Protection Officer (P)

The Protection Officer supports the management, coordination, and oversight of the Country Office’s Protection Programme activities and strategies, including child protection, counter-trafficking, violence against women and girls, disability inclusion, and assistance to vulnerable migrants. The role involves technical support, operational management, capacity building, partnership strengthening, and ensuring compliance with protection standards.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to Protection programming across the Country Office and provide technical support to other units on Protection Mainstreaming, including safe programming and capacity development.
• Support the effective development and implementation of Protection programming by exercising administrative, operational and financial management for relevant projects.
• Provide operational management, guidance and supervision to relevant staff, assisting on programmatic strategy and implementation, including where to focus programme resources and address operational challenges with focus on protection.
• Mentor and support staff, conduct relevant training and ensure capacity building of Programme staff.
• Coordinate and implement activities included in the Protection portfolio, including development of protection Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and internal guidelines for protection case management and facilitating protection mainstreaming interventions.
• Contribute to establishing, maintaining and expanding strong relationships across UN Agencies, humanitarian organizations, government and community interlocutors, and other local interests.
• Contribute to the timely and quality preparation and submission of Programme reports in coordination with relevant units and according to requirements of IOM, donors and stakeholders.
• Contribute to the establishment of a common Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework incorporating regular reporting requirements and impact evaluation strategies.
• Provide technical support in production of visibility/communications materials in coordination with Public Information Officer/Focal Point.
• Participate at relevant donor or partner meetings, briefings and conferences at international and national level.
• Undertake regular visits to Sub-Offices to support Protection programme implementation.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Psychology, International Relations, Political Science, Humanitarian Affairs, Economic Development or a related field from an accredited academic institution with two years of relevant professional experience, or University degree in the above fields with four years of relevant professional experience.
• Experience in programme development and capacity-building activities.
• Experience in liaising with governmental and diplomatic authorities as well as with national and international institutions.
• Experience in organizing consultations, workshops and seminars with high level stakeholders.
• Good management, coordination, and information management skills.
• Knowledge of the UN System, NGOs and other international organizations/institutions.
• Knowledge of protection programming, migration data, labour migration patterns and ability to negotiate with government authorities.
• Good knowledge of human and financial resources management.
• Good analytical and writing skills.
• Good communication, organizational and interpersonal relationship skills.
• Knowledge of UN and bilateral donor programming.
• Fluency in English and Spanish (oral and written) is required.
• Working knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, and Russian) is an advantage.
• Proficiency of language(s) required will be specifically evaluated during the selection process, which may include written and/or oral assessments.

Skills

• Program Development
• Capacity Building
• Liaison with Governments
• Multi-Stakeholder Consultation
• Workshop Organization
• Information Management
• Protection Programming
• Migration Data Analysis
• Labour Migration Patterns
• Negotiation with Government
• Human Resources Management
• Financial Resource Management
• Analytical Writing
• UN System Knowledge
• NGO Coordination
• Donor Programming
• Child Protection
• Counter Trafficking
• Violence Against Women and Girls Programming
• Disability Inclusion
• Partnership strengthening

Languages

English, Spanish