Senior Project Officer - GBV and Protection at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, regardless of race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Senior Project Officer - GBV and Protection

Location: Maiduguri, Borno

About THRIVE

• The Transitioning Households to Recovery from Vulnerability (THRIVE) in Jere project is a two-year emergency and recovery project funded by BHA/USAID. Over the course of the project, CRS with Mercy Corps (MC), Women in the New Nigeria (WINN), Salient Humanitarian Organization (SHO) and Justice Development Peace Committee (JDPC) will provide context-specific humanitarian assistance with the goal of initiating early recovery in targeted areas and will operationalize an area-based approach to advance participants from lifesaving assistance to life-building support. The THRIVE consortium will reach an estimated 120,00 unique participants across 10 sectors.

Job Summary

• The purpose of this role is to provide strategic and technical support for the main streaming of gender equality/equity and protection and safeguarding in the BHA- funded project in Northeast Nigeria.
• The post holder is expected to have a strong Gender Based Violence and Protection background, with great report writing, communication, ability to influence and build capacity of program staff on Protection, gender and safeguarding, PSEAH standard principles.

Roles and Key Responsibilities
Key Deliverables:

• Support robust main streaming of gender and protection/Safeguarding into BHA projects including systematic age and gender analysis, monitoring and evaluation and reporting, including in the targeting of beneficiaries, choice of transfer modalities, making sure the projects do no harm.
• Provide advice, guidance, and follow-up in relation to protection and gender aspects of the Community Feedback Mechanism.
• Ensure referral mechanisms are established and functional
• Provide trainings to staff on gender main streaming, how to integrate gender equality, inclusion and protection principles into their work, employing diverse learning methods in daily operations
• Advocate for addressing gaps in GBV prevention and response services with the GBV sub- cluster, Nutrition, WASH and FSL cluster
• Produce weekly and monthly data and regular narrative reports for Project Manager to feed into overall program and donor report (information on target beneficiaries must be disaggregated by age and sex). Also, tracking all gender and protection related indicators and benchmarks in the project.
• Make weekly field visits to the target locations to monitor implementation of activities and train the implementing partners and beneficiaries.
• Provide guidance to the project team on the development and dissemination of key communication messages on Gender Based Violence including harmful cultural, traditional norms and practices in line with best practices
• Support the project team in developing strategies to engage men and boys as champions of change in addressing Gender Based Violence and violence against women and girls
• Support the design and delivery of training on Gender Based Violence prevention and risk mitigation, Code of Conduct, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, for project staff, CRS Staff, and community members.
• Support reporting and referral of protection and GBV concerns identified in the target locations and ensure proper follow up of all referred cases to other actors and report accordingly.
• At the local level, represent CRS International in GBV coordination meetings and liaise with local authorities, UN, and international and national NGOs to facilitate successful coordination of activities and ensure transparency and accountability.
• Ensure Safeguarding Policy and CoC of CRS is adhered to by staff, known to beneficiaries and that all safeguarding concerns are timely reported.
• Participate in other responsibilities as may be assigned to you by your supervisor from time to time.
• Work closely with Sector leads/ managers to review and highlight opportunities for Protection, safeguarding and Gender main streaming in the proposed Nutrition activities; And follow up to ensure, nutrition team integrate the protection principles during activity design and implementation.

Coordination and Representation:

• Represent CRS at Protection, PSEAH and GBV sector working group meetings and coordination forums UN, international and national NGOs for nutrition coordination as needed at the LGA and state level
• Ensure good coordination with other CRS partners staff, Protection, GBV field teams and provide frequent feedback and updates
• Develop new and manage existing relationships with key stakeholders and potential collaborators for nutrition programs.
• Good understanding of Protection and GBV sector reporting requirements, templates and timelines.

Reporting:

• Support the development of field-based reports to CRS, Protection and GBV sectors sector and/or external donors, as necessary.
• Develop reporting templates for supervisees to aid in tracking progress of program activities and key indicators
• Conduct any other programming responsibility delegated by the supervisor.

Supervisory Responsibilities (if none, state none)

• None

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: Sector Advisor, Food Assistance, Market Manager, MEAL manager, Officers, CAT Officer, Head of Office, Nutrition, WASH, FSL Officers, Accountability Officer, procurement, Fleet, Finance Officers, Enumerators, Community liaison officers
• External: Partner staff, Community leaders, contractors, volunteers, CMs, lead mothers, Partner nutrition officers lead mothers, MIYCN counsellors and vendors.

Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

Education and Experience

• University Degree or equivalent in Social Science, Social Work, Psychology or related fields
• Minimum of 5 years relevant working experience in GBV, gender, protection prevention and response programming, humanitarian affairs or human rights.
• In-depth knowledge of gender and protection in humanitarian and resilience settings, including gender-based violence, humanitarian policy issues, and their linkage with food security, WASH and nutrition.
• Excellent communication skills and a willingness to be respectful, kind, sensitive and empathize with all beneficiaries
• Willingness and capacity to be flexible and accommodating when faced with difficult and frustrating working conditions
• Excellent report writing, capacity building and concept note development skills.
• Experience in participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Excellent coordination skills, and ability to form and nurture relationships with the Protection and GBV implementing partners within the state and at Project location.
• Experience using MS Windows, MS Teams and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Basic Qualifications (BQs):

• Proven experience in group discussions and other participatory methods
• Previous exposure to information and communication technology for development will be a plus
• Demonstrated commitment to gender responsive programming.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, oral and written communication skills.
• Team-oriented and strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and to organize and prioritize a variety of initiatives
• Willingness to travel about 40% of the time.

Required Languages:

• English, Hausa, Kanuri preferred

Travel:

• Willingness to travel about 50% of the time.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (SKAs):

• Must possess ability to handle multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability and desire to work well with diverse employees and customers in a cooperative and friendly manner.
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented
• Solid analytical, writing skills, and communication skills.
• Sound knowledge and skills in training and facilitation.
• Team spirit and excellent interpersonal relations
• Good coordination, creative and innovative skills.
• Should be very adaptive and responsive, due to the fragile nature of Programme context.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)
These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and are used by each staff member to fulfil his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship.

What we Offer

• CRS offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, life insurance, vision, generous retirement savings plan and the opportunity to work in a collaborative, mission-driven culture that is committed to improving the lives of the poor throughout the world.

Application Closing Date
4th September, 2022.