Protection from Violence Specialist Nigeria Maiduguri (National Position)

Duty station: Maiduguri, Nigeria.

1. Background/Context

Since 2015, NRC Nigeria has been working to help displacement-affected communities meet their basic needs, improve their livelihoods, access essential services, and enhance their resilience to future shocks through our six core competencies: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Shelter, Education, Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA), Livelihoods and Food Security (LFS), Camp Management, and Protection. NRC provides immediate assistance during the onset of emergencies through the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). In 2021, NRC reached out to over 269,000 people with assistance.

The crisis in Nigeria is marked by brutal violence against civilians, causing acute humanitarian needs and displacement. In the northeast, the 13-year conflict has shattered lives, infrastructure, basic services, and social fabric.

Two million people are internally displaced across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states. Approximately half of these live within local communities, increasing pressure on scarce resources. Access to food is limited, particularly in Borno state, where most families are already facing crisis levels of food insecurity. Civilians, including aid workers, continue to be the target of deadly attacks by non-state armed groups, and transport corridors are persistently insecure.

In the northwest and north-central regions, violence and displacement are rooted in disputes over land and resources, which have been worsened by climate change. Criminality is on the rise.

Livelihood opportunities are scarce, and children face an uncertain future, unable to access quality education. Many families have lost identity papers while fleeing or never obtained them, hindering their access to essential services.

1. Generic Responsibilities

• Develop Protection from Violence Core Competency (CC) strategy, technical guidance and macro-log frames that are aligned with regional and global strategies and priorities.
• Compliance with and adherence to NRC policies, guidance, and procedures.
• Contribute to fundraising, develop, and revise funding proposal, budgets, and donor reports.
• Identify trends, technical standards, and donor priorities.
• Follow up on compliance with contractual commitments within Protection from Violence CC, ensure high technical quality and synergies in project implementation.
• Provide technical direction and project implementation support.
• Ensure that key learnings are extracted from Protection from Violence CC implementation and incorporate them in CC and staff development processes.
• Provide systematic training and build capacity of technical staff, in approaches to the prevention of and response to violence.
• Contribute to implementation of Safe and Inclusive Programming Minimum Standards across your area of work.

1. Specific Responsibilities

• Serve as technical lead on the Protection programme technical development and support within NRC.
• Develop in-country technical standards, guidance notes, and programming resources for protection of civilians programming.
• Assess training and development needs within the Protection from Violence teams, develop capacity building plan and implement the plan with the support of the Protection from Violence Managers or Coordinators, develop training materials based on relevant programme guidelines and SOPs and roll-out training to the Civilian Self-Protection and Individual Response Services teams.
• Develop UDOC/Site Management strategy with a focus on engagement of community representation structures and support to site managers from local organizations and/or the community. This will be done with the support of the Site Management Regional and Head Office Advisory Team and in close coordination with the Site Management Project Manager.
• Design a capacity building strategy and adapt existing sector and NRC training packages on Site Management Support, Mobile Site Management, UDOC, Community Engagement and Coordination to the local context. The PfV Specialist will work with the Site Management Advisory Team to identify relevant training opportunities.
• Develop relevant SOPs and monitoring mechanisms to ensure high programme quality standards based on Site Management Minimum Standards and on Safe and Inclusive Programming (SIP).
• Develop and/or maintain a protection monitoring and analysis system to identify trends, threats, risks and mitigation measures affecting communities and individuals. The focus of monitoring and analysis efforts will be to prevent and respond to violence and coercion experienced by people in the target areas.
• Develop and/or maintain a site monitoring and analysis system to identify needs, gaps, and the overall condition of the collective sites. The focus of these efforts will be to coordinate a response within NRC supported collective sites and to inform the humanitarian response in the collective sites more broadly.
• Analyse response data to produce succinct, analytical Protection and Site Management reports, to be shared with both external and internal stakeholders, highlighting key protection / displacement trends and concerns.

1. Generic Professional Competencies

• A master’s degree in a relevant field (law, social sciences or related disciplines). An advanced academic qualification will be an added advantage.
• Minimum 4 years of experience within technical expertise area in a humanitarian/ recovery context.
• Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities.
• Knowledge and skills in market analysis, cash-based interventions and market-based programmes.
• Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile.
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal.

1. Context /Specific Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Experience managing a complex protection programme including implementation, programme development, fundraising and budget development. Experience in site management programme implementation is an added advantage.
• Excellent understanding of key technical standards (IASC, protection mainstreaming, IHL, gender and humanitarian principles, donor markers on gender and disability etc.) and a demonstrated ability to integrate them into programming.
• Knowledge of the Nigeria humanitarian context.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Arabic is an advantage.
• Experience with start-up, scale-up projects and emergency contexts.
• Specific expertise in monitoring and analysis of displacement trends, collective sites, and protection risks (quantitative and qualitative data), including in the absence or regular, consistent or reliable data.

Find more details about the role HERE.

1. What We Offer

• Type of contract: 12 months renewable based on funding, performance, and the need for the position.
• Salary/benefits: According to NRC salary scale, terms and conditions.
• Duty station: Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Find out more about the benefits of working for NRC HERE.

Important information about the application process:

• Internal candidates only: please click on the suitcase icon labelled “I am an employee” to be redirected to NRC’s internal careers site.
• When creating your profile, include your full name as given on your passport. Complete all the system-required fields for experience, employment history and education.
• Submit your application and CV in English, taking care to attach your latest CV.
• Applications that do not meet the minimum standards in terms of experience or qualifications will generally not be considered. Unsolicited applications not related to this specific job advertisement will not be considered.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We receive many applicants for each vacant position.

Why NRC?

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organization helping people forced to flee. Our 15,000 staff work in crises across 40 countries, providing life-saving and long-term assistance to millions of people every year.

Watch this short video to see NRC in action.

NRC in Nigeria stands in solidarity with displacement-affected Nigerian communities to meet their basic needs, improve their livelihoods, enhance their self-reliance and access longer term solutions. In 2023, NRC reached over 401,126 people with assistance through different core competencies, including thematic areas like Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). Additionally, NRC in Nigeria works on building self-reliance and enabling pathways to durable solutions as per the 2022–25 country strategy.

The crisis across the north-eastern BAY region (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states) continues to see a deteriorating humanitarian situation. The scope of the crisis, coupled with increased insurgency, has started affecting other parts of Nigeria, including the north-western states of Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina, and the central states of Plateau, Benue and Taraba. A total of 8.1 million people remain in need of assistance, of whom 2.1 million are internally displaced.

Protection remains a grave concern for many, especially for girls and women living in camp settings, who are at higher risk of gender-based violence. Overcrowding in many of the camps severely affects living conditions for internally displaced people (IDPs). Almost all of those living in camps or camp-like settings endure inadequate conditions and services, such as overcrowding, protection risks, and insufficient WASH facilities and food.

• Learn more about NRC HERE and NRC Nigeria HERE.

Internal candidates are encouraged to apply, and we are also open to external applicants who can show a commitment to NRC and being part of a challenging, but important mission to make a difference.

NRC might review applications before the advertised deadline, therefore interested candidates are encouraged to apply early.