Regional Protection Officer

The Organisation
JRS began working in the MENA region in July 2008, responding to the needs of Iraqi refugees. Today JRS accompanies, serves, and advocates on behalf of refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees, and vulnerable host community members in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. JRS programmes in the region deliver multisectoral interventions including home visits, emergency assistance, child and adult education, mental health and psychosocial support, social services, protection, health care, livelihoods, community building and advocacy programmes.

Job Purpose
The Regional Protection Officer is responsible for ensuring protection principles are mainstreamed through JRS’ proposals and work in the MENA region, initiating protection-focussed projects and initiatives, and developing JRS’ protection work in the region.

The Regional Protection Officer works with the Regional Programmes team and Country Offices to ensure that protection is integrated into the project cycle of JRS programmes at all stages. S/he is responsible for attending relevant working groups, sharing updates related to protection, and aligning JRS’ work with the humanitarian protection sector. S/he is also responsible for capacity building of staff and partnership building. (The Regional Protection Officer is a point of reference and support for field staff who may have protection-related questions or challenges).

Main Responsibilities of the Position
1. Development of Protection work in the Region

• Together with the country and project teams, monitors key protection issues, collects data and communicates these internally and externally (to Protection Cluster working groups, etc);
• Attends regional protection cluster working group and sub-cluster meetings, collects information on emerging/existing protection issues and trends, service mapping and referrals, training opportunities, and other issues;
• Supports supervision of social workers, clinical psychologists, home visit team leads and other protection staff in order to enhance our protection work at field level;
• Ensures that JRS has clear referral procedures and service mapping and that staff are able to refer people served to needed services;
• Expands JRS’ disability inclusion work in Lebanon to other project locations and countries;
• Ensures that JRS continues to collect and analyse information on gender, GBV and develops a strategy to improve our prevention and response to GBV;
• Continues efforts to improve legal awareness amongst JRS staff and people served, ensures that information on legal documentation and rights is consistently shared across projects, and that JRS partners with legal specialists to strengthen legal referrals and capacity building;
• Supports organisational efforts to strengthen Accountability to Affected Populations, Child Safeguarding and PSEAH;
• Develops and supports initiatives related to other areas of protection such as child protection, inclusion of LGBTQ+ communities, etc.

2. Integration of Protection in the Project Cycle

• In collaboration with programmes team, works to ensure the integration of the protection component into the process of project planning and proposals;
• Ensures that JRS describes protection work accurately with unified terminology, in proposals and reports across the region;
• Contributes to project proposals through explaining rationale and objectives of protection work, developing indicators, writing gender and protection mainstreaming analysis, etc.;
• Assists MEAL and Information Management officers to improve data collection on protection issues and identify protection issues for further research;
• Stays up to date with country humanitarian response plans, protection actors and sector activities/indicators to align JRS’ work in the broader humanitarian context;
• Works with country and project teams to develop new activities or projects to prevent/respond to protection issues;
• Assists teams to mainstream protection principles throughout projects;

3. Capacity Building and Training of JRS Staff

• Provides guidance and support to key staff on protection issues/cases where needed;
• Develops JRS internal guidelines and resources for staff on issues related to protection (e.g. working with high-risk cases, consent and information sharing);
• Provides training to enhance staff knowledge of protection concepts and practice;
• Facilitates training for staff by external specialists on different technical aspects of protection;
• Is available and willing to travel to the Country and Project offices in the region (approx. one time per year to each country) and for other global JRS meetings.

Availability

• Ensures prompt execution of other tasks that are within the ambit of the position as requested by the Regional Director or his/her nominee.

Qualifications, Skills, and Personal Attributes

• Advanced University degree in social work, protection, law, or any other related discipline;
• Proven experience of at least eight years in the sector of protection, preferably in complex humanitarian environments;
• Experience of supporting, building capacity, and training colleagues;
• Working experience with faith-based organizations and forcibly displaced people are an asset;
• Project management and project planning experiences are desirable;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, and a good working knowledge of Arabic is desirable;
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Word and Excel;
• Demonstrated ability to work and deliver under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Demonstrated ability to work in limited resources settings;
• Demonstrable experience of, and capacity for, working collaboratively as part of a team;
• Demonstrated ability and experience of working in a multi-cultural environment;
• Excellent time management, coordination, communication, planning, and organizational skills;
• Service-oriented, collaborative, creative, and charismatic;
• Capacity to design strategies, take initiatives and bring innovative ideas;
• Capacity to research and elaborate reference documents and to coordinate and work with teams as well as independently;
• Ability and willingness to travel to JRS project sites and adapt to modest living and working conditions.

Core Values and Ethics

• Commitment to JRS’s mission, vision and values; ability to convey with enthusiasm JRS’s role in accompanying and serving forcibly displaced people and to advocate for their right to protection and a life in dignity;
• Trustworthy and good listener;
• High sense of discretion in dealing with confidential matters at all times;
• High integrity and honesty; ability to deal tactfully and discreetly with people, situations and information;
• Acceptance of diversity and inclusion as core values.