Senior Protection Assistant – G5 – MTL164 – UNOPS Contract - Mount Lebanon

General Background

Lebanon remains the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with over one million Syrian refugees, and around 20,000 refugees of Iraqi, Sudanese, Ethiopian and other origins, in addition to the Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate. There are no formal camps for Syrian refugees in the country, and refugees are living in hundreds of communities and locations across the country. 

The refugee response is led by the Government and local actors, supported by the international community. As the designated lead agency in the refugee response, UNHCR has established a sector-based structure in Beirut and in the field. The structure brings together over 100 UN agencies, national and international NGO partners in identifying and agreeing on the strategic priorities to address the needs of Syrian refugees and other affected populations. The Lebanon national response falls under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), whereby UNHCR guides the refugee response and UNDP facilitates the resilience and stabilization component.

The UNHCR operational response in Lebanon is one of the largest for the organization. Media attention and the frequency of influential high-profile visitors is high. Aside from the country office in the capital city of Beirut, UNHCR has offices in Mt Lebanon, Qobayat, Tripoli, Tyre and Zahle.

The Senior Protection Assistant reports to the Assistant Protection officer for Child Protection and Gender-Based Violence (GBV). S/he monitors child protection standards, operational procedures and practices in protection delivery in line with international standards and provides functional protection support to programme staff.   The Senior Protection Assistant is expected to coordinate quality, timely and effective protection responses to the needs of populations of concern (children, women, marginalized groups) and is responsible for implementation of Best Interests Procedures for children at risk in their area of responsibility, under the guidance of the supervisor.  S/he identifies opportunities to mainstream Child Protection methodologies and integrate protection safeguards in operational responses in all sectors and liaises externally with authorities and partners on protection doctrine and policy as guided by the supervisor.  The Senior Protection Assistant also ensures that persons of concern under area of responsibility are involved with the Office in making decisions that affect them, whether in accessing their rights or in identifying appropriate solutions to their problems. To achieve this, the incumbent will need to build and maintain effective interfaces with communities of concern, local authorities and protection and assistance partners.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

Needs identification, Strategy and Advocacy

Contribute to assessing child protection issues through multi-sectoral and protection specific assessments.

Ensure compliance with UNHCR’s child protection policy, priorities and commitments, as well as other aligned policies on age, gender, diversity (AGD) and accountability to affected populations (AAP), GBV, gender equality, disability and youth empowerment.

Undertake consultation with children, youth and communities and provide information on appropriate and meaningful approaches for their effective participation and programmatic responses on child protection issues.

Provide input to Protection Unit to inform advocacy to address key child protection concerns.

Programme planning and implementation

Engage children, youth and communities in the implementation of child protection activities, provide information to children, youth and communities about child protection services and monitor and report on needs and issues to inform the Operation’s Response.

Conduct Best Interest Procedures for individual children at heightened risks and prepare Best Interests Determination reports, when required.

Assist in review of Best Interest Assessments and Best Interest Determinations prepared by partners. 

Participate in the Best Interests Procedure Case Conferences and BID panels and draft associated documentation as required.

Ensure up to date and effective referral to key child protection and other relevant multi-sectoral services. 

Monitor and support appropriate care arrangements for unaccompanied and separated children and referral of children to ICRC or other relevant partners for establishment of family linkages.

Regularly report on emerging protection issues and concerns voiced by children, youth and communities and assist in drafting reports, compiling and preparing data for the protection unit.

Provide functional guidance to UNHCR and partner staff involved in child protection activities.

Partnership, coordination and capacity building

Assist the Child Protection interagency coordination activities as needed.

Coordinate with relevant stakeholders on individual child protection cases where relevant, including the Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon (UPEL), operational partners, and relevant ministries (such as Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Social Affairs). 

Provide technical support and monitoring to child protection partners.

Support in implementing learning activities for UNHCR and partners staff and communities.

Perform other related duties as required.

Monitoring and Progress Controls

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR’s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

The Sr Protection Assistant will set clear and concise performance objectives in coordination with his/her superviser. These will be revised on a monthly basis and feedback on performance will be provided. Key performance indicators will be the number of cases counselled, number of case referrals made, number of partner performance reports reviewed, number of meetings with partners and number of training courses organised.