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 began planning to reopen an oPt country program in mid-2022 and launched an emergency response in Gaza in October 2023. The organization is currently supporting a network of local partners in both Gaza and the West Bank to sustain critical health, protection, food security, cash, education, and early childhood development interventions. The IRC is also deploying emergency medical teams to provide surge clinical capacity in hospitals and other health facilities.

The IRC is working to scale its emergency response while building a longer-term oPt country program in parallel. This effort is being jointly managed by the Emergencies and Humanitarian Action Unit (EHAU) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a view to eventually transition the country program fully under the MENA region.

Position overview

The Integrated Protection Coordinator is responsible for facilitating the design and delivery of both direct and partner-led high-quality protection services to address protection risks and barriers to humanitarian services, facing women, men, girls, and boys affected by violence and conflict, and ensuring services are inclusive and in line with IASC guidelines and humanitarian principles and standards.

The Integrated Protection Coordinator reports to the Deputy Director for Programs (DDP). The position will work closely with program sector leads, MEAL Coordinator, Partnerships Coordinator, finance and operations departments.

Location: Rafah, Gaza

Responsibilities

Program Design and Management

• Provide strategic direction, leadership and overall technical management of IRC’s direct and partner-led protection response, ensuring high program quality; based areas of highest impact, highest needs, emerging risks, and IRC’s added value; and alignment with minimum standards and approaches.

• Lead and directly contribute to the start-up, implementation and coordination of IRC’s emergency protection programming, potentially including Child Protection, Women’s Protection and Empowerment, and Protection Rule of Law interventions. Ensure quality program design and implementation, with a specific focus on identifying and mitigating obstacles to inclusive access across all intervention areas.

• Ensure that partnership considerations are incorporated in program design and proposal development and that partners are proactively engaged in program development efforts. Ensure appropriate budget resourcing for partner projects.

• Oversee IRC’s partnerships, ensuring co-design, regular exchange, and project performance monitoring to achieve program objectives

• Directly participate in Partner Capacity Analysis (PCAs) and the subsequent development of partner support plans for emergency program activities

• Ensure – through program design and practice, team capacity and behavior – that clients, especially the most marginalized and hard to reach, participate in the design and implementation of IRC programs, and that their access to services and programs is meaningful and safe

• Develop and/or adapt technical tools and approaches, and deliver creative solutions to mitigate challenges in the operating context, to facilitate response start-up and day to day implementation

• Adapt IRC direct implementation tools and systems for partner use in line with identified needs and requests.

• Support emergency protection teams to implement and monitor work plans ensuring that activities reflect the commitments IRC made to the donor and the community

• Design and implement appropriate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems ensuring consistent reporting and analysis of results to improve program effectiveness and quality

Equitable Partnerships

• Champion a culture of effective and respective partnerships across emergency responses. Promote partner-led programming in line with IRC’s “why not partner?” approach.

• Identify and develop partnerships with local and international implementing partners as appropriate for program design and service to clients based on IRC’s PEERS standards of equal and effective partnership.

• Working closely with the Partnership team, ensure adequate support to partners to facilitate quality program implementation and provide capacity development, where needed.

Grants and Financial Management

• Manage emergency grant/program implementation including recruitment and training, work plan development, procurement and inventory planning, budget management, and M&E plans

• Conduct stakeholder and partner analysis: continually review existing actor mappings with a view to identifying key actors and establishing partnerships focused on the delivery of protection services

• Develop high quality technical proposals and reports with relevant program and partner staff in line with IRC and donor requirements

• Oversee the development and delivery of all internal and external reports in collaboration with the grants, programs, finance, and MEAL departments.

• Review partner technical tools, reports, and data; recommend adaptations or process improvements as required.

• Collaborate with IRC grants and finance staff to finalize proposals and respond to any requests for additional information

Staff Management

• Recruit, onboard, and supervise emergency protection staff, and provide targeted capacity building and professional development as needed, including technical guidance, on the job coaching and supervision, and capacity development plans on technical and managerial skills

• Comply with and ensure that new protection staff understand the IRC Code of Conduct and policies related to Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Child Safeguarding. This includes ensuring that staff and communities have knowledge of and safe, confidential access to reporting mechanisms and support services

• Coordinate performance management within the department and ensure a culture of high performance through staff engagement and accountability.

• Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions

Coordination and Representation

• Actively develop and maintain effective working relationships with key actors, including donors, government actors, UN agencies, international and local NGOs, and other relevant actors

• Regularly attend emergency protection and other relevant coordination and task force meetings, at appropriate levels to feed in IRC priorities from the field

• Ensure protection concerns and challenges are brought to relevant fora to advocate for standards and procedures that systematize how integrated protection programming is implemented and coordinated at the field level

Other

• Other relevant duties as assigned by supervisor to further IRC programs.

Qualifications

• Education experience in social work, psychology, other related field, AND / OR equivalent work experience

• At least five years’ experience working in the field of child protection, GBV and women’s protection, and / or protection rule of law programming at the Coordinator level or above required, with consistent track record managing multi-donor portfolios in acute emergency response, program and project start-up

• Experience working with IRC and an understanding of IRC’s systems and processes is strongly preferred

• Genuine interest in and commitment to collaborating with local and national NGOs and government partners in emergency programs.

• Familiarity with key donor regulations such as ECHO, BHA, and UN

• Experience in working with and coordinating with the UN, donors, INGOs and other humanitarian actors

• Demonstrated experience in staff supervision, capacity building, project design and budget management

• Genuine interest in and commitment to collaborating with local partners for effective and context-appropriate humanitarian response.

• Demonstrated skills in effectively leading and building programs and/or operations in a high-pressure, fluid environment of limited resources. Leadership and team management skills are critical, including working in multi-cultural environments.

• Exceptional English communication, writing and editing skills required. Fluency in Arabic a plus. Able to draft and edit detailed documents for donor submission with minimal oversight.

• Previous experience in a conflict-affected or protracted crisis setting preferred.

• Exceptional advance planning and organizational skills. Able to effectively prioritize and follow multiple activities and deadlines simultaneously. Highly organized with close attention to detail.

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.