Protection Coordinator - Syria

Coordinatore Programma-Emergenza

Descrizione

INTERSOS is an independent humanitarian organization that assists the victims of natural disasters, armed conflicts and exclusion. Its activities are based on the principles of solidarity, justice, human dignity, equality of rights and opportunities, respect for diversity and coexistence, paying special attention to the most vulnerable people.

Terms of reference

Job Title: Protection Coordinator

Code: SR-53-9909

Duty station: Damascus with frequent visits to other governorates

Starting date: 01/10/2025

Contract duration: 6 months

Reporting to: Head of Mission

Functional Supervisor: Protection Advisor

Supervision of: Protection team

Type of Duty Station: Non-family duty station

General context of the project

Syria continues to endure one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises, even after the significant political shifts of late 2024 with the overthrow of the Assad regime. Nearly 14 years of conflict have left the country grappling with immense needs, widespread displacement, a crumbling economy, and significant challenges for humanitarian operations including Overwhelming Humanitarian Needs, Pervasive Displacement, Economic Collapse & Damaged Infrastructure and ongoing humanitarian access challenges. Critical Sectoral Crises such as:

Healthcare: Nearly half of primary healthcare facilities are non-functional, contributing to preventable diseases and alarming rates of child malnutrition.

Education: Thousands of schools are damaged or destroyed, leaving millions of children out of school and risking a "lost generation."

WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene): More than half the population lacks stable water access, and critical water infrastructure is severely damaged.

Protection: Syria's humanitarian crisis is fundamentally a protection crisis, with interventions directly aimed at safeguarding the rights, safety, and dignity of affected populations. The protection sector is a critical component of the overall humanitarian response, addressing widespread vulnerabilities and risks.

Key Protection Issues: Violence and Conflict-Related Harms, Forced Displacement and Return Challenges, Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) Rights, Lack of Civil Documentation and Legal Identity, Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Child Protection Risks, Disabilities and Vulnerable Groups, Arbitrary Detention and Enforced Disappearances, Lack of Rule of Law and Access to Justice among others.

In summary, Syria remains in a state of deep crisis, with systemic vulnerabilities and ongoing challenges compounding years of conflict. The humanitarian response continues to be critical for saving lives and addressing widespread suffering, navigating complex political shifts and operational hurdles.

INTERSOS's Protection Strategy: In collaboration with the Head of Mission, the Protection Coordinator will define and implement the mission's protection strategy and program. This role involves leading and providing technical guidance to protection staff, ensuring all program components adhere to internal guidelines, international standards, and principles. The focus is on ensuring quality and effectively achieving mission goals in line with INTERSOS's vision and values, through key activities such as:

Community-based protection approaches.

Information dissemination and awareness sessions.

Provision of specialized services, including case management, psychological counseling, and MHPSS.

Provision of legal counseling and assistance.

Ensuring strong protection analysis trends through continuous protection monitoring and day-to-day data collection, management, and analysis.

General purpose of the position

n collaboration with the HOM, define and coordinate the implementation of protection strategy and program of the mission.

Lead and provide technical guidance to protection staffs ensuring the different components of the protection programme are delivered according to internal guidelines and in line with international standards and principles, in order to ensure quality and achieve mission’s goals effectively, according to INTERSOS vision and values.

Main responsibilities and tasks:

Definition of the strategy and implementation

Design and draft the protection strategy for the mission based on context, identifying suitable approaches and interventions

Design a Theory of change or a defined model of protection response and ensure it is aligned to the Global Protection Strategy

Support the understanding of the community using participatory community engagement and strength based approaches. Ensure community mappings are done and adapt the program to the different scenarios

Participate in exploratory missions, situation assessments in current and prospective areas of operations (providing technical inputs and recommendations for new and ongoing interventions in the country and defining protection operational priorities when needed) and support the development of the mission policy, annual plan, position papers, budget review and project proposal and reports to donors

Ensure evidence based response through researches and evaluation of the interventions

Draft position papers for issue based response depending on context and learning papers on challenges and best practices to ensure technical quality of protection activities

Support the implementation and monitoring protection activities according to INTERSOS protection strategy and project plans, standards and protocols

Identify and build Niche areas of technical expertise at mission level and share learnings and good practices with other missions

Ensure proper integration of gender, inclusion, disability and age in protection program

Ensure cohesion and harmonization of protection activities and services across the different implementation sites within the mission

Support the Programme Coordinator and/or Project Managers to finalize project proposals ensuring protection integration in the programme and the respect of international internal and donor’s protection standards and appropriate technical language

Facilitate and guarantee protection mainstreaming in the other sectors

Technical Quality and Capacity building

Is responsible for the capacity building of the entire protection team ensuring technical quality

Draft SOPs for protection interventions (Case Management, Protection Monitoring, Cash, Legal, MHPSS, CB[P) and ensure the respect of it in all projects

