The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and more than 25 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees delivers lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.
The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence team provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice. TE is comprised of Technical Units, all of which have deep expertise in their respective sectors: Education, Economic Recovery and Development, Governance, Health and Violence Prevention and Response.
The Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) works to reduce people’s vulnerability to and support their recovery from violence and promote transformative work for a future free from violence. The unit houses expertise in the fields of Child Protection, Protection and Rule of Law, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment to support women, children and at-risk groups through violence prevention programs that help stop violence before it happens and violence response programs that ensures lifesaving services for people affected by violence. VPRU has programs in 31 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The Women’s Protection and Empowerment team within the VPRU is a leader in GBV innovation, programming, and research. This position is housed within the Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) and will collaborate with the Health Unit technical advisors and country teams implementing services for Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH).
Scope of Work:
The IRC is a leading pioneer of WPE and SRH Integrated programming, as well as violence prevention and response research. The goal of this project is to collaborate with UNFPA on a GBV-SRH Integration Operational Toolkit for humanitarian settings. This will happen through support to GBV-SRH Integrated models in two countries and will be based on country program experiences, piloting in 2 different contexts, as well as learning from BHA qualitative human-centered design research which rigorously evaluated women’s preferences as well as service provider experiences in integrated GBV-SRH service delivery and approaches, and learnings from GAC multi-country integration implementation. Based on the outcomes of this work for the two pilot countries, the GBV-SRH Integration and Toolkit Specialist will develop SRH & GBV Integration guidance note in collaboration with UNFPA and contribute to the development of the global toolkit.
This role will coordinate with UNFPA, WPE and SRH TAs, and two country programs on key needs for toolkit information such as how WPE-SRH services integrate, collaborate, and coordinate together. In addition to coordination, this role will be responsible for co-analyzing data and feedback from country programs; conducting a desk review; conducting necessary informal outreach to countries with GBV-SRH integration experience to ensure models and toolkit support their needs; and ensuring toolkit is in line with GBV Minimum Standards and MISP for sexual and reproductive health in crisis.
In addition, as part of this project, IRC will also be collaborating with UNFPA on promoting access to the GBV SC Co-coordinator roles for Women-Led Organizations by supporting a WLO organization to co-coordinate.
Major Responsibilities:
• act as main technical focal point for the project internally and with UNFPA and ECHO
• lead on overall project management, including workplans, budget spending and country engagement.
• Also lead on recruitment of consultants, as applicable to support Toolkit development with UNFPA as the Specialist
• Work closely with UNFPA, VPRU/Health technical units, and two country programs implementation sites to support improvements to integrated services based on existing recommendations and coordinate the toolkit development with UNFPA
• Ensure toolkit contents adhere to GBV Minimum Standards, MISP, and WHO Guidelines
• Facilitate project staff training and workshops on GBV guiding principles and MISP, as needed
• Support data analysis efforts, including taking initiative to start new analyses
• Leads on drafting of IRCs portion of the GBV-SRH Implementation Toolkit based on feedback from country teams and women and girls
• Lead in donor reporting and budget management, in coordination with Grants manager for the project.
• Assist in business development opportunities to advance the project activities, when applicable;
• Present project findings, internally and externally at various fora
• Ensure development of and uptake of a dissemination strategy for practitioners
Key Working Relationships:
Position Reports to: WPE Global Practice Lead, Violence Prevention and Response Unit
Other key relationships: UNFPA, WPE and SRH Technical Advisors, SRH Global Practice Lead, 2 IRC country programs, VPRU MEAL specialist, VPRU regional STAs for the 2 regions/countries involved, IRC grants manager
Job Requirements:
**Education:**Preferred masters degree in social science, public health, women’s studies, or related field experience
Work Experience: 3-6 years of experience working on implementing women’s protection and empowerment, SRH, GBV (ideally integration, coordination, and collaboration of GBV and SRH activities) in humanitarian contexts or other related topics.
Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:
• Ability to work across sectors coordinating multiple stakeholders to bring people together from different perspective to work collaboratively
• Knowledge of ethical principles related to sensitive study topics, such as violence against women and SRHR
• Understanding of roots of GBV and denial of SRH services to women and girls and how they are linked
• Understanding of why GBV and SRH practitioners collaborate and coordinate in service delivery to women and girls
• Experience with user-centered design practices preferred.
• Desirable knowledge of qualitative analysis
• Demonstrated academic/strong writing skills
• Ability to create relationships across cultures and expertise online and in person
• Excellent oral and written communication and attention to detail
• Fluent English (spoken and written) is required. French is a strong asset.
Working Environment: Standard office work environment or open to being remote – up to 30% travel in potentially insecure environments.
Compensation:
Posted pay ranges apply to US and UK-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.
US Benefits:
The IRC offers a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. All US employees are eligible for sick time, a 403b retirement savings plans: up to 4.5% immediately vested matching contribution, plus an 3-7% additional IRC contribution, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support in times of crisis and mental health struggles.
In addition, full-time employees are eligible for 10 US paid holidays, 20-25 paid time off days, disability & life insurance, medical, dental, and vision insurance (employee contribution starting at $135, $7, and $5 per month respectively) and FSA for healthcare, childcare, and commuter costs. Part-time employees are eligible for a proportionate amount of paid time off. These additional benefits apply to employees who work at least 6 months within a 12 month time period.
Standard of Professional Conduct: The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.
Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.