploitation, case management, coordination, strengthening community-based child protection mechanisms, referrals, and advocacy for the LWF Rakhine program.

Required Qualifications

Master’s Degree in Social Work, Human Rights Law, International Relations, Political Science, Development Studies, or related area. A Bachelor’s degree with extensive relevant experience may be considered.

Knowledge, skills and experience

Minimum 4 years of experience in similar positions with international NGOs or the UN.

Understanding and experience within the cultural and social context of Myanmar and/or elsewhere in the region.

Experience with IDPs and host community protection programming in insecure environments.

Demonstrated clear understanding and experience in using established inter-agency standards and guidelines in gender and age responsive protection programming such as the Core Humanitarian Standard and the Code of Conduct.

Ability to assess, design, and deliver trainings on women and girls rights, child protection, and safeguarding tailored at building the capacity of national and IDP staff as well as duty-bearers and key stakeholders.

Experience of setting up and managing safe and effective complaints and feedback mechanisms and case referral systems that meet confidentiality standards.

Excellent communication skills.

Ability to formulate and implement a robust M&E system and write clear and evidence-based assessments and reports.

Team player, flexible, sensitive to colleagues, and with a strong capacity for coping with stressful situations without jeopardizing results.

Passionate about serving the poor and marginalized people.

Commitment to LWF Values.

Language Skills

English – advanced written, speaking, and listening skills

Burmese/Rakhine/Rohingya – would be an additional asset

LWF Core Skills

Analytical thinking – Level advanced*

Initiative – Level advanced

Leadership – Level advanced

Achieving results – Level resource

Accountability – Level resources

Working effectively with others – Level advanced

LWF Functional Skills

Adaptability – Level advanced

Advocacy – Level advanced

Capacity building / Training – Level resource

People Management – Level advanced

PMER – Level advanced

Project management – Level advanced

Stakeholder management – Level advanced

*LWF 3 skills levels are: basis – advanced – resource

Main duties

Project management

Lead planning, implementation, and monitoring of gender mainstreaming and protection project activities in line with budgets and workplans agreed with funding partners.

Lead timely programme and budget reviews and provide practical solutions to address the protection program needs in collaboration with project teams.

Responsible for preparation and submission of high-quality weekly, monthly, and quarterly progress reports (narrative) with special focus on protection for internal and external use.

Provide strategic direction, leadership, and overall technical and management assistance to integrated gender and age responsive protection programming, advising other sector programme design ensuring that all of LWF work contributes to protection outcomes for at risk people as per funding partner and LWF strategic focus.

Proposal preparation and planning

Carry-out gender analysis and protection risk assessment in the project sites.

Prepare and revise proposals as required (UNHCR, UNFPA, UNICEF, USAID, ECHO, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) / Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR), LWF [ACT] Related Agencies, Australian Lutheran World Service, and others).

Review Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), Protection and GBV Sectors/Clusters position papers and prepare the team to be in line with the position papers and programme.

Ensure people with special needs are documented as per the established standards and support them through alternative care arrangements in a safe and conducive family environment, in addition to ensuring that guidelines and approaches for identification at risk people are followed.

Prepare plans to strengthen social support mechanisms for people with specific needs (PSN), Community Based Protection in consultation with Community Groups, Camp Management Committees (CMCs), Sub-committees, IDPs, Township/Village Administrator/ Government Authorities, UNHCR, CLWR, implementing agencies, and staff.

Share data in agreed data sharing protocol.

Technical oversight of the implementation

Ensure that the Protection Incident Monitoring System (PIMS) is implemented in consistent and quality manner, in close collaboration with UNHCR, UNFPA, and other partners.

Ensure timely and high-quality data on women, girls and children at risk are collected, analysed, shared with partners and utilized for decision making, inclusion and advocacy within the programme from the existing Protection Incident Monitoring System (PIMS) database.

