Protection Officer – Qudra 2

Expertise France is the French public agency for international technical assistance. The agency provides partner countries with knowledge, skills and management expertise in:

• Democratic, economic, and financial governance,
• Stability, international security and peace,
• Sustainable development, climate and agriculture,
• Health and human development.

Expertise France designs and implements cooperation projects addressing skills transfers between professionals. The agency also develops integrated offers, assembling public and private expertise in order to respond to the partner countries' needs.

With a business volume of 148 million Euros, a portfolio of over 500 projects in 100 countries, and 63,000 days of expert missions every year, Expertise France promotes French and European development policy goals.

Context and needs

The Middle East is currently experiencing a profound crisis. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq are both a reflection and a transmitter of this crisis, with growing potential to further destabilize neighbouring countries and the wider region. These crises have resulted in a humanitarian disaster affecting more than 13.5 million people who were forced to flee their homes from Syria, and more than 17 million people in need of humanitarian aid (12.2 in Syria and 5.2 in Iraq).

Lebanon is now home to the largest number of Syrian refugees per capita relative to its total population, putting a severe strain on the country’s fragile infrastructures, economy, and security. The population of Lebanon was estimated at about 4.8 million (including almost half a million Palestinian refugees) in 2013. Even though Lebanon has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, up to date it has taken in about a fourth of its own population. According to UNHCR, in September 2016 about 1,017,433 persons from Syria were registered as refugees in Lebanon.  In the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan 2017- 2020 (2018 update) (LCRP), the total number of people living in Lebanon is estimated at 5.9 million, with 3.3 million people in need.

Qudra 2 Programme in Lebanon

’Qudra – Resilience for Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities in response to the Syrian and Iraqi crises’ is a regional action financed by the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, the Madad Fund, and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), seeking to strengthen the resilience of Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities in response to the Syrian and Iraqi crises.  The Programme launched in June 2016 has been jointly implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Expertise France (EF) and the Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID) in Programme partner countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and North Iraq.

In Lebanon, Expertise France implemented the first phase of Qudra between June 2016 and August 2019.  Starting from September 2019, EF started implementing Qudra 2, another 3-year programme. The project seeks to contribute to the reinforcement of the national protection system by supporting the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA), and improving the level of protection of refugees and host communities through the following major components:

(i) Local and national protection systems and service delivery capacities are strengthened, (ii) Protection measures for the self-development and wellbeing of marginalised children and adults are promoted.

Expertise France works within the framework of the LCRP and MoSA National Plan for Safeguarding Women and Children in close partnership with MoSA. The programme will be implemented in at least 12 SDCs of the MoSA. Expertise France will select in total several local NGOs as implementing partners, over 3 years, following a precise programme drafted by EF with MoSA.

To support the implementation of Qudra 2, in particular the component on child protection systems strengthening, EF is seeking to hire a qualified Protection Officer.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the general supervision of the Project Manager and in coordination with the Project Expert, the Protection Officer is responsible for providing professional technical contribution to the project planning, implementation, and monitoring, in particular with regard to the protection systems strengthening component of the project. The position encompasses technical guidance and supervision of capacity building, coaching interventions in relation to protection matters both on a regular and ad hoc basis. The responsibilities also include close liaison with relevant stakeholders on protection-related matters.

In coordination with MoSA and the Project Manager, the Protection Officer will perform the following duties:

Quality Assurance and Monitoring

• Provide quality assurance of the Protection activities implemented by all NGO and SDC staff in the SDCs and through Oussra Mobile Units
• Support the development, capitalization, revision and proper utilization of Child Protection (CP), Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Protection curricula, guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) needed for the activities, in line with existing MoSA guidelines and its National Protection Plan
• Review and analyze project data to identify protection trends, including in order to improve reporting, referral (as appropriate) and response, ensuring complete confidentiality

Capacity Building and Coaching

• Participate, with the Project Manager, in the recruitment of the protection consultants /trainers and case management coaches, including by drafting TORs in consultation with MoSA
• Support the development of required guidelines in close consultation with MoSA and relevant stakeholders
• Provide technical and programmatic support to assess the capacity building needs (incl. coaching) of Qudra staff (NGO and SDC staff)
• Ensure the implementation of the programmatic capacity building plan, incl. through coaching, for Qudra staff and coordinate the tasks of the protection trainers and case management coaches (e.g. preparation of the trainings, revision of the curricula, development of training content if need be, assessment of the impact of capacity building (incl. through coaching) interventions)
• Supervise at technical level the case management coaches recruited by Expertise France to support selected staff in SDCs

Project Implementation

• Together with the Project Manager and the Project Expert, participate in the selection of new SDCs to be included in the project / and SDCs to be handed over to MoSA
• In consultation with MoSA, support the drafting of ToRs for all SDC and NGO staff allocated to protection activities, develop/adapt codes of conduct and monitor their implementation
• Support all SDC and NGO staff at local level on how to identify critical protection cases and reinforce the follow-up system

Other Duties

• Travel to all project locations across Lebanon to meet relevant stakeholders and especially Qudra NGO partners and the SDCs to monitor the protection activities, especially case management activities
• Share technical expertise during coordination meetings, and meetings organized at MoSA  head office in Beirut as agreed with the Project Manager
• Promote protection risk assessments, compliance with ‘do no harm’ principle, and effective referral system in close collaboration with other protection actors at field level
• Monitor and analyze the operating environment and provide regular updates and/or briefings on local and national developments related to protection to Expertise France, Qudra partners and MoSA whenever relevant/applicable
• Promote enhanced understanding of protection issues among all stakeholders and ensure compliance with International Protection and Humanitarian Law standards
• Participate in all Expertise France internal and team meetings
• Perform any other relevant duty as may be required

Required qualifications

• Master’s degree in Social Work, Sociology, Psychology, International Development or any related Social Sciences field.
• At least five years of relevant professional work experience, including managing protection projects.
• Proven experience of managing and/or coordinating capacity development initiatives
• Previous experience in developing curricula and protection guidelines.
• Perfect understanding of the protection needs of impoverished communities located in urban and peri-urban settings.
• Excellent knowledge of the Lebanese context and of the relationships between host and refugee communities.
• Good communication, negotiation and networking skills.
• Ability to deliver quality work while meeting tight deadlines.
• Professional working knowledge of English and Arabic is required. French is an asset.