Protection Advisor

Shaping a stronger Oxfam for people living in poverty.

About Oxfam

Oxfam is a global movement of people who won’t live with the injustice of poverty. Together we save and rebuild lives in disasters. We help people build better lives for themselves. We speak out on the big issues that keep people poor, like inequality, discrimination against women and climate change. And we won’t stop until every person on the planet can live without poverty.

Our Team

The Oxfam team in Lebanon implements integrated humanitarian, development and policy interventions in line with Oxfam’s country strategy for Lebanon as relevant to the Bekaa and north Lebanon areas, including protection & governance; cash safety net/social protection and economic development/livelihoods; WASH/water governance, with a focus on partnerships. The humanitarian pillar, in particular, ensures that marginalised women and men, particularly refugees from Syria, are able to have safe access to WASH, attain their rights to life, security, protection and assistance, and that they are enabled to support their own basic needs, develop their livelihoods, all in a manner that respects and maintains their dignity.

Job Purpose

The Protection Advisor provides timely and high-quality protection and safe programming technical support to Oxfam and partner teams in Lebanon. S/he promotes programme learning and continuous improvement of programme quality and effectiveness, strengthened accountability, and supports the policy team in ensuring that evidence from programmes underpin effective advocacy and campaigns.     

What We Are Looking for

We are seeking to recruit a dynamic professional with experience in protection programming and/or in providing technical protection advice to programming teams. Prior experience in protection, programme design, and representation are a must. Knowledge of Arabic and Lebanon are preferred.  

Core Details

Location:

Beirut (with travel to Bekaa and North Lebanon) or Bekaa (with travel to Beirut and North Lebanon).

Internal Grade:

C2

Contract type:

Fixed Term, 1 year, renewable

This role reports to:

Humanitarian Coordinator

Staff reporting to this post:

None

Annual budget for the post:

Technical sign-off but no budget responsibility

Key relationships/interactions:

Humanitarian Coordinator, WASH Advisor, and WASH/protection/ cash Project Managers, Senior Project Officers, Protection Officers, Protection Assistants, Protection Research and Policy Advisor, EJ Coordinator, as well as other project managers from other pillars of our work.

Screening checks:

Screening via Refinitiv

Key Responsibilities

Technical Advice and Support

• Provide specialist protection and safe programming advice to support the implementation of Oxfam’s humanitarian program (in Bekaa and in north Lebanon) in WASH, protection and livelihoods. This includes providing protection advice on coherence, standardizing approaches, good partnerships, and programme quality;
• Support the humanitarian team and partners (in Bekaa and north Lebanon) in developing and applying appropriate monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) tools in relation to Oxfam’s humanitarian work in Lebanon;
• Support the Humanitarian Coordinator in team and partner risk analysis related to programme activities before and during implementation, and advise on amending activities and approaches where necessary;
• Support the programme team in donor reporting, specifically on protection activities and adopted approaches;
• Support the development and implementation of national programme evaluations, learning events and specific programme-related research activities;
• Support the humanitarian programme team and partners in mainstreaming gender throughout Oxfam Lebanon’s humanitarian work;
• Support in identifying capacity building needs and opportunities for Oxfam staff and local partner organisations (in protection), and lead on training partners and staff on protection principles;
• Support other programme teams such as Economic Justice and Active Citizenship to ensure that protection is mainstreamed across our projects and programmes
• Provide ongoing protection analysis for the Lebanon programme, including aspects of conflict analysis, gender, and risk management;
• Maintain an up to date understanding of the protection sector and main protection issues in Lebanon and ensure that programme teams have access to relevant, up to date information, including identifying overlaps and collaboration with other sectors.

Programme Design and Strategy

• Support the Humanitarian Coordinator on humanitarian programme design and proposal development for protection programming;
• Lead the development of a comprehensive protection approach for Oxfam in Lebanon, which includes elements of safe programming, specific protection activities and advocacy and policy efforts (in collaboration with the policy team), working towards a transition into longer-term programmes with a strong partnership approach that include the following elements a) meeting humanitarian needs; b) building resilience; and c) certain components of active citizenship/governance.
• Support the Humanitarian Coordinator in identifying new protection partners for Oxfam in Lebanon;
• Participate in country planning, strategy development and reviews.

Representation & Influencing

• Represent Oxfam externally (in Beirut/Bekaa/north Lebanon) in protection-related UN/ I()NGO fora, with a view to enhancing coordination, and adopting complementary approaches including active participation in relevant coordination and planning mechanisms and supporting field staff in field-level protection coordination;
• Lead on or join field visits by donors, Oxfam staff and other visitors;
• Support the policy team in advocacy and campaigning on protection issues including analysis, surveys, assessments and support to development of policy products as required;
• Support the Humanitarian Coordinator and the policy team in integrating programmes and policy, to ensure that programmes are working towards achieving same aims and leveraging impact in line with Oxfam’s country strategy Lebanon.

Other

• Required to adhere to Oxfam’s principles and values as well as the promotion of gender justice and women's rights
• Understanding of and commitment to adhere to equity, diversity, gender, child safety and staff health and wellbeing principles

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Essential

• Experience working in Lebanon or on the Syria crisis;
• At least 3 years of involvement in protection programming and/or in providing technical advice to protection programmes;
• Proven experience in carrying out analysis and providing strategic advice to protection staff and/or partner teams;
• Strong conceptual and practical understanding of protection standards, key sectoral issues and processes;
• Experience and understanding of community-based protection at the field level, including the constraints, sensitivities and risks associated with such work;
• Ability to represent Oxfam in country in sector meetings and with other NGOs/INGOs, donors, and local authorities;
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including ability to fluently articulate key protection issues verbally and in writing;
• Demonstrable understanding of the gender dynamics of protection work and ability to implement protection activities with a strong emphasis on the gendered aspects of conflict, violence and abuse;
• Commitment to gender equity, diversity and equal opportunities;
• Experience in capacity building of staff and partners, and the professional development of protection staff;
• Fluency in English;
• Ability to travel to project areas (Bekaa and North Lebanon) and to Beirut for meetings.

Desirable

• Experience working with partners;
• Experience mainstreaming protection into WASH and livelihoods;
• Understanding of advocacy and campaigning work;
• Experience in participatory research;
• Arabic language skills;
• Conflict analysis skills.

Key Attributes

• Ability to demonstrate sensitivity to cultural differences and gender issues, as well as the commitment to equal opportunities;
• Ability to demonstrate an openness and willingness to learn about the application of gender/gender mainstreaming, women’s rights, and diversity for all aspects of development work
• Commitment to Oxfam’s safeguarding policies to ensure all people who come into contact with Oxfam are as safe as possible;
• Behavioural competencies: Influencing, relationship building, strategic thinking and judgment, vision setting, self-awareness.

Organisational Values

• Accountability – Our purpose-driven, results-focused approach means we take responsibility for our actions and hold ourselves accountable. We believe that others should also be held accountable for their actions
• Empowerment – Our approach means that everyone involved with Oxfam, from our staff and supporters to people living in poverty, should feel they can make change happen
• Inclusiveness – We are open to everyone and embrace diversity. We believe everyone has a contribution to make, regardless of visible and invisible differences