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Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on adolescent girls’ empowerment, economic development and conflict mitigation. With the insurgency spilling over from the north-east of Nigeria and causing displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps has decided to address the rising humanitarian needs among displaced households and vulnerable host communities by starting its humanitarian program in July 2014. The current program aims to provide assistance to populations affected by the crisis in North-East Nigeria. With funding from humanitarian donors including OFDA, FFP, and ECHO the humanitarian program has been focusing on food assistance, non-food items distribution, protection, livelihoods support, WASH , nutrition, shelter and capacity building of humanitarian response actors. Mercy Corps is now planning to scale up and expand its humanitarian response to reach more beneficiaries with additional and varied assistance in a wider geographic area, including north east of Maiduguri.
General Position Summary
The Protection Advisor position supports the efforts of our humanitarian response staff to mainstream protection and gender equity best practices and approaches that will enhance inclusiveness, safety, and dignity when delivering basic needs through cash based initiatives (cash transfers and cash of work), shelter support, WASH, and early economic recovery stimulation (livelihood grants, saving groups, etc.). The Protection Advisor position will work closely with all Mercy Corps humanitarian response sectors and staff to regularly analyze protection risks that negatively impact the outcomes of their initiatives. In tandem, s/he will support each sector’s efforts to integrate approaches in the design of their projects that will also lead to protection outcomes and allow for individuals, especially individuals with special needs or vulnerabilities, to better navigate risk and thrive in their recovery from the crisis. This position will also work closely to align and complement protection programming in our humanitarian response with protection programming under our adolescent girl and boy programming in northeast Borno. S/he would also identify parallels with the peace & conflict team to ensure linkages of strategies to common goals.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy & Vision
- Promote and give guidance on the centrality of protection vision in Mercy Corps’ humanitarian response.
- Work with the Mercy Corps humanitarian response sectors in cash based initiatives for basic needs, shelter support, WASH, and early economic recovery to develop strategies that can integrate protection outcomes in their project design and proposals.
- Develop strategies with the humanitarian response team leader and sector managers to ensure that protection and gender mainstreaming best practices are systematically implemented and up-dated in our humanitarian response interventions in cash based initiatives for basic needs, shelter support, WASH, and early economic recovery.
- Align protection interventions and strategies with the adolescent girls and boys program (I-SING), where geographically possible, to compliment protection strategies and synergize approaches.
- Coordinate with the Conflict Mitigation Program to identify links and common strategies with protection approaches.
- Contribute to country-wide strategy development and promoting the centrality of protection vision.
Technical oversight
- Support protection officers efforts to plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate protection projects as well as meet reporting requirements;
- Ensure protection staff understand and incorporate in their project best practices, sound methodologies, and foundational tools for designing and implementing quality protection initiatives especially in assessments, analysis, data management, awareness raising, community participation and mobilization, psychological first aid, and gender, disability and age inclusion;
- Using a collaborative process assist staff from humanitarian response initiatives to analyze protection risks and opportunities to mitigate risks as well as support their efforts to contribute to a safer, more dignified and inclusive environment for their beneficiaries.
- Refer and support Mercy Corps’ humanitarian response sectors to reference sector specific guidance in protection and gender mainstreaming, including Mercy Corps Gender Minimum Standards.
- Support and advocate for efforts to include and systemize approaches in the various sector services, structures, and methods that will ensure people with disabilities, elderly and other special needs have access, including advocacy budget allocation of inclusion needs.
- Ensure project activities are in line with Mercy Corps’ internal rules and regulations as well as compliant with donor regulations;
- Develop and expand protection portfolio in line with the Mercy Corps Nigeria’s country strategy, taking into account linkages with its adolescent programming and peace & conflict programming.
- Collaborate with Mercy Corps’ humanitarian response teams to assess and identify opportunities to integrate protection outcomes in their theory of change and project designs for proposals.
- Work closely with Mercy Corps program teams to strategize potential interventions that can integrate protection outcomes through their sector intervention and help pre-position the agency to develop strong proposals;
- Coordinate, support or develop high quality proposals that are submitted in a timely manner;
Team Management
- Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
- Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.
- Supervise, hire and orient new team members as necessary.
- Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives.
- Contribute to country team-building efforts, help team members identify problem-solving options and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes.
- Facilitate trainings and regular coaching sessions to ensure protection staff are concurrent protection concepts and approaches, especially those associated with protection risk assessments and analysis, GBV, child protection, psychological first aid, etc.
- Strengthen the capacity all staff’s understanding of and contribution to the centrality of protection and risk reduction through their sector specific humanitarian support.
- Design and implement strategies to coach, mentor and train protection risk assessments/analysis and protection approaches for Mercy Corps staff and local partners.
Finance & Compliance Management
- Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.
- Draft and/or review scope of work to hire and manage any technical consultants, including review for technical efficacy and contract budget.
Influence & Representation
- Represent Mercy Corps at senior level coordination meetings with the Borno State Government (Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with partners, donors, local governments and other stakeholders;
- Actively participate in protection working groups or other forums and keep abreast of national, regional, and global trends.
Security
- Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country
- Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.
Organizational Learning
- As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.
Accountability to Beneficiaries
- Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Supervisory Responsibility
Protection team staff based in Biu and Maiduguri.
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Humanitarian Response Specialist
Works Directly With: Operations, Finance, Program Managers, technical advisors, and others
Knowledge and Experience
- MA degree in international relations, social sciences, public health or other relevant field.
- At least 5 years of practical field experience managing protection related projects
- Demonstrated strong theoretical and applied knowledge of protection programming and familiarity designing integrated approaches to protection outcomes and applying systems thinking.
- Previous experience of working in insecure environments (ideally including experience in an emergency response).
- Proven experience conducting safe and ethical protection risk assessments and analysis, including using participatory approaches and quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
- Experience facilitating protection mainstreaming into multi-sector programming
- Experience in supervising, supporting, mentoring and coaching teams of staff
- Strong writing, training and M&E skills for protection related programming are required.
- Experience coordinating, leading and writing proposals is required.
- Experience managing national and international staff.
- Must be able to work independently while being a strong team player.
Success Factors.
The successful candidate should be an individual with a background in protection who is a good collaborator, facilitator and coach. They should have demonstrated experience producing systematic protection risk analysis and translating the analysis and standard protection approaches into actionable solutions of best practice. This position is expected to build on the capacity of Mercy Corps teams, partners and community members to be more systematic and participatory in their approach to protection risk analysis and problem solving. This positon needs patience and flexibility and a person who can motivate buy-in from experts of various fields and contexts who are not necessarily accustomed to solving problems with a protection lens. In addition, the position should have demonstrated background managing staff and budgets across multiple projects. They are expected to be conversant in project design and strategy and demonstrate experience.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions.
The position is based in Biu (Borno State, Nigeria) and it requires up to (50%) travel to other field locations where humanitarian programs are implemented and the main office in Abuja.
Considering the frequent travel from/to different field locations, this position will require flexibility in terms of accommodation and logistics. Housing in the field will be in hotels or guesthouse where available. Security in the field locations require additional vigilance and accessibility will be reassessed continuously. Access to good medical services in the north east is limited. Phone communication, internet, electricity and water is available, but can be erratic. The location is eligible for hardship and R&R benefits. Given the nature of the humanitarian response, working hours require flexibility and working through weekends/evenings might be necessary.
Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values
More Information
- Job City Borno
