Community Outreach Coordinator Beqaa

PROGRAM SUMMARY: Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. The agency pursues its mission through emergency relief services, sustainable community development, civil society and economic development initiatives. Mercy Corps has been present in the Middle East since the 1980s and currently has offices in Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya. Working in Lebanon since 1993, Mercy Corps promotes economic development and increased opportunity for marginalized communities while responding to emergencies as they have emerged. Until recently Mercy Corps’ focus has focused on bolstering civil society and give voice to under-represented groups through the empowerment of young leaders. Recently, the country office portfolio expanded in response to the massive refugee influx from Syria, to address key needs like non-food items/winterization, water and sanitation, child protection, and capacity building. The conflict that began more than three years ago in Syria has resulted in a steady increase in Syrian refugees to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.  To date, more than one million refugees have fled to Lebanon, and the numbers continue to mount. All refugees who have entered Lebanon are staying with host families or in rented accommodation.  As numbers rapidly increase, humanitarian conditions are deteriorating.  The burden on host communities and the financial and emotional stress on refugees and their hosts is tremendous. Mercy Corps is responding to these needs by addressing urgent basic needs, child protection as well as the psychosocial impact of the conflict and displacement.  A growing programmatic focus is on mitigating the emerging tensions between hosts and refugees, particularly over economic resources, by addressing both livelihood opportunities and conflict mitigation capacity. UNHCR recently calculated that approximately 34% of refugees have specific protection needs including women and children at-risk, and survivors of GBV. In response, Mercy Corps proposes a 12-month integrated WASH and Protection program aimed at addressing basic WASH needs and immediate protection/GBV concerns of approximately 53,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees and Lebanese host populations (47% Lebanese, 53% Syrian refugees) in low income underserved urban areas and rural settlements in Bekaa and South Lebanon Governorates.   GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY: The GBV Prevention and Response Officer will be the first representative of Mercy Corps and the program amongst the local community. He/she will closely work with local communities, NGOs, local authorities and other civic or community groups to ensure that Mercy Corps and the program have widespread acceptance and facilitate achieving the impact of the program.   ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS: The Prevention and Response Officer will be working to support the increase access of survivors of GBV to available and specialized services, by:  Foster and maintaining positive relationships with local communities, NGOs, local authorities and other civic or community groups; Liaise with key stakeholders to build Mercy Corps acceptance within local communities to facilitate program implementation, including informing the wider community actors about Mercy Corps’ programming, as well as with relevant Mercy Corps staff to ensure programmatic synergies; Collaborate with partners to ensure coherent plan of actions, division of labor, etc; Liaise and coordinating with targeted field actors and IPs, in order to set the ground for partnerships in schools, community based organizations and centers and key actors. Partake in the design/development of Educational modules and tools to be used in the awareness sessions and trainings with school-aged children and caregivers as well school and community centres staff. Provide support for the delivery of safe programming activities in the region Plan and lead community based GBV activities, including mobilizing, capacity building, and programme planning development in the field Lead capacity building on GBV issues and develop alliances with local agencies working in the field on GBV enhancing coordination and adoption of new approaches Monitor the implementation process to ensure the achievement of project deliverables in terms of cost, time and quality. Work closely with the partners for the identification and mobilization of key actors, involved in the building of community-based networks. Foster the establishment of and capacity building for male-led networks, to raise awareness on GBV prevention, risk mitigation and access to services/ referral pathways in different cazas across the South Lebanon The Community Outreach Coordinator will also: Conduct regular monitoring and generate monitoring report on qualitative and quantitative progress of program; Prepare weekly and monthly plan for the team Carry out field assessments, identify and analyze trends, protection concerns, etc;; Participate in monitoring and evaluation system design and implementation for all aspects of the project, including monitoring program progress by developing and applying monitoring tools; Contribute to weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting; Ensure that all required documentation from field work is prepared professionally and properly filed; Establish and maintain a comprehensive filing system for the mobilization activities including project documents, monitoring notes and photos; Provide written and verbal translation of documents, project papers, at meetings, etc. as requested; Implement Mercy Corps’ Gender Equity policy and applies Do No Harm approaches; 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 assigned tasks, as necessary.    SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: N/A ACCOUNTABILITY: REPORTS DIRECTLY TO:  GBV Program Manager   WORKS DIRECTLY WITH:  Program, Operations, Finance, and M&E Teams COLLABORATES DIRECTLY WITH: WASH and other sectors   KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:  Protection-related programs experience preferred; Gender-based Violence programs experience preferred; Strong understanding of GBV in emergency context; Excellent understanding on GBV prevention Strong experience and ability to work with men and boys to reduce violence against women and girls. Ability to the design, implementation and deliver GBV trainings Excellent communications skills, with good understanding of relevant cross-cultural issues and ability to work with refugee and host community populations; Written and oral communication skills in English preferred; Positive, respectful attitude and collaborative approach to problem solving; Demonstrated attention to detail; ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently as well as cooperatively with team members; Significant knowledge and understanding of the current political, economic, cultural and historical context of South Lebanon preferred; SUCCESS FACTORS: The successful GBV Prevention and Response Officer will have community outreach skills and experience in protection and GBV programming. S/he will have an outstanding ability to communicate verbally and create positive working relationships based on trust and transparency with target communities, and other stakeholders. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and working independently are essential. Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving is essential in a complex security and political environment like Lebanon. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.