The IRC opened its office in Germany in August 2016. Germany has seen an unprecedented surge in the number of refugees entering the country, travelling mostly through the Balkans route. Germany allowed refugees to come to Germany freely and is promising asylum to many of those who have arrived during 2015 and 2016. The German Federal government as well as many civil society organizations and volunteer groups have, together with international NGOs, responded to the needs of refugees, setting up shelter, providing services and building capacity. However, services have limited reach, capacity still remains low and the shelters are overstretched. In August 2016 the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs developed together with UNICEF and a consortium of civil society organizations the Minimum Standards for the Protection of Children, Youth and Women in Refugee Shelters.
IRC Deutschland will focus its activities on supporting shelter operators in the implementation of these standards and other stakeholders in their work to further the protection of vulnerable groups from gender-based violence. This will be achieved by providing technical assistance, tools, guidance and capacity building to partners on the ground and by informing the regional and national dialogues with evidence-based best practice approaches. Under its Violence Prevention and Response approach, IRC is proposing to focus on the below key programmatic areas:
- Translation and adaptation of IRC global tools to the German context.
- Identification and support of local partners to establish Safe Healing and Learning Spaces (SHLS) and Women’s Safe Spaces (WSS= in refugee shelters, providing guidance on identifying appropriate locations and adapting the curricula to the specific population in each shelter.
- Provision of training to SHLS and WSS staff and on-going monitoring of the safe spaces.
- Capacity building of local responders on working with refugee women and children, including unaccompanied minor children, on case management and psycho-social support.
- Provide ongoing technical assistance on working with the refugee population to partners, UNICEF and local and federal government authorities.
SCOPE
In order to ensure timely and quality implementation of the above-mentioned program, IRC is seeking to recruit a protection specialist to oversee the activities in Germany.
The Protection Specialist will be responsible for managing, together with the Country Representative and Deputy Country Representative relations with the federal government and UNICEF and provide technical assistance and conduct capacity building activities in line with the above programmatic areas. They will be responsible for actively seeking business development opportunities for activities in Germany and building strong partnerships and relations with local civil society organizations and government stakeholders.
SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:
Program Management and Development
- Lead, manage and oversee all activities under the Protection Program in Germany.
- Establish and maintain working relations and collaboration with German authorities, working closely with the Country Representative and Deputy Country Representative and any other staff based in the Germany office as well as the IRC Europe regional team and the VPRU.
- Identify potential partners and lead partner conversations.
- Lead development of the protection strategy for Germany and interventions within an integrated country program strategy.
- Develop and contextualize training materials and deliver trainings on child protection, women’s protection, case management and other relevant topics to government and local partners.
- Ensure effective M&E tools and mechanisms are established and operational.
Representation, Coordination & Partnership
- Participate actively in any relevant coordination forums.
- Establish and maintain relationships with relevant ministries and other protection actors, to help establish IRC as a key actor in violence prevention and response.
- Participate in the development of advocacy messages regarding child protection, women’s protection, and refugee issues. Contribute to the IRC’s communications strategy under the guidance of senior management
- Identify, select, and collaborate with partner organizations in line with the IRC partnership process. Accompany and build capacity of partner organizations as per partnership agreements.
- Coordinate and collaborate with IRC Balkans, IRC Greece and the regional office for Europe.
Budget, Administrative and Grants Management
- Contribute to the development of proposals and concept notes.
- Identify potential business development opportunities.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Fluency in written and spoken German, strong command of English
- Masters qualification (or German Diploma) in social work, child protection, gender-based violence, protection or other relevant field
- Experience working in the German NGO and/or public sector space
- 5 years of experience in social work or humanitarian work in child protection, women’s protection and/or protection.
- Solid knowledge and understanding of international child protection and women’s protection standards and best practice
- Good grasp of German laws pertaining to asylum seekers
- Thorough understanding of the key German stakeholders in the protection space
- Strong training and capacity building experience, preferably targeting national partners and stakeholders.
- Ability to coordinate partners at distance and ensure their capacity building.
- Ability to work well both within a team and independently, in a challenging, fast-paced multicultural environment
- Excellent communication skills
- Previous experience with proposal development a plus
- High level of tolerance for ambiguity
For more information on this position and how to apply, click the link above and to the right.