Conduct regular case audits, critical case conferences and learning events to provide guidance and to ensure adherence to standards and quality

Design training materials for capacity building of protection staffs and ensure staffs respect the basic principles of protection and are trained to implement good quality programs

Deliver trainings and workshops to non-protection staffs to build skills and knowledge of protection principles and enable them to mainstream protection in different sectors

Develop resources and guidelines to support protection activities targeting children and adults in Case Management, PSS, Community Based Protection, Cash, Protection Monitoring and Holistic Protection Prevention and Response

Work along with the Protection team and Specialists to ensure that all interventions are coordinated and that technical resources are available

Create opportunities for experience sharing and learning within the protection team to strengthen cooperation and collaboration

Analysis and reporting

Periodically (quarterly) analyse the protection trend and the data of INTERSOS protection intervention to identify needs, issues, trends

Provide strategic protection analysis and development of periodic trend reports (including aspects of conflict analysis, gender and risk management) from programme experience to improve development, implementation and policy and advocacy activities

Track indicators, ensure that protection data are collected, archived, processed, analysed and disseminated in ethical modalities, in line with internal data protection protocols. Manage protection database guarantying all the data are regularly encoded

Ensure Protection reports are submitted to HQ on a monthly basis

Support the Programme Coordinator and/or Project Managers to finalize external reports

ensuring the protection integration, the respect of international internal and donor’s protection standards and the appropriate technical language

Coordination and support

Contextualize and adapt internal and global guidelines, guarantying these are rolled out and known by staffs

Update and inform the programme teams on the protection situation analysis

Create opportunities for experience sharing and learning within the protection team in order to strengthen cooperation and collaboration

Work with other coordinators for building integrated programmes in response to community needs

Undertake regular field monitoring visits and provide support tools to monitor quality of programme implementation

Supervision and Staff Management

Directly supervise, coach and mentor Protection Specialists and conduct regular performance reviews (IRP)

Review work plans of Protection Specialists and define priorities together with Protection Project Managers

Organize regular meetings with Protection Specialists and Protection team to discuss implementation and ensure quality

Organize ad hoc meetings with SMT and Project Managers to share challenges and priorities and develop action plans to address them

Plan and supervise, in close coordination with the HR department, the associated processes (recruitment, training, performance evaluation, development and internal communication) of the staffs under her/ his responsibility in order to improve staff’s capabilities and activities and to ensure learning and development

Monitoring

Design M&E tools for protection activities and interventions and provide guidance on use of the tools and ensure they are used

Measure the impact of the activities and identify the best practices

In cooperation with the accountability unit, support the development of complaints mechanisms for beneficiaries and make sure complaints are addressed properly

In cooperation with the accountability unit, when required follow up on the implementation of the Child Safeguarding and Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Harrassment and Abuse (PSEA) policies

Networking and partnerships

Establish and maintain collaborative relations with relevant donors, partners, project stakeholders and other organizations

Maintain effective relationships with Protection, GBV and CP clusters and related working groups at national level

Ensure that Protection Specialists maintain productive relationships with sub clusters at field level

Ensure that main protection concerns are brought to relevant stakeholders to advocate for the respect of human rights and minimum protection standards

Coordinate with other internal departments to guarantee good collaboration

Network with Protection Coordinators from other missions to share best practices and resources and participate actively in monthly HQ Protection meetings and internal thematic Working Groups

Collaborate and support HQ Protection Advisor in the development of technical resources and Guidelines

Required profile and experience

Education

BA in relevant field (Social Science, Psychology, Social Work, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law or other fields related to social development and humanitarian work)

Desirable Master degree (MA or LLM) in Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law or related subjects

Professional Experience

Minimum 8 years of experience with NGOs in developing countries of which minimum 5 years should be in protection technical roles

Experience in implementation of key protection interventions related to Case management, PSS and Community based Protection

Professional Requirements

Essential computer literacy (word, excel and internet)

Strong theoretical, technical and practical background in protection

Languages

English mandatory.

Personal Requirements

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work and integrate in a multicultural team

Ability to work under pressure, flexibility

Problem solver, dynamic, mature, proactive

Diplomatic skills in networking with partners, authorities and donors

Experience in complex emergency setting involving internal displacements

Reporting skills, experience with monitoring tools and systems, data collection and analysis

Stress management

Commitment to INTERSOS principles

HOW TO APPLY:

Interested candidates are invited to apply following the link below:

https://www.intersos.org/field/#intersosorg-vacancies/vacancy-details/6850269b8713de030996c241/

Please note that our application process is made of 3 quick steps: register (including your name, email, password and citizenship), sign-up and apply by attaching your CV in PDF format. Through the platform, candidates will be able to track their applications’ history with INTERSOS.

Please also mention the name, position and contact details of at least three references: two line managers and one HR referent. Family members are to be excluded.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for the first interview.