HelpAge has been working in Ethiopia since 1992 (www.helpage.org) collaborating closely with non-government and government partners and strongly believes in strengthening the inclusion of older persons with and without disabilities in the overall humanitarian response.

We are seeking a passionate, professional and experienced candidate to support national protection cluster in Ethiopia, someone who thrives in collaborating with others (inside HelpAge International and beyond) and who can work in agile ways and across boundaries.  

This position will support the protection cluster at national and sub-national level, including the CP, GBV, MA AoRs and HLP WG. The Ethiopia Protection Cluster has been active since 2008 following the global roll out of the cluster approach. In 2019, for the first time, a Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) was prepared which cited 3.19 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Key protection concerns faced by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other affected populations in Ethiopia include sexual and gender based violence, physical violence, child marriage, family separation (including unaccompanied and separated children), psycho-social distress and trauma, persons with specific needs not receiving or being able to access life-saving services, persons without adequate shelter and living in collective sites, persons missing documentation and having no legal redress for lost property, livelihood or human rights violations.

Therefore, the Age Inclusion Specialist will promote age and disability inclusion within the protection cluster to ensure that the needs and concerns of older people are identified and addressed as part of a wider commitment to the delivery of an inclusive humanitarian response.

These outline the broad areas of responsibility in the role, but in collaboration with your humanitarian colleagues and the protection cluster ToRs/ workplan you will be able to shape and design specific activities that are relevant at any point in time. We want you to work creatively to deliver impact and respond to relevant opportunities. 

What you will do

Key areas for impact/influence and responsibilities  

Coordination Role:

• Assist in coordinating and supporting the protection cluster and the CP, GBV, MA AoRs and HLP WG to implement the activities in accordance with the jointly defined strategy and workplan.

• Promote the active engagement of interested humanitarian actors to include older people and people with disabilities in the response planning throughout the cluster mechanism.

Technical Role:

• Map and assess inclusion of older people with and without disabilities in the assessment and planning of humanitarian action.

• Map ongoing activities/good practices and lessons learnt on age inclusion within the protection cluster and the AoRs as a baseline at the beginning for monitoring progress/impact at the end.

• Develop suitable age inclusion tools in line with the Humanitarian Inclusion Standards, the local context and disseminate them to humanitarian actors to promote an overall inclusive response.

• Design and create relevant trainings such as the ‘toolbox’ on inclusion and deliver them across the protection and other clusters and to relevant partners at field level.

• Deliver technical support to the protection cluster and AoRS by providing inputs to documentation, training modules, tools and other resources produced by the protection cluster in collaboration with HelpAge International.

• Provide support to protection cluster members to enhance age and disability inclusion to projects’ design and implementation.

• Take proactive responsibility by staying informed about development and good practices in age inclusion and mainstreaming.

• Closely monitor the local context and provide updates on contextual changes to promote informed decision making and create linkages with other clusters like WASH, Health etc.

• Promote the meaningful participation and involvement of older persons with and without disabilities including Older People Associations (OPAs) to make their voices heard.

• Work closely with AAP network and protection and AoRs AAP focal points to ensure that the voice of older people is heard.

• Focus on mainstreaming inclusion into humanitarian coordination mechanisms, in addition to advocating for the rights of older persons with and without disabilities.

• Provide necessary guidance and support for ageing and disability inclusion in the cluster and AoRs assessments/analysis. This will entail Sex and Age Disaggregation Data collection and analysis, community/contextual analysis, and Do No Harm.

• Participate as a member of the Protection Assessment and Monitoring Working group under the protection cluster, in addition to other groups such as the Assessment and Analysis Working Group under OCHA.  

• Develop and advocate for safe age/disability friendly humanitarian assistance and delivery mechanisms following guidance provided by HelpAge International

• Provide a forum to share information and good practices on age inclusion.

Let's talk about you:  

• You will be someone with: 

• Field and programmatic experience in humanitarian work in conflict/peacebuilding environments in a variety of contexts. 

• Strong understanding of intersectionality analysis and age and gender transformative actions. 

• Strong working knowledge of the humanitarian coordination system and humanitarian architecture and experience working with partners and other international stakeholders (UN, INGOs).

• Protection and inclusion background including experience in inclusion of at-risk groups ideally in humanitarian context- and older people, and persons with disabilities.

• Strong written and spoken English.

• Strong interpersonal and representation skills and previous experience of networking with other humanitarian organizations.

• Proven experience in capacity strengthening.

• Ability to work in a fast paced and stressful environment.

Desirable :

• Fluent spoken and written Amharic is preferred.

• Previous experience of working in Ethiopia.

Safeguarding  :

• HelpAge International is committed to safeguarding the communities with which we work, our partners, staff and any others who we come into contact with. 

• Therefore you will also be responsible for: 

• Preventing harm and abuse from our people, operations and programmes, to anyone that encounters our work; 

• Reporting all safeguarding incidents you see, hear, hear about or suspect, using our internal reporting mechanism; 

• Complying with all safeguarding framework policies and practices 

• Completing mandatory training courses relating to our safeguarding policy framework and complying with HR vetting procedures.  

How to Apply

An updated curriculum vitae (CV) of not more than 4 pages, with a minimum of two referees, including your most recent line manager.

Closing date for all positions: 13th May 2023

Send your application by email to hr.eth@helpage.org before the closing date. Indicate the vacancy subject in your mail.

Important Message:

Please do not email any of your personal details (such as date of birth, marital status, and religion, or other characteristics).

HelpAge International is an equal opportunity employer and we strive to be inclusive in our teams.