Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty.
In March 2022, Oxfam launched its response to the influx of refugees and other people forced to flee from Ukraine in Romania, Moldova and Poland. A Programme Management Unit (PMU) was established to provide leadership, oversee, support and provide technical assistance to the response in the affected countries. The PMU is led by the Organizational Lead and includes dedicated advocacy and influencing capacity; business support functions, and a programme quality team with technical support on gender in emergencies, protection, cash and voucher programming, monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL), and safeguarding. Oxfam is supporting a partner-led humanitarian response for the assistance and protection of refugees and other vulnerable people from Ukraine and the communities, organisations and authorities that are hosting and supporting them in neighbouring countries.
The Role:
TEAM PURPOSE: To effectively lead, manage and drive the Oxfam partner-led response in Northern and Eastern Ukraine with other stakeholders across Oxfam.
Oxfam humanitarian response in Ukraine is in line with its feminist approach and goal of transformative partnerships. All team members will be expected to foster an appropriate working culture built on Oxfam’s values, respectful and cognizant of power imbalances internally and between Oxfam, our partners and the communities we serve and in line with Oxfam’s partnership principles.
All Oxfam staff are expected to promote and use a safe-programming approach in all humanitarian responses, to be accountable for ensuring community participation shapes programme decisions, and actively seek a partnership approach and worked following feminist principles including strong awareness of power dynamics.
JOB PURPOSE:
The Protection Coordinator role will lead on Oxfam’s protection work for Northern and Eastern Ukraine, in collaboration with the Protection Coordinator covering programmes in Southern Ukraine. Oxfam’s intervention in Ukraine is partner-led, and therefore the Protection Coordinator will mostly lead on protection work through local partners. The responsibilities of the Protection Coordinator will include working alongside Oxfam partners implementing protection programs and activities, leading on the protection analysis, providing technical support to the partners, co-developing projects, undertaking capacity-building and coaching, and creating synergies between partners and with other Oxfam sectors. The role includes continuous coordination with other coordinators working with partners in Ukraine (Cash&FAS Coordinator, PHP Coordinator, Partnership and MEAL Coordinators, Gener coordinator). Beyond Oxfam Ukraine team, the Coordinator will also work closely with the Programme Management Unit Protection Advisor, and be part of a broader protection team in the Ukraine response (Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Moldova). The Protection Coordinator should also be an active member of relevant coordination mechanisms, such as the Protection Cluster, the GBV sub-cluster, among others.
Key counterparts :
- Protection Coordinator (Southern Ukraine)
- Partners implementing Protection programs
- Advocacy & Policy Advisor
- Gender Coordinator
- Cash & Livelihood, WASH Coordinators
- MEAL and Partnership Coordinators
- Programme Management Unit Protection Advisor
Please see the attached job description for the full responsibilities that the Protection Coordinator will undertake and the required skills and competencies.
Location: Ukraine, Kyiv and Kharkiv
Job Type: Fixed Term, 07 Months
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Project Management
Support the Area Manager in
- Developing the protection element of the response strategy and design appropriate interventions and approaches to protection in conjunction with partner organizations
- Participating in field assessments in order to include protection issues, and/or carrying out specific protection assessments;
- Supporting the integration of specific protection activities into a humanitarian response (e.g. into advocacy, policy papers, coordination, information dissemination) including establishing internal referral processes
- Supporting proposal writing and Donor reports parts on the protection objectives progress in meeting targets/indicators by partners
- Ensure that protection programmes are safe, are sensitive to gender and other power dynamics and ensure that they are informed by the community to benefit from the work
- Participating in the national Protection Cluster and other relevant coordination fora
- Building the capacity of Oxfam staff (and potentially authorities) on community-based protection, gender-based violence risk mitigation and other protection-related issues e.g. through mentoring, coaching, training.
Support partner organizations implementing protection programs and/or protection activities:
- Carrying out technical capacity assessments on protection and assist partners in identifying capacity-building and technical support requirements and how they can be fulfilled
- Building the capacity of partner staff on community-based protection, protection analysis, safe and ethical referral, gender-based violence risk mitigation and other protection-related issues, as week as safe programming e.g. through mentoring, coaching, training
- (where required) Supporting the management of their protection projects/programmes, including developing programme plans and budgets, recruiting and managing staff, managing funding and donor requirements, monitoring and adapting programmes and reporting and overseeing progress in meeting protection components targets and indicators,
- Scenario planning and preparedness including innovation means to build surge capacity
- Delivering high quality protection responses in line with global standards including ICRC Professional Standards for Protection
- Provide guidance to partners on technical elements of protection programming and programme policy relating to protection issues incl. cash and vouchers in protection programming, community-based protection, protection advocacy
Analysis and Problem Solving
- Lead on the development of a Protection Analysis based on partners own analysis, and jointly with the Protection Coordinator for Southern Ukraine
- Promote collaborative working relationships with key internal stakeholders
- Support the protection response by carrying out or contributing to learning processes, studies or research as required including supporting programme policy development ensuring that partner organisations are fully involved in leadership of such work
- Ensure all protection work includes a strong gender analysis and works to promote women’s rights and gender equity as appropriate
- To track humanitarian information, learning and knowledge developed in responses, research and global fora and ensure these are actively shared within Oxfam teams and with partners
- Working with the Ukraine Policy Lead to provide protection information for international advocacy and campaigning and in joint information gathering processes (e.g. surveys)
Impact
- Facilitate and support access of partners to global humanitarian bodies, processes and debates, including global partnerships, in coordination meetings and working groups (Protection Cluster or Working Group, Refugee Co-ordination Group), and to donors, UN agencies, government officials, ICRC, national civil society and NGOs;
- Provide, or facilitate access to, technical support to partners on generic humanitarian standards, requirements, approaches and tools such as safeguarding, safe programming, data rights and ethical use of digital tools, working safely and ethically with volunteers etc. as required
- Facilitate access of protection partners to Oxfam’s protection peer groups of Oxfam and partner protection staff and their active participation in the network
- Documenting and sharing good practices and innovations on protection work.
- Foster an appropriate working culture built on Oxfam’s values. (for all) respectful and cognizant of power imbalances internally and between Oxfam, our partners and the communities we serve.
Other
- Eager and required to adhere to Oxfam’s principles and values as well as the promotion of gender justice and women’s rights.
- Understanding of and commitment to adhere to equity, diversity, gender, child safety and staff health and wellbeing principles.
- Motivation for and a ‘hands-on approach’ to setting up programmes with the ability to take the initiative and to address challenges as they arise.