FRL Liaison Officer

Basmeh and Zeitooneh is a registered Lebanese organization, committed to serving refugees and vulnerable communities in Lebanon, through four community centers across the country. The organization runs educational, relief, livelihoods, and protection programs, and aims to serve as an inclusive and supportive focal point for the entire community.

Basmeh & Zeitooneh (B&Z) is hiring an FRL Liaison Officer to be based full-time in Beirut at the B&Z HQ in Furn El Chebbak.

Reports To:  FRL Project Manager ( Civil Society Enablement Unit)

Job Purpose : 

Through the Fostering Refugee Leadership project, the refugee community in Lebanon will have more agency in their lives, to have a say and be able to influence the solutions that suit them. It all starts with them identifying the problems, the root of the problems, their needs, the obstacles, and then they will decide on the best solutions for their community. Basmeh & Zeitooneh role’s will be to facilitate this road and provide the necessary resources.

The FRL will pursue the actualization of the below two main objectives:

• 80 refugee-led and co-lead initiatives are supported through capacity-building programs.
• 30 initiatives (out of the 80 initiatives) will benefit from medium grants provision schemes that will fully or partially finance the implementation of their community programs and interventions as per the community needs.

The FRL Liaison Officer is therefore responsible for coordinating, facilitating, and contributing to reporting all FRL project’s field and implementation work in alignment with the set action plans and timeframes. The FRL Liaison Officer is expected to have a well-established knowledge of the Lebanese context with a particular focus on areas with a high concentration of refugees as well as refugee-led initiatives and organizations. The ideal candidate is expected to have sound field experience with excellent communication skills, in addition to a proper conflict-sensitive and problem-solving way of communication.

Major Activities : 

• Maintain day-to-day coordination among all relevant project stakeholders in order to ensure the healthy performance of the project activities while compared with the relevant action plans; starting from the Project Coordinator, team members, B&Z Lebanon Country team and Center Coordinators, as well as all relevant participants and representatives of enrolled organizations and initiatives.
• Act through a proactive approach in order to predict, avoid and/or mitigate any possible operational risks, obstacles, and conflicts that might interrupt the healthy performance of the project activities.
• Assist the Project Coordinator with day-to-day coordination related to interview booking, transport booking as well as arranging the relevant logistical requirements.
• Assist the Project Coordinator with planning for, coordinating, and conducting any possible external participation (such as webinars, workshops, conventions, etc) in addition to acting as a primary focal point towards the project’s potential vendors, venue providers, etc.
• Act as a focal point towards the participants while liaising for training workshops, venues, required logistics in constant coordination with B&Z Support Services Department and Lebanon Operations team.
• Ensure all relevant project documentation is collected and in place, ordered, and organized as per the Project Coordinator’s instructions.
• Act as the primary focal point towards the potential project participants during the training delivery stage.
• Act as the primary liaison focal point to potential participants during the implementation of the training workshops, presentations, collective activities; taking into consideration the different backgrounds of participants and paying focused attention to any possible dispute that might arise.
• Hold and keep active that primary project phone number during the standard working hours, in alignment with the instructions of the Project Coordinator.
• Contribute to activating and keeping active to the project’s email account in coordination with the Project Coordinator.
• Provide the necessary facilitation to possible visits to the relevant project activities (that might exceed the project activities to the activities of its target participants), B&Z PR & Communication team visits, B&Z management visits, donor and partner visits, as well as potential collaborators and supporters’ visits.
• Ensure that B&Z (and possible the project’s) complaints and feedback mechanism(s) are accessible and visible to ALL possible participants and stakeholders, in coordination with the PR & Communication team as well as the relevant B&Z staff member (such as B&Z’s complaints focal point)
• Ensure that the project field and day-to-day implementation are made according to and in alignment with B&Z policies and standard operating procedures.
• Ensure and hold the primary responsibility and accountability that any possible cases of the below-mentioned cases that are duly reported through the appropriate means in alignment with B&Z’s policies and procedures: Sexual and/or Gender-based exploitation and/or abuse, bribery, fraud, as well as any other behavior/incidents that are not considered as harm-doing, safeguarding-breaching, or unacceptable according to B&Z policies and Code of Conduct.
• Ensure, in coordination and collaboration with the Project Coordinator, that all relevant information, opportunities, updates, developments, changes as well as deviations related to the project are duly communicated to the relevant project stakeholders.
• Collect, analyze, and utilize data and feedback to identify opportunities to improve the relationship between the project team and the participants.
• Maintain thorough knowledge of the project, as well as an understanding of how that impacts the other entities of contact.
• Work with other staff members to develop a greater understanding of the project and any issues that arise
• Develop and foster relationships with the community, stakeholders, and other entities.
• Collaborate and communicate successfully with other entities.
• Promptly respond to incidents and other events as necessary-i.e respond to critical problems by ensuring that managerial personnel is made aware of the problem and that they actively track and expedite a resolution.
• Act as a positive representation of B&Z to the community
• Coordination on the field, coordination with venue owners, booking venues, and responding to all work-related phone calls. …
• Monitor/document attendance sheets and Maintain appropriate data on project implementation.
• Ensure and promote the protection mainstreaming among the beneficiary initiatives.

• Participate in the advocacy for refugee rights and their contextual situations with deep coordination with B&Z Advocacy Unit.

Education & Experience :

• The ideal candidate is expected to communicate effectively and ensure his/her responsiveness to potential project stakeholders through the utilization of Arabic, and most likely English, as the main day-to-day languages to be utilized.
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant work experience in a relevant position is necessary (a reference check will be conducted, according to HR Unit judgment).
• A relevant work experience in promoting or advocating refugee leadership will be considered a plus.

Competencies

Functional:

• Able to work under pressure with possible limited access to a stable internet connection.
• Has sound experience and ability for working in dynamic working patterns.
• Express efficient and purposeful work independently with limited guidance;
• Express a clear and logical understanding of the displacement context;
• Prove sound computer and cloud-based, collaborative soft skills (MO, Google Suite, Accounts Tracking and Management, and internet surfing); and
• Prove sound research and relevant analytical skills.
• Strong report writing and computer skills
• Ability and willingness to frequently travel and stay in the field.

Behavioral:

The ideal candidate is an excellent team worker and team supporter, that is able to actualize the aimed objectives with a dedicated focus on developing co-workers' skills and competencies, yet from a doing-no-harm and dispute-resolution perspective.