Counselor Officer (Economic Recovery Officer)

DRC has been responding to various humanitarian crises in Lebanon since 2004, working with Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees. DRC received registration from the Ministry of Interior in 2011, and since then has focused primarily on responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon and the resulting impact on Lebanese host community. DRC Lebanon’s focus is to ensure that we are able to respond to critical emerging humanitarian needs whilst improve the living conditions of displacement-affected populations and contribute to the achievement of durable solutions.   With an annual portfolio of $12million, and with approximately 200+ staff, DRC is focusing its response in protection and economic recovery (Ec-Rec) sector in Bekka, North Lebanon and Beirut. DRC is also contributing to the evidence base and coordination structures in country through our Evidence Generation and referral information management (RIMs) teams. 

About the job 

The Counselor officer will be based in Bekaa as a member of the Economic Recovery department. The counselor will play a key role in implementing Economic Recovery activities related to career counselling and employability of vulnerable individuals. S/he will particularly focus on conducting profiling and career counseling of vulnerable individuals in employability centers (Baader center, Community development centers, and other mobile centers) and place the career counselled beneficiaries in the right set of activities. The officer will also play an active role in developing high-quality career pathways for the beneficiaries and be in charge of monitoring their progress. 

The officer will also provide a set of training (Life skills, soft skills, and decent working conditions) to ensure the proper functioning of the center, its planning of activities in coordination with the agency in charge of the center. 

Your main duties and responsibilities will be: 

Program Implementation 

• Actively lead the implementation of the economic recovery activities in a way that ensures coherence between planned activities and commitments outlined in project proposals. 
• Lead the outreach process to vulnerable communities through municipalities, partner organization, social media, radio, and in collaboration with other DRC programs and consortium partners’ programs 
• Organize and perform socio-economic profiling and work on information systems/database to record relevant data of beneficiaries. Report any information system issue and coordinate accordingly with the information management team. 
• Provide individual career counseling services, following DRC SOPs and guidelines, ensuring a good communication and a safe space. Based on the beneficiaries’ needs, interest, and capacities, develop an individual livelihoods pathway and refer the person to the most suitable activities within the program or externally (employment and self-employment options, vocational training opportunities, work-based learning, etc.).  
• Provide regular reports on results of counseling sessions and satisfaction of beneficiaries. Provide suggestions for improvement if needed. 
• Ensure the classification and good archiving of each beneficiaries’ files, ensuring beneficiaries data protection.  
• Provide beneficiaries with relevant information on the Labor market, Lebanese regulations, and their implications for Lebanese and non-Lebanese   
• Map livelihood actors and training service providers and engage with them in the possibility of referring participants to their trainings, cash for work project, BDS programs etc. Follow up and monitor referred participants to ensure participants successfully received the needed service. 
• Together with the assistant, provide life skills training sessions to career counselled beneficiaries upon the developed DRC curriculum.  
• Monitor the quality of sessions for courses, covid19 adjustments and follow up on curriculum execution. 
• Follow up with beneficiaries after referring them to the activities, ensure that they are following their livelihoods pathways and provide extra career counselling sessions if needed. Work closely with Community Engagement and Protection departments to support coordination between various project activities, to ensure integrated programming and streamlined communication. 
• Support DRC local and international partner through building their capacities regarding socio-economic profiling and career counselling. 
• Support the economic recovery Team Leader in developing budget forecast, work plans and tools related to career counselling and life skills activities, as well as employability center management. 
• Keep track of the project, update timeline and produce report upon economic recovery Team Leader’s requests 
• Assist in conducting market assessment of the areas of intervention and determining program intervention priorities based on needs and existing resources. 
• Participate in field-based research activities related to DRC economic recovery programing 

Monitoring, Evaluation and Documentation 

• Ensure strong engagement with beneficiaries targeted and make sure their enquiries are answered in a timely manner. Similarly, inform beneficiaries about the feedbacks and complaints mechanism and the hotline number. 
• Work closely with the monitoring and evaluation department to facilitate monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure program implementation is on track and of highest quality. 
• Ensure that project files are maintained, archived and up to date. 
• Ensure that all reporting and referrals through RIMS is done through the relevant online platforms. 

HR and Administration 

• Manage the career counselling assistant, provide guidance and support, and capacity building whenever needed. Monitor the tasks and accomplishment of the career counselling assistant. 
• With strong collaboration with the economic recovery Team Leader ensure that the technical aspects of the project are running in accordance with the project’s objectives and DRC’s strategies. 
• In case needed, assist in the recruitment of qualified and experienced staff, trainers, and consultants if required. 
• Work closely with operational staff to ensure a proper management and follow up on order requests, payment requests and financial forecast of program activities. In particular, the economic recovery Officer is in charge of all the HR and administration, including procurement, that is directly in relation with employability center and implemented activities.  

Any other task relevant to the position and as requested by the Livelihoods team leader or Program Manager. 

About you 

To be successful in this role we expect you to have 2 years’ minimum experience with private sector, working with INGO is a plus preferably in Livelihoods, employment, or related sectors, which would include experience with the following activities: 

• Career and personal counselling for vulnerable individuals  
• Market need and job linkage  
• Implementation of skills development trainings program 
• Profiling beneficiaries for vulnerability and matching them with career pathway 
• Training and facilitation for staff and community group 

Moreover, we also expect the following:  

Required  

• A minimum of a Bachelor University degree; related to psychology or sociology  
• Advanced English proficiency 
• Fluency in local language 

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies:   

• Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.   
• Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.   
• Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.   
• Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.   
• Demonstrating integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment. 

We offer 

- Contract length: End of December 2022  

- Band: H 

- Designation of Duty Station: Bekaa  

- Start date: October 2022 

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates; please refer to drc.ngo under Vacancies. For questions regarding the vacancy please contact [email protected]