INTERSOS is a non-governmental, non-profit humanitarian organization whose objective is to assist victims of natural disasters and armed conflicts. INTERSOS bases its work on the values ​​of solidarity, justice, human dignity, equal rights and opportunities for all people, respect for diversity, coexistence, and attention to the most vulnerable social groups.
Job Title : Protection Specialist (GBV)
Code : SR-38-10274
Pays : DRC
Duty station : Bunia with frequent missions to North Kivu
Date of appointment : 01/10/2026
Contract duration : 4 months
Under the supervision of: UNFPA Project Manager
Functional supervision: Protection coordinator
Dependents:
Place of assignment: without family
General context of the project
The humanitarian crisis persists and, in some areas, is worsening. An update from the Commission for Population Movements (CPM) dated January 13, 2026, shows that as of December 31, 2025, North Kivu had 1,829,070 internally displaced persons (IDPs). Of these, 113,872 IDPs are in 58 sites and collective centers under the CCCM mechanism, 68,882 IDPs are in spontaneous settlements and/or collective centers outside the CCCM mechanism, and 1,639,863 IDPs are being hosted by local families. These figures represent 6%, 4%, and 90% of the total IDP population, respectively, with the majority in host communities. These figures indicate an overall increase of 21.38% (or 391,233 people) compared to the statistics updated on November 30, 2025.
During the period under review, 2,305,647 repatriated persons were registered over the last 18 months (i.e., from July 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025). This represents a slight increase of 67,726 people (or 2.93%) compared to the 2,237,921 people recorded as of November 30, 2025.
Ituri is gripped by a severe humanitarian crisis stemming from multiple intercommunal and political conflicts, exacerbated by ADF attacks. As of November 2025, the province had 1,147,394 internally displaced persons (IDPs), with the highest concentrations in Djugu (58%), Irumu (20%), and Mahagi (15%). Since January 2026, the crisis has worsened in Djugu, Irumu, and Mambasa, with over 150,000 new displacements recorded. The massive influx of people into overcrowded IDP camps, such as Kigonze, has created dangerous living conditions where basic survival needs are not being met and protection risks are high.
The HNRP 2026 clearly underlines that forced population movements and other forms of humanitarian disturbances have serious repercussions for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and gender-based violence (GBV) services, by disrupting access to healthcare, increasing vulnerability to violence and exacerbating existing gender inequalities.
Consequences for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and gender-based violence (GBV) services and prevalence:
- Services are under severe strain due to the overburdening of existing healthcare facilities and significant gaps in care provision. The destruction and disruption of healthcare infrastructure, combined with the displacement of medical personnel, have led to a decline in the efficiency of existing healthcare systems.
- Collapse of support systems: the loss of community, family, legal and social protection structures leaves survivors isolated and more vulnerable.
- Increased risk of violence: Forced displacement exacerbates the prevalence of gender-based violence, including sexual assault, domestic violence and forced or early marriage, which can occur at any stage of displacement.
- Dangerous living conditions: Overcrowded spontaneous settlements lack basic security, such as adequate lighting and locks on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, creating environments conducive to violence.
- Obstacles to seeking help: Survivors face considerable challenges, including fear of stigmatization, lack of trust in authorities, language barriers and, sometimes, economic dependence on perpetrators of violence.
- Long-term consequences: Experiences of gender-based violence suffered during displacement lead to severe and lasting physical and psychological trauma (e.g., chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression), which further hinder recovery and integration into the community.
Consequences for vulnerable populations:
- Barriers to accessing essential sexual and reproductive health care, leading to poor health outcomes
- The use of user fees discourages survivors of gender-based violence from seeking post-rape care within the critical 72-hour window.
- Pregnant women and adolescent girls are delaying or foregoing hospital births, which increases the risks to their health.
- Recurring shortages of essential reproductive health supplies were documented throughout the 2024-2025 period.
General objective of the position
Supporting the protection coordinator in defining the strategy and framework for responding to gender-based violence and developing tools and resources for effective prevention and response to gender-based violence and strengthening the capacity of teams to effectively address the risks of gender-based violence and respond to survivors of gender-based violence.
In close collaboration with the protection coordinator, provide guidance and technical advice to protection staff, ensuring that specific program components relating to gender-based violence are implemented in accordance with internal guidelines and international standards and principles, in order to effectively achieve mission objectives, in line with INTERSOS’ vision and human resources values.
Main responsibilities and tasks
Leadership technique
- Develop the mission’s gender-based violence response framework, in line with the mission’s protection strategy and the global protection framework.
- Identify the main GBV risks and contributing factors in the communities, for both men and women, where we work using community mapping and other participatory tools.
- Identify community practices, strengths and structures that are conducive to preventing gender-based violence and ensure that our programs build on these strengths.
- Develop position papers on key areas of intervention in gender-based violence, outlining our response to specific risks.
- Design prevention and mitigation measures for the main protection risks identified for women/girls in the community
- Develop resources and tools to help men and boys address the risks of gender-based violence and contributing factors.
- Ensure that our response takes into account men and boys who are survivors of gender-based violence and is appropriately designed to address them.
- Ensure that the gender-based violence case management team is well-trained in conducting home visits (where permitted) to survivors’ homes.
- Work with the PC specialist / protection coordinator in designing programs for adolescents / young people to ensure they are aware of gender-based violence.
