Myanmar: Senior WPE Manager

BACKGROUND:

The IRC has been working in Myanmar since May 2008, initially supporting emergency response and early recovery interventions for communities affected by Cyclone Nargis. Since then, IRC has responded to natural emergencies, such as floods and Cyclone Giri as well as conflict, such as ethnic violence in Rakhine and Kachin states. Over the years, IRC has broadened its portfolio to include health, water and sanitation, livelihoods, and social development programs and aims to employ a holistic approach. The IRC is committed to a long-term presence in-country with the aim of improving the well being of vulnerable populations living the hard-to-reach areas. IRC works in several states, primarily focused in the most marginalized areas of the country, including Rakhine, Chin, Kayin and Kayah States.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) established Women's Protection and Empowerment (WPE) programming in Rakhine state and has been building the capacity of INGO and local actors since 2014. IRC, in partnership with Karuna Myanmar Social Services (KMSS) Lashio also starting providing essential health care through two mobile clinic teams across to 20 IDP camps in late 2014. IRC seeks to integrate essential care through emergency health service provision to conflict affected IDPs through the two existing mobile clinic teams.

Protection and safety measures for IDPs in northern Shan and southern Kachin remain critical, particularly in terms of addressing the needs of the most vulnerable, such as women, girls, and households headed by single females, as well as widows, elderly and the disabled. Various forms of violence, including domestic violence, sexual abuse, including rape and sexual exploitation, and physical violence have been identified as the most common that women and girls experience. Clinic staff have identified and treated survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), but require additional skills to be able to effectively support women and girls in Northern Shan and Kachin.

SCOPE OF WORK:

The Women's Protection and Empowerment (WPE) Manager will be responsible for overseeing programming including support and direct supervision of program staff in the implementation of activities associated with the WPE program in Northern Shan and Kachin. The WPE Manager oversees individual (through the case management process) and group-based psychosocial activities for survivors of GBV, support to case workers within health clinics and health activities, as well as prevention efforts, including male engagement, and community outreach and referral services. The WPE Manager is also responsible for engagement with local women's groups to carry out remote case management and community based GBV prevention work in conflict affected townships. The WPE Manager will also oversee information collection and advocacy related to health gaps and other essential services for women, girls, and survivors of violence. This position supervises two Response Officers, as well as GBV Caseworkers. Additional staff, including a Reproductive Health Doctor and Maternal Child Health Nurses may be added depending on funding. Key objectives include:

• To oversee training and capacity building of both WPE and Health staff in GBV concepts and skills.
• To plan and oversee basic case management and psychosocial activities for survivors of GBV in protracted conflict situations.
• To support the continued development of a referral process for GBV survivors, including identification of gaps in health service provision.
• To oversee outreach activities designed to provide communities with information on where women and girls can access GBV services.
• To oversee technical capacity building of sub-grant partners and ensure ethical service delivery through direct service provision and remote case management programmes.
• To contribute to the country-specific GBV strategy and contribute to positioning IRC as a leader in Myanmar.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Technical Quality

• Support adherence to the GBV guiding principles and other international standards to ensure quality of design and implementation of all WPE activities.
• Ensure response work, including case management and psychosocial interventions, adheres to best-practice principles when working with survivors of GBV.
• Assess and analyze GBV risks in northern Shan and southern Kachin states to develop a holistic program based on understanding of women and girls needs.
• Ensure that ethical and sound data collection and information management systems are in place for analysis, planning, evaluation, and advocacy.
• Work with the program staff to ensure that field experiences are documented, used for learning, and to advocate on behalf of the communities with which we work.
• Train case workers, Response Officers, and key health staff within IRC and KMSS on various GBV concepts.
• Train and provide continued capacity building to local women's organizations GBV Focal Points.
• Develop and oversee pilot project on remote case management through local partners.
• Design increased case management provision and community outreach with local women's groups as sub-grant partners.

Staff Supervision & Development

• Recruit and support the hiring of staff, in coordination with human resources and others.
• Directly supervise GBV staff including, Response Officers, and Caseworkers.
• Mentor and support staff professional development to foster a positive team spirit, encourage innovation, and quality programming.
• Identify training needs for GBV staff, and initiate capacity development plans to meet those needs, in collaboration with the Senior Program Officer.
• Provide guidance and technical support to teams through regular field monitoring visits.
• Oversee WPE staff and program integration into health clinic mobile teams.

Grants Management

• Prepare and maintain/update detailed work plan(s) that support and work towards achieving program outcomes.
• Provide accurate and regular narrative and financial reports, as well as document results and maintain detailed records of program activities for timely submission, as required by IRC policies.
• Conduct and draft needs assessment reports and other internal reports as required by Senior Management or as appropriate under the circumstances.
• Draft program briefing materials, and respond to requests for program information from IRC Regional Management, IRC HQ, donors, Myanmar Government and others.
• Contribute to develop of concept notes, proposals and strategic plans related to the WPE sector in Myanmar

Coordination & Representation

• Liaise and coordinate with other UN and NGO partners, ministry departments, local authorities, and beneficiaries in planning and emergency response.
• Liaise regularly and work closely with program, operations and finance staff in Yangon to coordinate program planning.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with relevant stakeholders including community leaders and other implementing partners.
• Regularly attend GBV sub-cluster meetings in the field and advocate on behalf of women and girls.

Other

• Ensure all activities are carried out in accordance with IRC Operational policies.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor of Arts or Science in Social Science, Public Health, Humanities, Social Work or other related field, required, higher degree preferred.
• At least three-five years of experience managing programs overseas; experience in direct service provision or managing programs that focus on violence against women in a humanitarian context preferred
• Clear understanding of gender, human rights, and issues surrounding violence against women and girls
• Experience in conflict settings desired
• Experience working with and running hotlines/remote case management programs preferred.
• Demonstrated understanding of and ability to maintain confidentiality and respect for clients
• Knowledge and experience with community outreach and mobilization
• Experience facilitating trainings and workshops
• Positive and professional attitude, including ability to lead and work well in a team setting
• Strong ability to organize work, meet deadlines, maintain composure, prioritize work under pressure, coordinate multiple tasks, and maintain attention to detail
• Experience supervising and mentoring multi-national staff in a complex, insecure emergency setting
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, strong interpersonal skills
• Fluency in English and computer literate

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The WPE Manager position is based in Lashio, northern Shan state, Myanmar with frequent travel required to potentially insecure project sites in northern Shan and southern Kachin. The WPE manager may be asked to travel to other sites in the country to support new program development. This is an unaccompanied post and candidates can expect to share group housing.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.

Please follow this link to apply: http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=a2F0cmluYW1pbGxlci45Njk0NS4zODMwQGlyYy5hcGxpdHJhay5jb20