Protection & Rule of Law Technical Advisor

Background/IRC Summary:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.

Our vision at the IRC is to be a leader in the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, efficient programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to craft and shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, our Technical Excellence (TE) department provides technical support to our country staff that implement programs and shares what we learn to build and improve outcomes for our clients and to effect change in policies and influence practice in the wider humanitarian community.

TE has three central objectives that we work towards:

• Guide program design to achieve outcomes by incorporating the best available evidence
• Build technical capacity and mentor country program staff to implement, measure and continuously improve programs
• Influence the IRC, peer agencies and donors to use validated interventions and generate new evidence to achieve change in peoples’ lives

TE is comprised of five Technical Units, all of which have deep expertise in their respective sectors: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health and Violence Prevention and Response (VPRU).

The Protection & Rule of Law (PRoL) Technical Adviser will form part of the Violence Prevention and Response Technical Unit (VPRU), which houses expertise in the field of protection and rule of law, child protection, and women’s protection and empowerment. The VPRU provides dynamic, innovative support to IRC’s field offices and provides technical assistance, ensures innovation, promotes standard processes, and helps to improve data collection and analysis for protection programming within the organization. The Protection & Rule of Law team of the VPRU is supporting the implementation of protection programs in 22 countries, including interventions in information services/Signpost, protection monitoring and analysis, protection case management, access to justice, peacebuilding, rule of law activities, community based protection and supporting protection mainstreaming initiatives. The Advisor is responsible for supporting the PRoL program strategy, business development, partnership strategy and relationship building, staff development and the organization’s strategy initiatives.

Specific Responsibilities:

The Technical Advisor (PRoL TA) will spend at least 80% of their time delivering technical assistance in-person and remotely to country program colleagues in the West Africa region, which currently includes the West Africa region, which currently includes Ivory Coast, Mali, Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso ; The Great Lakes region with currently includes DRCongo, CAR, and is continuing to expand and ; The Balkans and South east Europe which includes Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia.

The remaining time is spent on influencing the organisation’s strategy, advocacy, research and internal initiatives in line with the team’s overall strategy. The Technical Advisors’ specific responsibilities are as follows:

Guiding program design:

• Support country staff engaged in program delivery to design programs and projects, ensuring that they are:

• Aligned with the IRC’s overall strategy, are evidence based and appropriate for the local context

• Based on need

• Based on sound context, gender and protection analysis

• Help define approach to teaming with other organizations

• Support selection of indicators for country programs

Engaging in business development:

• Review technical quality of proposals, including review of technical activities and ensuring alignment with the organization’s outcomes.
• Support the drafting of technical proposal narratives
• Provide input on budgets required for project delivery
• Engage with donors and do outreach in support of country programs

Building and mentor staff to ensure ongoing program quality and innovation:

• Share cross-context learning with staff implementing programs across the region and within the PRoL technical team
• Conduct technical training and ongoing mentoring for staff in country, including on IRC outcomes, theories of change, evidence and indicators
• Review and share program-specific tools / resources / curricula and work with Technical Unit specialists to contextualize and adapt global and country-specific materials
• Support senior country staff to build strong and motivated teams through timely recruitment and on-boarding

Influence others to use tried interventions and build evidence to support interventions and approaches:

• Participate in working groups, inter-agency task forces and academic conferences that focus on protection to improve practice, shape policies and build new and innovative approaches on relevant issues.
• Present IRC research findings across contexts and relevant conferences
• Help country programs in crafting/implementing research on the impact of PRoL projects developed in-country

Strategy and Tool Development:

• Work with members in the VPRU team towards achieving the unit’s strategic priorities, including the development and roll-out of VPRU programming models in selected country programs
• Support the thinking and development of new program areas or approaches for the team within VPRU, including for access to justice/legal empowerment programming

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Protection & Rule of Law Senior Technical Advisor

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Regular communication with education, violence prevention and response, health, economic recovery & development, governance, research, evaluation and learning, and gender, equality and diversity and inclusion technical teams. Close relationships with regional and country program teams. Interacts with IRC internal departments, including business development, external relations and advocacy, to keep them informed of program activities.

External: Serve as IRC program representative in outside regional meetings and global meetings and academic forums with donors, other non-governmental organizations, inter-agency groups and foundations.

Job Qualifications:

Education: Master’s/post-graduate degree in international law, human rights law, international development or relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.

Work Experience:

A minimum of 6-8 years’ professional experience in implementing and/or leading Protection & Rule of Law programs is required, preferably within a humanitarian, international development setting. Experience in technical tools and materials development, proposal development, monitoring and evaluation, and research. Experience in strategy development and working across sectors or fields.

Skills and Proficiencies:

Expertise in program design, monitoring and evaluation, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action. Strong verbal and written communication skills. Proven dedication to renewing and maintaining currency with standard methodologies and processes.

Language Skills: Proficiency in French and English is required.

Working Environment: Up to 30- 40% travel may be required. This position will be based in approved IRC locations within the West Africa region or in the UK.

All IRC staff are required to adhere to THE IRC Way Standards for Professional Conduct and the IRC country employment policies.