Inter-Agency PSEA Coordinator At UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Terms of Reference:
Inter-Agency PSEA Coordinator, in Asia and the Pacific region

UNHCR Regional Bureau of Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok is offering an opportunity for Individual Consultancy (remote working modality) to serve as an Inter-Agency Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Coordinator in Asia and the Pacific region. While the position reports to the Regional Directors of UNDCO and UNOCHA, UNHCR and OCHA will provide the secondary supervision. The consultant will work closely with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Regional Working Group on Accountability to Affected People and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (RWG AAP and PSEA)
Title: Inter-Agency PSEA Coordinator
Duty Station: Remote
Duration: 9 months (tentatively from April to December 2022)
Contract Type: Consultancy
Closing date: 30 March 2022
Start date: As soon as possible

Context

Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) is critical for the UN and its partners in all contexts in which we work – both development and emergency contexts. Effective prevention and response require not only action by individual agencies, but also a coordinated and collaborative approach.

Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a rapid scale-up of support to reach beneficiaries directly and indirectly impacted by its spread, the containment measures to contain it and the ensuing socio-economic impact. As seen in previous emergencies, when the humanitarian response scales up, the risk of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) increases. Women and children in particular face heightened protection risks. The surge in new responders (including non-traditional humanitarian responders) combined with high demand and an unequal supply of food and health supplies increases risks (IASC Interim Technical Note, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) during COVID-19 Response, March 2020). These heightened risks are compounded by containment measures which have limited people’s access to information on PSEA, reporting channels, child protection and GBV services and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services.

The spread of COVID-19 to countries not traditionally impacted by humanitarian emergencies has also highlighted the need to accelerate strengthening and roll out of PSEA mechanisms to development contexts, as well as humanitarian contexts in the Asia-Pacific Region.

In order to promote inter-agency coordination and collaboration on PSEA and to provide technical support and capacity building to country level UNCTs, HCTs and PSEA networks/working groups during the COVID-19 response, an Inter-Agency Regional PSEA Task Team was formed in April 2020. The Task Team has been integrated in the IASC Regional Network of Asia Pacific since Dec 2020, under the Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) Working Group to ensure system-wide accountability in both humanitarian and development contexts.

To scale up and continue provision of timely and quality support to Country PSEA networks, UNCTs and HCTs in a sustainable manner, the position of Inter-Agency PSEA Coordinator was created with funding support from interested agencies.

Duties and responsibilities

The Inter-Agency PSEA Coordinator has a regional coverage and will undertake the following:

• Provide tailored support to inter-agency PSEA networks at country level on development of PSEA action plans (UNCT, HCT, other inter-agency coordination mechanisms) and their monitoring frameworks.

• Adapt and contextualize existing PSEA training modules for Asia Pacific context for the following key target population: UN, NGOs (national and international), implementing partners, CBOs and, as appropriate, community members.

• Lead and manage response to country level requests, in coordination with IASC and the office of the UN Special Coordinator on Improving the UN Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

• Convene regular meetings of the Inter-Agency Regional PSEA Task Team and represent and report on behalf of the Inter-Agency Regional PSEA Task Team.

• Conduct technical webinars, trainings and clinics to inter-agency PSEA networks at country level on specific topics as per expressed needs. Potential topics include: community based complaint mechanisms/SEA reporting channels, implementing partner assessments, victim/survivor assistance, engagement with national authorities, etc.

• Facilitate knowledge sharing and harvesting including documenting and sharing good practices and lessons learned on inter-agency collaboration on PSEA as well as prevention, risk mitigation and response mechanisms.

• Collect updated GBV referral pathways from each of the Country PSEA networks to ensure support to victim/survivor assistance and liaise with the Victim Rights Advocate.

• Liaise with global IASC PSEA Field Support Task Team and the office of the UN Special Coordinator on Improving the UN Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse to ensure harmonization of technical resources and tools developed and provision of support to Country PSEA networks.

• Maintain an updated mapping of PSEA coordinators in the region.

• Establish a roster of PSEA experts to deploy as required in collaboration with global IASC PSEA Field Support Task Team and the office of the UN Special Coordinator on Improving the UN Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

• Ensure the harmonization of approaches with Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), Gender Theme Group, Gender Based Violence Services, Protection Group in countries.

Essential qualifications and professional experience required

Academic qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Law, International Relations, Development Studies, Social Work or a related field from an accredited academic institution with eight years of relevant professional experience; or

• University degree in the above fields with ten years of relevant professional experience.

Professional experiences and skills:

• Excellent knowledge of PSEA policies and procedures;

• Experience working on PSEA, preferably in both humanitarian and development contexts;

• Relevant professional experience in the field of sexual exploitation and abuse, child protection, gender-based violence, and/or gender mainstreaming;

• Experience of leading coordination mechanisms;

• Experience in developing and facilitating training and capacity building activities;

• Experience of community based complaint mechanisms/ SEA reporting channels, implementing partner assessments, victim/survivor assistance, and/or engagement with national authorities on PSEA is an asset;

• Experience working in the IASC or in other inter-agency bodies or processes is desirable;

• Experience working in the Asia-Pacific region is an advantage.

Language: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of one or more languages spoken in the Asia-Pacific region is an asset.

Location: Remote

Conditions

This is a full-time position with remote working modality. There might be occasions when adjusting working time is required to adopt different time zones in the region.