UNHCR

Position: Associate Protection Officer - 34298

Job Time: Full-Time

Job Type: Contract

Place of Work: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Posted date: 23 hours ago

Application Deadline: Mar, 17/2022 (12 days left)

Duties and Qualifications

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Associate Protection Officer reports to the Protection Officer or the Senior Protection Officer. Depending on the size and structure of the Office, the incumbent may have supervisory responsibility for protection staff including community-based protection registration, resettlement, and education. S/he provides functional protection guidance to information management and program staff on all protection/legal matters and accountabilities. These include statelessness (in line with the campaign to End Statelessness by 2024), Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) commitments, age, gender, diversity (AGD), and accountability to affected populations (AAP) through community-based protection, Child protection, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response, gender equality, disability inclusion, youth empowerment, psycho-social support and PSEA, registration, asylum/refugee status determination, resettlement, local integration, voluntary repatriation, human rights standards integration, national legislation, judicial engagement, a predictable and decisive engagement in situations of internal displacement and engagement in wider mixed movement and climate change/disaster-related displacement responses. S/he supervises protection standards, operational procedures, and practices in protection delivery in line with international standards.

The Associate Protection Officer is expected to coordinate quality, timely, and effective protection responses to the needs of populations of concern, ensuring that operational responses in all sectors mainstream protection methodologies and integrate protection safeguards. The incumbent contributes to the design of a comprehensive protection strategy and represents the organization externally on protection doctrine and policy as guided by the supervisor. S/he also ensures that persons of concern are meaningfully engaged in the decisions that affect them and support program design and adaptations that are influenced by the concerns, priorities, and capacities of persons of concern. To achieve this, the incumbent will need to build and maintain effective interfaces with communities of concern, authorities, protection, and assistance partners as well as a broader network of stakeholders who can contribute to enhancing protection.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional, and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

• Stay abreast of political, social, economic, and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment.
• Promote International and National Law and applicable UN/UNHCR and IASC policy, standards, and codes of conduct.
• Foster their consistent and coherent interpretation and application through mainstreaming in all sectors and /or in clusters in applicable operations.
• Assist in providing comments on existing and draft legislation related to persons of concern.
• Provide legal advice and guidance on protection issues to persons of concern; liaise with competent authorities to ensure the issuance of personal and other relevant documentation.
• Conduct eligibility and status determination for persons of concern in compliance with UNHCR procedural standards and international protection principles.
• Promote and contribute to measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness.
• Contribute to a country-level child protection plan as part of the protection strategy to ensure programs use a child protection systems approach.
• Contribute to a country-level education plan.
• Implemented and oversee Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solutions activities which integrate AGD sensitive procedures.
• Oversee and manage individual protection cases, including those on GBV and child protection. Monitor, and intervene in cases of refoulement, expulsion, and other protection incidents through working relations with governments and other partners.
• Recommend durable solutions for the largest possible number of persons of concern through voluntary repatriation, local integration, and where appropriate, resettlement.
• Assess resettlement needs and apply priorities for the resettlement of individuals and groups of refugees and other persons of concern.
• Participate in the organization and implementation of participatory assessments and methodologies throughout the operations management cycle and promote AGD sensitive programming with implementing and operational partners.
• Contribute to and facilitate a program of results-based advocacy through a consultative process with sectorial and/or cluster partners.
• Facilitate effective information management through the provision of disaggregated data on populations of concern and their problems.
• Promote and integrate community-based approaches to protection and contribute to capacity-building initiatives for communities and individuals to assert their rights.
• Support activities in the area of risk management related to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, fraud, case processing, data protection, and human rights due diligence at the country level.
• Participate in initiatives to capacitate national authorities, relevant institutions, and NGOs to strengthen national protection-related legislation and procedures.
• Intervene with authorities on protection issues.
• Negotiate locally on behalf of UNHCR.
• Decide priorities for reception, interviewing, and counseling for groups or individuals.
• Enforce compliance of staff and implementing partners with global protection policies and standards of professional integrity in the delivery of protection services.
• Enforce compliance with, and integrity of, all protection standard operating procedures.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Years of Experience / Degree Level

• For P2/NOB - 3 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 2 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 1-year relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education

• Law, International Law, Political Sciences or other relevant fields

Certificates and/or Licenses

• Protection Learning Program

Relevant Job Experience

Essential

• Professional experience in the area of refugee protection, internal displacement, human rights or international humanitarian law. Good knowledge of International Refugee and Human Rights Law and ability to apply the relevant legal principles.

Desirable

• Field experience, including working directly with communities. Good IT skills including database management skills.

Functional Skills

• *PR-Protection-related guidelines, standards, and indicators
• *PR-Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD)
• PR-Gender Based Violence (GBV) Coordination
• MG-Project Management
• PR-Human Rights Doctrine/Standards
• PR-International Humanitarian Law
• PR-Assessment of IDPs Status, Rights, Obligation
• PR-Climate change and disaster related displacement
• CO-Drafting and Documentation

(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Core Competencies:

• Accountability
• Communication
• Organizational Awareness
• Teamwork & Collaboration
• Commitment to Continuous Learning
• Client & Result Orientation
• Managerial Competencies:
• Judgment and Decision Making
• Empowering and Building Trust
• Cross-Functional Competencies:
• Analytical Thinking
• Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
• Political Awareness

Language Requirements

For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.

How to Apply

CLICK HERE

All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe and empowered to perform their duties. This includes demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination, and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seek guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

The incumbent provides functional protection guidance to protection, program, economic inclusion/livelihood, information management and external relations staff on all protection/legal matters and accountabilities. The incumbent contributes to the design and implementation of programs and projects that promote the enhancement and transformation of refugee camps into development-oriented settlements and socio-economic hubs. He/she is expected to contribute to the development of an Access to Justice Strategy for refugees and host communities. S/he also supports the efforts of the Government of Ethiopia to develop national laws and policies that support the implementation of the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees. To achieve this, the incumbent will need to build and maintain effective interfaces with communities of concern, authorities, partners working on protection and assistance, as well as designing development projects, which can contribute to enhancing the protection of persons of concern.

The incumbent is also expected to provide legal advice and guidance on protection issues to different sectors and partners in the operation. In the context of GCR, he/she advocates for mainstreaming of protection methodologies and integration of protection safeguards in the design and implementation of projects by humanitarian and development partners in line with the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees. To achieve that he/she initiate, coordinate and support research and analysis on key legal, policy, and protection issues impacting persons of concern for evidence-based protection programming and planning. The incumbent is also expected to proactively engage with partner organizations on activities relating to, access to justice, safety, HLP, and good governance. In addition to these activities, the incumbent, when requested by the supervisor, is expected to contribute to the realization of the objectives set by the Legal Sub-Unit within the Protection Unit.

An eliminatory or complementary written test for shortlisted candidates will be conducted which will be followed by competency-based interviews.

Female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Only Shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Applicants must be nationals of the country and be locally recruited within the country of their employment.

This is a Temporary Appointment initially for Six (6) months, with possibility of Extension.

Recruitment as a UNHCR Staff Member and engagement under UNHCR Affiliate Scheme or as an Intern is subject to prove of Vaccination against COVID 19.