Protection Cluster Co-Lead

Protection Cluster Co-Lead
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Closing date: 30 Nov 2010
Location: Pakistan

The incumbent will work as co-lead within the UNHCR chaired protection cluster to respond to the needs of flood affected populations in Pakistan. The position will be based in Islamabad with frequent travel to the field to work within provincial clusters;

Responsibilities: the incumbent will be responsible for the following roles within the cluster, alongside the leadership on UNHCR;

Establishment and maintenance of the Pakistan protection cluster mechanism
• Co-lead the Pakistan protection cluster ensuring coordination on protection issues with relevant humanitarian, government and nongovernmental counterparts
• Work with the UNHCR designated co-lead to convene and facilitate cluster meetings, ensuring the agreement of key decisions and action points
• Support the roll out of the cluster mechanism at provincial level in close coordination with sub-cluster leads and other relevant partners.
• Secure commitments from humanitarian partners in responding to needs and filling gaps, ensuring an appropriate distribution of responsibilities within the sectoral group, with clearly defined focal points for specific issues where necessary;
• Ensure the complementarity of different humanitarian actors’ actions;
• Promote emergency response actions while at the same time considering the need for early recovery planning as well as prevention and risk reduction concerns;
• Ensure effective links with other sectoral groups;
• Ensure that sectoral coordination mechanisms are adapted over time to reflect the capacities of local actors and the engagement of development partners;
• Represent the interests of the sectoral group in discussions with the Humanitarian Coordinator and other stakeholders on prioritization, resource mobilization and advocacy;

Guide joint needs assessment and analysis
• Ensure effective and coherent sectoral needs assessment and analysis, involving all relevant partners
• Work to develop comprehensive protection assessment tools in partnership with cluster members , sub clusters and other clusters as relevant.
• Promote the use of common protection tools across clusters, ensuring that relevant protection expertise is included into interagency tools

Facilitate cluster planning and strategy development
• Identification of gaps;
• Develop/update agreed response strategies and action plans for the sector and ensuring that these are adequately reflected in overall country strategies, such as the Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP);
• Supporting the development of an overall strategy and workplan for the cluster with due regard to the needs of the affected population and contingency measures as appropriate
• Ensure that lessons learned from past activities are analyzed and documented and revise strategies accordingly;

Protection information collection and analysis
• Support the establishment of a monitoring mechanism to identify and address field based protection concerns through cluster members and partner organisations
• Support the flow of information from regional clusters to the central level, ensuring feedback is given to the field and that information is accurately documented and analysed.
• Support the compilation of protection information into briefing papers for sharing with partners and donors and government counterparts as appropriate.
• Ensure the ethical documentation and storage of protection information within the cluster and promote best practice and ethical standards among cluster members

Ensure adequate resource mobilization
• Advocate for resource mobilization to carry out priority activities for the protection sector.
• Encourage protection cluster members to mobilize resources for their activities through their usual channels, in accordance with identified priorities.

Ensure application of standards
• Ensure that cluster members are aware of relevant policy guidelines, technical standards and relevant commitments that the Government has undertaken under international human rights law;
• Ensure that responses are in line with existing policy guidance, technical standards, and relevant Government human rights legal obligations.

Monitoring and reporting
• Ensure adequate monitoring mechanisms are in place to review impact of the protection cluster activities and progress against implementation plans;
• Ensure adequate reporting and effective information sharing (with OCHA support), with due regard for age and sex disaggregation.

Provision of assistance or services as a last resort
• Act as provider of last resort (subject to access, security and availability of funding) to meet agreed priority needs with the support of UNHCR, IRC and the HC. (This principle will be applied in an appropriate and realistic manner for protection as a cross-cutting issue)

Ensure inclusion of national and international NGO partners
• Ensure inclusion of national and international NGO partners for the sector;
• Ensure adequate representation of varying NGO mandates and programme priorities.

Advocacy
• Identify core advocacy concerns with cluster partners;
• Support the development of a cluster advocacy strategy in conjunction with key implementing partners with clear advocacy targets and identified channels of information sharing;
• Support the implementation of broader advocacy initiatives targeting other clusters, the humanitarian community, the government, donors, and others;

Capacity building and surge support
• Support the training of cluster partner staff and efforts to strengthen the capacity of the national authorities;
• Support the capacity development of the cluster through technical guidance and advice and the development of tools.
• Work with partners to develop and/or revise training materials to improve protection capacity among INGO, NGO and government partners.
• Ensure that partners have access to training and resource materials relevant to their functions and planned projects.

Representation
• Represent the protection cluster at relevant inter-cluster, government, donor and other fora, in partnership with the designated UNHCR co-lead.

Requirements
• Post graduate degree in international law, social sciences or related field
• Minimum of 5-7 years proven experience working on protection or rule of law related issues in humanitarian environments, including provision of technical advice to field teams
• Excellent understanding of protection issues in emergency situations and detailed knowledge of humanitarian principles, guidelines and laws;
• Excellent leadership, coordination, planning and analytical skills;
• Excellent advocacy and representation skills including the development of strong interpersonal relationships to facilitate communication within the cluster;
• Able to work under pressure and good at timely decision making;
• Excellent written and spoken English,
• Self motivated and excellent observant of protection issues in the country.
• Previous experience of working within the cluster system preferred
• Proven ability to live and work in an unstable, insecure environment
How to apply
Please apply at http://tbe.taleo.net/NA2/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=IRC&cws=1&rid=6493