Gender & Protection Program Officer at Mercy Corps

Reference Number: MDG/HUMOPS/2018/00033
Location: Ngala and Gwoza – Borno

Program / Department Summary

• Mercy Corps Nigeria’s humanitarian program aims to provide assistance to populations affected by the crisis in Northeast Nigeria.
• With funding from humanitarian donors including OFDA, FFP, EU, and ECHO the humanitarian programs engage in several interventions including but not limited to food assistance, non-food items, protection, livelihoods, WASH and capacity building of humanitarian response actors.
• Mercy Corps is scaling-up and expanding its humanitarian response in Northeast Nigeria to reach more beneficiaries with additional assistance in a wider geographic area.

General Position Summary

• The Gender and Protection Program Officer is responsible for assisting in the implementation of Protection sector activities including the mobilization of women’s groups, training on topics such as psychological first aid, and sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), and the validation of referral pathways in Borno state, Northeast Nigeria.
• With the support of the Senior Program Officer, s/he will also advise and build capacity of other sector teams on gender and protection mainstreaming and best practices.
• S/he will report directly to the Protection & Gender Senior Program Officer and will work closely with other sectors.

Essential Job Functions

• Oversee the implementation of protection activities and ensured adequate gender mainstreaming across program field locations;
• Develop activity work plans and manage day-to-day activity implementation related to gender and protection;
• Ensure that program implementation mainstreams gender and protection in coordination with other sectors in line with best practices;
• Ensure that beneficiaries are effectively targeted according to vulnerability criteria;
• Lead where necessary community meetings to identify gender related priorities and protection concerns.
• Establish and maintain effective program reporting, and monitoring and evaluation systems (to track, analyze and report on results) for both internal and external use;
• Integrate community approaches, protection mainstreaming, gender sensitivity and capacity building into all activities as appropriate;
• Ensure program filing system is in place, adheres to internal and donor regulation and filing is regularly maintained;
• Adhere to all MC policies related to security, operations and transport/ logistics information related to programming.
• Support orientation for all new staff on MC guidelines on gender and protection mainstreaming. If necessary organize capacity building sessions for other sector staff on gender and protection.
• Report on any problems encountered in the field such as project participant complaints, local authority interference, and security threats to MC staff and activities. Coordinate with MC Security Officer and Gender & Protection Senior Program Officer on any threats to MC staff and activities.
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
• Other duties as assigned.

Accountability to Beneficiaries:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
• to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Accountability

• Supervisory Responsibility: Gender and protection Program Assistants
• Reports Directly To: Senior Gender and Protection Program Officer
• Works Directly With: Finance, Program, MEL, and Operation Teams

Knowledge and Experience

• BA/BS in relevant field required;
• 3 years of experience working on the development, implementation, administration and compliance of a field-based international development or humanitarian program; general gender and protection mainstreaming experience & knowledge required.
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders to identify beneficiaries according to criteria required.
• Experience with conducting gender analysis, protection assessments, monitoring and evaluation and other learning efforts required.
• Experience representing the organization and its interests to a diverse range of local and international government officials, local civil society organizations, other international organizations, the media and the public.
• Commitment to renewing and maintaining knowledge of best practices
• Demonstrated strengths in analytical skills, monitoring and evaluation, and report writing
• Strong interpersonal, intercultural and communication skills
• Excellent oral and written skills and computer skills
• Fluency in English and Hausa is required.

Success Factors:

• The successful candidate will have a can-do attitude. Ideally s/he will have previous experience in working in large-scale emergency programs in insecure and conflict-affected contexts.
• S/he is a problem solver, an effective community mobilizer who is adept in successfully dealing with issues of complexity.
• S/he is an active listener and contributor, working to create a strong team share ideas and learn.