Economic Recovery Officer - Mentorship

DRC has been responding to various humanitarian crises in Lebanon since 2004, working with Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees. DRC received registration from the Ministry of Interior in 2011, and since then has focused primarily on responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon and the resulting impact on Lebanese host community. DRC Lebanon’s focus is to ensure that we are able to respond to critical emerging humanitarian needs whilst improve the living conditions of displacement-affected populations and contribute to the achievement of durable solutions.   With an annual portfolio of $12million, and with approximately 200+ staff,  DRC is focusing its response in protection and economic recovery (Ec-Rec) sector in Bekka, North Lebanon and Beirut. DRC is also contributing to the evidence base and coordination structures in country through our Evidence Generation and referral information management (RIMs) teams

About the job

The Economic Recovery Officer will take on the role of a mentor in the Graduation Approach project implemented in North. The Graduation Approach is a holistic model focusing on developing resilient and self-reliant households through a range of activities including group-based training and mentorship services, livelihood support, and social protection activities. The Graduation Mentor will be responsible for mentoring project participants on a one-to-one basis through home-visits. The Graduation Mentor will build the trust with each household, identify their economic and social needs, and coach them to plan and have a longer-term vision for their household. Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Responsibilities:

Program Implementation:

• Provide mentorship services to vulnerable households in North through home visits conducted once-every two weeks for each household, as per Graduation Approach coaching curriculum and SOPs
• Provide individual household- and group-based awareness sessions, trainings and coaching. Topics of training include a mix of economic recovery and protection sessions, merge in an existing curriculum
• Actively lead the implementation of the mentorship activities in a way that ensures coherence between planned activities and commitments outlined in project proposals and Coordinate actively and closely with other economic recovery team members and protection team to ensure the implementation of the other components of the mentorship services.
• Lead the outreach process to vulnerable communities and engagement of households to explain the program interventions and goals in detail, in coordination with the community centers, municipalities, partner organizations, and in collaboration with other DRC programs and partners’ programs
• Organize and perform socio-economic profiling assessment and career counselling sessions. Work on information systems/database to record relevant data of beneficiaries. Report any information system issue and coordinate accordingly with the information management team
• Provide multi-purpose cash assistance (for consumption) to selected households
• Support development and implementation of livelihood plan for each household
• Specifically refer youth of the supported households to the other Economic Recovery services within the project, in close coordination with the entire Economic Recovery team in North
• Coordinate with partners to provide financial inclusion services and agriculture inputs to the households, follow-up on the participation of each household in each of these activities
• Provide beneficiaries with relevant information on the Labour market, Lebanese regulations and their implications for Lebanese and non-Lebanese , and assess and refer safely participants to partners organizations that cater to specialized needs.
• Support the Team Leader in mapping livelihood actors and training service providers and engage with them in the possibility of referring participants to their trainings, cash for work project, BDS programs etc. Follow up and monitor referred participants to ensure participants successfully received the needed services

Monitoring and Reporting:

• Monitor the quality of sessions provided as part of the mentorship curriculum, ensuring covid-19 adjustments and follow up on curriculum execution
• Keep track of the project, update timeline and produce report upon economic recovery Team Leader’s requests
• Prepare reports about progress of activities and achievement of targets
• Provide regular reports on results of mentorship and satisfaction of beneficiaries. Provide suggestions for improvement if needed.
• Ensure strong engagement with beneficiaries targeted and make sure their enquiries are answered in a timely manner. Similarly, inform beneficiaries about the feedbacks and complaints mechanism and the hotline number.
• Work closely with the monitoring and evaluation department to facilitate monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure program implementation is on track and of highest quality and ensure that all reporting and referrals through RIMS is done through the relevant online platforms

Administration:

• With strong collaboration with the economic recovery Team Leader ensure that the technical aspects of the project are running in accordance with the project’s objectives and DRC’s strategies
• Work closely with operational staff to ensure a proper management and follow up on order requests, payment requests and financial forecast of program activities. In particular, the economic recovery Officer is in charge of all the HR and administration, including procurement, that is directly in relation with mentorship implemented activities.

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to have a minimum of a Bachelor University degree; preferably related to international development, social sciences, economics or psychology. Moreover, we also expect the following:

Required

• At least 2 years of experience in the direct provision of economic recovery, protection, social services, including providing mentorship, PSS, technical skills training, awareness raising on a range of livelihoods and protection topics to vulnerable households.
• Demonstrated understanding of issues faced by the most vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugee households
• Knowledge of employment challenges in Lebanon including barriers to employment for women and youth, process of acquiring work permits and registering home-based business, etc.
• Excellent communication and reporting skills, and comfortable speaking in a group and leading training sessions
• Ability to conduct training sessions based on procedures mentioned in training curriculum and SOPs
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to foster communication and negotiation
• High integrity and willingness to conduct her/himself transparently and open to constructive feedback
• Genuine care and respect for needs of others, particularly vulnerable populations
• Committed to working according to DRC and to protection principles
• Arabic (fluent) with excellent verbal communication skills.
• English (good) in written and spoken
• Preferred qualifications:
• Knowledge and experience of working in North is a plus
• Previous relevant experience in social work and case management is an advantage

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies: 

• Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process. 
• Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback. 
• Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation. 
• Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.  
• Demonstrating integrity: Upholding and promoting the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to DRC’s values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer

• Contract length: Until December 2022
• Band/Level: H
• Duty Station: North
• Start date: March 2022
• Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates; please refer to drc.ngo under Vacancies. For questions regarding the vacancy please contact sama.kanaan@drc.ngo