- Develop key messages for raising awareness about gender-based violence based on the problems identified in the community and ensure that teams are aware of this issue and able to effectively convey these messages in the community.
- Ensure that gender-based violence awareness materials are designed within culturally grounded practices and using traditional practices that the community uses to disseminate messages.
- Ensure that the latest developments in the field of GBV are shared with Protection staff and contextualized for use according to needs
Coordination
- Contribute to the design of the mission’s protection strategy and the development of project proposals for the GBV sector in close coordination with the technical team and protection focal points
- Provide technical support and assistance in implementing GBV-related components through appropriate tools and methodologies.
- In coordination with the protection coordinator, help to contextualize and adapt internal and global guidelines, ensuring they are deployed and known to staff to ensure adaptability and integration.
- To ensure the cohesion and harmonization of GBV-related activities and services between the different implementation sites within the mission
- Ensure compliance with work plans and MEAL plans
- In coordination with the protection coordinator, provide training and workshops to protection staff to strengthen their skills on gender-based violence issues identified with them. Guide them through close monitoring and supervision to ensure the quality of activities.
- Assist the Protection Coordinator in providing training and workshops to non-protection staff to strengthen their skills and knowledge of gender-based violence principles and to enable them to integrate the gender component into their sector.
- In coordination with the Protection Coordinator, assess the needs related to gender-based violence and the gaps in services for target populations in current and future areas of operation, periodically update the protection situation analysis, and inform the program accordingly.
- Assist the Protection Coordinator in providing ongoing strategic protection analysis and developing periodic reports on trends (including aspects of conflict analysis, gender equality, and risk management), and in drawing lessons learned from program experience to inform program development, implementation, and policy and advocacy work. Contribute to the timely submission of relevant reports to the responsible agency, in accordance with the agreed reporting schedule.
- Assist the protection coordinator in ensuring that protection data is collected, stored, archived, processed, analyzed, and disseminated ethically, in accordance with internal data protection protocols. Provide technical support for documenting GBV cases through GBVIMS forms/systems and maintain and update the data management and reporting synchronization platforms.
- Under the supervision of the Protection Coordinator, conduct regular follow-up field visits and provide support tools to monitor the quality of program implementation.
- Identify opportunities for new GBV interventions and support assessments and the development of new GBV-related project proposals
- Support the protection coordinator in developing complaint handling mechanisms for beneficiaries and ensure that complaints are handled properly.
- Supporting the protection coordinator in monitoring the implementation of child protection (CP) and protection against sexual exploitation and abuse (LEFP) policies
- Ensure that potential survivors of EES are interviewed safely and with dignity, respecting the principles of confidentiality.
Supervision and management of staff
- In coordination with the Protection Coordinator, organize ad hoc meetings with protection staff to share challenges and priorities in the area of ​​gender-based violence and develop action plans.
Networking and partnerships
- Maintain collaborative working relationships with relevant working groups and related working groups at national and/or field level and ensure compliance with any monthly cluster reporting requirements.
- Represent the program to national authorities, non-state actors, United Nations agencies, NGOs, and donors.
- In coordination with the Protection Coordinator, ensure that key GBV-related concerns are brought to the attention of relevant stakeholders in order to advocate for respect for human rights and minimum protection standards.
- Network with GBV specialists from other missions to share best practices and resources
Required profile
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (social sciences, psychology, social work, human rights, international humanitarian law or other fields related to social development and humanitarian work)
- A master’s degree (MA or LLM) in human rights, international humanitarian law, or related fields is desirable.
- A minimum of four years of relevant professional experience in protection-related sectors (including GBV), preferably within an INGO, and two years for a higher education degree (Master’s/LLM).
- Excellent computer skills (Word, Excel and Internet)
- Solid theoretical, technical and practical experience in the field of GBV
- Skills in report production, experience with monitoring tools and systems, data collection and analysis
- Skills in developing a training program on gender-based violence
- The local language and the mission language (French) are essential
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work and integrate into a multicultural team.
- Ability to work under pressure, flexibility
- Problem solver, dynamic, mature, proactive
- Strong organizational skills and the ability to effectively manage multiple priorities, deadlines, and tasks
- Strong time management skills, resourcefulness and attention to detail
- Diplomatic skills in networking with partners, authorities and donors
- Commitment to INTERSOS’s principles
General terms and conditions and benefits:
- Salary range: €10 – €3,362 – €3,792 monthly gross
- Hébergement : Shared Guesthouse
- R&R : 7 days of psycho-physical recovery every 12 weeks + 1000€ allowance.
- Annual leave: 2.5 days per month
- Medical insurance for staff
- Transportation and visa: return air tickets. For missions lasting at least 9 months, an additional ticket to the country of residence and back to the mission is also provided.
- Onboarding training: one week of online training before deployment
How to apply
HOW TO APPLY:
Interested candidates are invited to apply by following the link below:
https://www.intersos.org/field/#intersosorg-vacancies/vacancy-details/6a8088160c2505c39877086c
Please note that our application process consists of three very quick steps : register (including your name, email, password, and nationality), log in , and apply by attaching your CV in PDF format . Candidates can track their application history with INTERSOS through this platform.
Please also include the name, position, and contact details of at least three references : two line supervisors and one HR contact . Family members should be excluded.
Only candidates selected for the first interview will be contacted.