Background/IRC Summary:  

Established in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is working more than 40 countries, responding to the world’s worst humanitarian situations. In Pakistan, IRC has been offering comprehensive emergency rehabilitation services such as supporting health systems, environmental health, education, child and women services, and livelihoods. Since 1980, IRC Pakistan has effectively responded to all major humanitarian situations emanating from earthquakes, catastrophic floods, and temporary displacements. Currently, IRC has an average annual portfolio of around $40 million implementing projects in all the four provinces of Pakistan. With support of the federal and provincial governments, and generous donors like DFID, ECHO, USAID, and Australian Aid Agencies, IRC has reached 1.8 million people in Pakistan in the year 2018-19.

Job Overview/Summary:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is seeking a dynamic and self-motivated individual for the position of WPE Officer for  USAID-funded Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Project in selected districts of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Newley Merged Districts. The Project focusses on implementing interventions to achieve the main objective of promoting women’s social and economic empowerment through safe and dignified access to livelihoods opportunities, information, resources and services. These interventions will stimulate women’s economic and social empowerment and prepare foundation for integrating interventions to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV). 

The Women Protection and  Empowerment (WPE) Officer will assist in implementation, providing technical support and guidance to relevant WEE and partner staff, and ensuring the delivery of quality WPE programming including establishment and capacity building of community based women protection and support committees, GBV campaign, Engaging Men and Boys in Accountability Practices (EMAP) program, gender discussion groups, and establishing and strengthening GBV prevention and response mechanism in project locations.

Major Responsibilities:

·         Under the guidance of  Senior WPE Manager and Gender Technical Specialist provide technical support to partners for the field level implementation of  Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) interventions as per agreed WEE workplan;

·         Capacity building of Partner Organizations in relevant technical WPE and project management areas;

·         Support partners in strengthening field based GBV referral mechanisms and pathways and identify gaps in GBV case management services to Sr, WPE manager for corrective measures.

·         Work with partner organizations in developing and strengthening of community-based women support mechanism and committees and development and implementation of community action plan.

·         Support partners staff in capacity building of EMAP facilitators and following up on the implementation of EMAP sessions with men and women groups;

·         Take evident lead and close technical oversight to GBV Campaign (SASA!) including but not limited to community-based activities, engagement with local media with the support of communication team and safe roll out of Information, Communication & Technology interventions (including radio, mobile phones etc.);

·         Extend support to the relevant teams in the organization and partners for developing and strengthening spaces for gender discussion groups;

·         Conduct regular field visits to assess program quality and progress toward objectives and facilitate collective problem solving with staff and other stakeholders to address challenges identified;

·         Ensure that lessons learnt and success stories from projects are effectively documented and shared;

·         Coordinate with consortium partner and implementing partners for smooth implementation of project activities to achieve the desired project outcomes;

·         Ensure that internal and external reporting requirements are met, including monthly, quarterly and annual reports on IRC/donor formats and with review and inputs from Senior WPE Manager and Gender Technical Specialist;

·         Actively participate in project review meeting, field coordination meetings, stakeholders meeting and lessons learned workshops, prepare and submit reports to WEE management.

·         Establish linkages with provincial and district level stakeholders including Provincial Commission on Status of Women, Social Welfare and Women Development Department and other stakeholder for the strengthening of GBV prevention and response mechanism.

·         Undertake necessary activities as and when assigned related to CNIC registration of Women.  

·         Any other duties as assigned by the supervisor to develop WPE programs

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:  Position will be based in KP office reporting  to Senior WPE Manager Position directly supervises:  None

Job Requirements:

Education and Work Experience

·         Master’s degree in Women’s Studies, economics or in social sciences

·         At least 3 years of professional experience in Women Protection & Empowerment programming including GBV Prevention & Response with reputable local or international organization.

·         Experience in implementing programs through local partner organizations

·         Proven experience in conducting and facilitating senior level trainings and workshops

·         Good understanding of women protection issues in KP especially NMDs and knowledge of national and local women rights laws.

·         Good understanding of local context particularly key government service providers for the protection of women in emergencies, and cultural sensitively.

 Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

·         Understanding of planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation skills

·         Contextual understanding of gender inequalities in Pakistan, especially the newly merged districts

·         Able to work successfully under pressure and ability to make timely decisions.

·         Ability to work as part of a team and to foster team spirit

·         Strong computer skills require (outlook, word, power point and excel) are necessary

·         Willing to travel to field sites as required

·         Belief in and understanding of gender equality, women's rights and empowerment

Language Skills: Spoken and written English and Urdu; Pashto is preferred

Others: 

The IRC Core Values and Commitments.

·         The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Adult Safeguarding, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

·         IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children (under 18) and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.

o   Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children (adolescent girls in particular) while working in field. 

·         IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have competencies to solicits and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.

·         IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.

Women candidates and differently abled persons are highly encouraged to apply.