Ensure prevention and response to the main risks for women, girls and children’s exposure to physical harm, sexual harm/exploitation, and child labour for the UASC and other children within the IDP community.

Take lead to ensure functional PIMS and case management system in place, implemented followed until case closure.

Ensure the psychosocial (physical, social, emotional) wellbeing of women, girls and children and their families is well maintained.

Design and implement protection/psychosocial referral pathway and MHPSP in operational camps as per the mandate in collaboration with Protection/Psychosocial officers and coordination with UNHCR, UNFPA and other related agencies.

Assist in designing and implementing of specific support programmes for People with Specific Needs (PSN) including Person with Disability (PwDs).

Work with community structures, women, girls and children and related partners to strengthen safeguards to prevent sexual and gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and abuse and harmful traditional practices against women, girls, and children in the internally displaced people (IDP) camps.

Facilitate participatory engagement in the identification and establishment of micro-projects, including relevant skills training and systems strengthening for sustainability.

Ensure child friendly spaces are well managed or established to address psychosocial support needs for children and young people.

Strengthen and operationalize the functionality of community-based protection committees, networks, and groups.

Ensure that IDPs communities are aware of the rights and protection of women, girls, PSNs, and children within the IDP population

Capacity building and training

Conduct training need assessment for staff, volunteers, and community.

Consult and develop capacity development training packages and IEC materials for staff, and camp community.

Ensure that all the trainings respond to the needs of the concerned people and the appropriate standards such as SPHERE, Global Protection Cluster (GPC), Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), Do No Harm (DNH), Communication with Communities (CwC), etc., are adequately incorporated.

Ensure that training packages and activity guidelines for Protection, Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), women empowerment, psychosocial support and gender mainstreaming are adjusted to the context and made available to use.

Establish and facilitate an in-house technical working group on gender and protection, with Yangon counterpart, to impart a culture of sharing and learning among LWF technical staff. Assist project holders to improve protection component of their workplans and budgets.

Provide staff with challenging assignments within their capacity and give them space to learn by doing.

Deliver key trainings on women, girls and children rights, GBV, SRHR, protection, psychosocial support, and case management with key actors.

Coordination and networking

Map actors, set-up and strengthen referral services for women, girls, people with specific needs (PSNs) and children in collaboration with UNHCR and other partners.

Collect and consolidated protection challenges and best practices to share in relevant forums.

Contribute to draft contextual protection strategies in coordination with other actors

Work very closely with Protection Working Groups and focal points.

Provide information and advice to other sectors on ways to mainstreaming protection in programmes.

Actively contribute to Protection and GBV Cluster, Communication with Communities (CwC) Working Group and Child Protection (CP) sub-cluster while professionally representing LWF.

Monitoring and evaluation

Support setup of project M&E plan and tracking systems, including timely and quality reports on protection areas within the programme framework.

In collaboration with M&E units, conduct satisfaction/feedback sessions with beneficiaries and community members on issues of gender and protection mainstreaming on a quarterly basis and ensure lessons learnt incorporated into programming.

Ensure that monitoring is based on agreed format in Project Partnership Agreement (PPA)/programme document as well as result-based monitoring framework.

Conduct regular reflection learning workshop with team and prepare report of the lesson learned.

Plan, budget for, and oversee the collection of photos, success stories, and publicity materials to demonstrate accountability to partners, give communities a voice, and to support resource mobilization, advocacy, and for use in staff capacity-building efforts; ensure rights are upheld, including the effective use of informed consent.

Major Challenges

Ensuring the program remains viable and is well-funded in an increasingly competitive and insecure environment by ensuring LWF is well positioned to acquire and effectively execute new grants.

Balancing between the resource mobilization key focus for the DCR position on the one hand, and the responsibility of supporting and deputizing the Country Representative and supporting all units to effectively, on the other hand. The incumbent will need to be flexible and experienced in carefully assessing when to focus on either of the responsibilities, in close communication with the supervisor.

Applicants are required to uphold the core values of our organization.