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 50 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 deliver 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.

IRC Northern Central America (NCA) has operations in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, which includes158 staff members across the three countries and responds to the humanitarian crisis of violence, displacement and the most vulnerable populations including returnees, SOGIESC , gender-based violence (GBV) survivors, children, adolescents, and indigenous persons. The IRC has active programming of Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE), Child Protection (CP), Economic Development and Recovery (ERD), Protection and Rule of Law (ProL) and Education programming in the three countries.

The Women’s Protection and Empowerment Technical Coordinator will serve as the overall technical lead for the WPE programs and will be responsible for providing strategic direction and vision to the IRC’s GBV prevention, mitigation, and response efforts in Northern Central America. The WPE Technical Coordinator will be responsible for the implementation of high-quality service provision especially focused on groups such as women, girls, adolescents, and persons of diverse SOGIESC. The WPE Technical Coordinator will oversee the WPE team staff-anticipated to include 60 people- with three direct reports ( WPE Managers of each country of NCA), and will focus on providing technical support and training, consolidating the WPE programming in alignment with the regional Protection Strategy, ensure WPE representation in coordination spaces, provide guidance on business development and capacity building and partnerships with civil society organizations and governmental institutions serving populations affected by gender based violence within the country.

The WPE Technical Coordinator will scale up programming in the three countries including GBV case management, strategies of risk mitigation, provision of women and girls safe spaces, prevention programming, community mobilization, adolescent programming particularly for populations that are displaced or on the move, building on the initial programmatic strategy in NCA, interacting with technical colleagues in HQ and ensuring technical quality, monitoring and evaluation, adequate supervision, quality assurance, partner identification, scale-up and implementation that corresponds to the current Strategic Action Plan. The WPE Technical Coordinator will be fundamental to fundraising efforts and business development as well as donor engagement for the WPE programming portfolio and will work closely with the IRC NCA Deputy Directors of Programs (DDPs), Operations, Finance and other support area leads to ensure proper programmatic planning, budgeting and continuously review the implementation strategy for effectiveness and fit for purpose, as well as to support the adaptation of the model for further expansion throughout the region, as needed.

The WPE Technical Coordinator will report directly to the IRC NCA Deputy Director of Programs in the country he/she/they is based.

Responsibilities

Technical Quality

• Provide technical support and guidance to the implementation of the WPE programs in accordance with best practices, international minimum standards, and IRC policies, ensuring they reflect the local and contextual needs.

• Contributes technically to the development of the NCA WPE Program Strategy planning and documentation, in consultation with the technical unit and in collaboration with the IRC NCA DDPs

• Provides technical guidance on confidential and safe data collection, case identification, safe information sharing and referral mechanisms in line with internationally recognised best practices.

• Lead the identification of key partners (including women´ led organizations, women´s rights organizations, civil society organizations and/or community-based organizations) working with in WPE areas

• Provides support to improve quality of specialized services available in country in addition to contributing to the standardization of WPE protocols, referral pathways and SOP’s.

• Liaise with WPE Technical Advisor and WPE Specialists at HQ to ensure program quality.

Coordination and Advocacy

• Participate in coordination mechanisms at the national, and, as appropriate, at the NCA regional level.

• Participate in GBV coordination mechanisms and position the IRC as a leader in coordination spaces.

• Participate in national and NCA region advocacy and coordination spaces. Provide inputs when requested to policy briefs and technical statements as well as contribute to Humanitarian Response Plans of NCA countries.

Staff Supervision and Development

• Directly supervises NCA´ WPE Managers and provides training, quality oversight to and mentoring of the WPE teams and support in remote management of field teams.

• Ensure a focus on providing adequate capacity building and training, as well as professional development opportunities, based in best practices and IRC methodologies for IRC staff and partners.

• 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.

• Ensure timely completion and submission of monthly timesheets, probation reviews and performance reviews.

• Overall responsible for staff work plans, calendars, work and vacation schedules, and staff training/development

• If/as required identify staff performance issues and work with direct supervisors and Human Resources to document and address these in accordance with the National Staff Employment Policies.

• Ensure compliance with IRC´s Safeguarding mechanisms, policies and procedures during WPE service design, implementation and monitoring.

Business Development, Project Management and Monitoring and Evaluation

• Lead proposal development inputs, including technical design, writing and partner coordination for WPE.

• Support positioning and networking to pursue new funding opportunities to deliver on the program strategy and scale up different implementation modalities that are cost-efficient and sustainable.

• Analyse protection concerns for children, adolescents, women, girls and GBV survivors, as well as SOGIESC persons in NCA and throughout all three countries and propose new areas of work to IRC.

• Lead the overall implementation of the WPE programming together with WPE Managers and Grants team and managers including: provide guidance to the staff to ensure that stated goals and objectives are met according to donor requirements and interagency standards, that projects are appropriately monitored and evaluated, and that project reports are well written and submitted in a timely manner.

• Together with WPE teams, prepare project work plans, spending plans and budgetary forecast, tracking and monitoring tools that meet the program objectives and prepare appropriate operational guidelines for field staff;

• Ensure consistent and regular field monitoring and implement quality assurance modifications as required.

• Support adaptation of the program strategy, staffing structure, etc. as needed.

• Internally coordinate with other support areas (finance, supply chain, MEAL, HHRR) to ensure operational, technical and financial management of projects.

Other Reporting and Duties

• Provide support to other reporting requests by the MEAL area, NCA DDPs, Country Director, or Technical Units.

• Participate actively in the Extended Senior Management Team of NCA, strategic initiatives, donor and HQ visits, and any other activities as assigned.

• Consistently and proactively monitor/assess the safety and security of the team; promptly reporting concerns or incidents to the senior management team and liaising with external parties as needed in line with IRC security protocols to maintain/enhance the security environment for IRC programs.

• As needed, support DDPs for occasional tasks that may arise that are not detailed above.

Job requirements

Education

• Advanced degree in women’s studies, protection, humanitarian response, social work, psychology, human rights, international law, social sciences or related fields.

Work Experience:

• At least six years of experience implementing GBV projects, providing technical assistance, and monitoring women’s protection and/or protection programming in emergency settings or complex security contexts; professional experience in NCA is strongly preferred.

• Solid knowledge and understanding of international gender-based violence and women and girls’ protection standards and best practices in humanitarian response and development contexts.

• Applied experience in mental health and psychosocial support programming.

• Demonstrated experience in technical training, capacity building and mentoring of staff, as well as identified partner organizations

• Must be capable of applying skills and knowledge in a range of capacities, including direct implementation, advisory functions, training, and the transfer of technical knowledge and management skills to others.

• Demonstrated experience and success working in partnership models with CSOs, Women led organizations, women´s rights organizations and with remote management.

• Demonstrated capacity to work with innovative systems and creative approaches to programming.

• Experience working with new technologies and/or hotlines is an asset.

• Strong program, people and budget management skills including planning and reporting across multiple grants and countries

• Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representation and liaison with internal and external parties

• Strong program/technical and budget management skills, planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation skills

• Fluency in Spanish and English is required

• INGO experience is required

• Self-starters, proactive and creative thinkers and feminists are welcome (demonstrable competencies in gender equity, equality and inclusion-oriented skills will be considered as an asset)

Applicants that reflect our target beneficiaries’ identities including the LGBTQI+ community, indigenous and Afro-Caribbean populations are encouraged to apply. CVS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN ENGLISH

**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.