Emergency Response Protection Mainstreaming Senior Advisor – US, UK, Remote

Location: United States, United Kingdom or Remote

Valid unrestricted work authorization in the country in which you will be based is required at the time of application for this position.

Position Status: Exempt, Full-time, Regular (Temporary: 12 months; the assignment can be extended, depending on business needs).

Salary Level:

• US Starting Salary for this role will be USD $76,800 to $91,200 commensurate on experience.
• Based on local benchmark for candidates outside the United States.

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

The Team

The Global Emergency Response Team (ERT) provides the agency with timely and effective leadership to prepare for, respond to, and learn from humanitarian emergencies, develops sharp, well-timed and influential humanitarian analysis to inform program design and implementation, and supports agency leadership and regional and country teams with safety and security expertise.

At the onset of an emergency, protection is central to humanitarian action. Mercy Corps seeks to enable safe, dignified, and inclusive practices within its emergency response to minimize protection risks, maximize safeguarding, and meaningfully engage marginal and at-risk groups when meeting their needs.

The Position

The Emergency Response Protection Mainstreaming Senior Advisor is part of the Global Emergency Response Teams’ rapid deployment team responding to or supporting at the onset of new emergencies. The Protection Advisor will contribute to emergency response start-up and initial response efforts by integrating a protection risk analysis within the rapid needs assessment and monitoring, orienting emergency responders to related protection and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) risks, facilitating gender and social inclusion (including disability inclusion), assisting with incorporating protection mainstreaming best practices in activities, and preparing team to safely refer protection cases. The Advisor will also help ensure protection mainstreaming is incorporated into program design and budgeting, establish process indicators with sector leads and facilitate after-action activities to monitor quality and assess lessons learned.

This is a deployable role, and the team member will have multiple assignments throughout the year in support of or to lead on the protection mainstreaming aspects of the emergency response. The role may also support assignments related to preparedness efforts. While this position is part of Mercy Corps’ Global Emergency Response Team, they will have close linkages to the Technical Resources and Quality (TRaQ) Protection Advisor as well as Mercy Corps’ Safeguarding, Accountability for Affected Persons (AAP/CARM), and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) teams.

Essential Responsibilities

STRATEGY & VISION

• Work with response leads and managers to ensure that Do No Harm and Protection Principles are incorporated in the emergency response.
• Align approach to protection mainstreaming through an informed assessment of contextually related protection risks in order to balance mitigation efforts associated with GBV, child protection, disability inclusion, mine action, restrictions to mobility, intercommunal tensions, etc.
• Ensure GESI analysis is an essential element of a protection risk analysis and protection risk mitigation plan.
• Support response teams to engage in direct consultation with marginalized and at-risk groups and actively encourage cooperation with organizations focusing on their needs and support.
• Work with response program managers to identify entry points for protection mainstreaming and suggest protection risk mitigation actions that are relatable to sector methodologies and practical to the context, while strengthening protection mainstreaming practices as each sector’s emergency response evolves and progresses.
• Identify opportunities to integrate protection outcomes in program design and work into proposals.
• Contribute to program design and proposal development to ensure protection mainstreaming and safeguarding is highlighted in program design and budgeting, as well as aligns with donor and global protection and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) standards and guidance.
• Promote safe programming and support the program teams to link and coordinate evolving protection mainstreaming, safeguarding, GESI and AAP initiatives and processes.

ASSESSMENTS SUPPORT

• Work with response leadership to ensure that assessment tools include questions to support a Do-No-Harm and protection risk analyses of the emergency context and Mercy Corps response; be part of assessments where needed.
• Support response teams to follow protection principles when conducting assessments, this may include incorporating GESI tools and ensuring the inclusion of marginalized groups, assessing the ethical and appropriate approaches of assessment activities, training teams in data protection, disability inclusion, GBV risk mitigation, etc.
• Do a protection risk analysis to inform Mercy Corps’ emergency response and proposal design.

OPERATIONALIZATION OF PROTECTION MAINSTREAMING

• Conduct safety audits, disability inclusion audits, and FGDs of Mercy Corps activities to identify and monitor potential protection and SEA risks.
• Collaborate with program teams to identify protection risks and establish plans to mitigate risks in their service delivery sector and activities.
• Identify and engage local partners who can enable enhanced outreach and response to marginalized groups such as organizations of people with disabilities (OPD), women led organizations (WLO), organizations supporting minority groups, LGBTQ led organizations, etc.
• Ensure that monitoring tools (such as those used for post-distribution monitoring) disaggregate data by sex/age as well as capture safety risks, preference, and inclusion that are intentional to different marginalized and at-risk groups; include additions where necessary and in coordination with sector leads and MEL.
• Support teams with the information sharing approaches and tools that they use to inform participants and communities, especially hard-to-reach populations, about safe and dignified processes to access/use of services and activities; where needed design the information materials and engage communities.
• Map locally available health, protection, psychosocial, and legal services and design user-friendly referral information sheets that can assist team members with accurate information for safe and timely referral of protection cases; update regularly.
• Work with CARM and the sector leads to identifying protection related feedback and incorporate action into protection risk mitigation plans.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY STRENGTHENING

• Pre-deployment, collate sector/service specific tools (such as tipsheets, guidance, worksheets, etc.) that help teams problem solve protection/GBV/CP/DI risk mitigation in service delivery.
• Prepare program teams to refer protection disclosures, including trainings on PFA and best practices for safe and timely referral especially for issues of child protection, GBV, and disability inclusion.
• Facilitate trainings and/or learning sessions on protection mainstreaming, GBV risk mitigation, disability inclusion, mine action, special consideration for children, engaging adolescents and young people, context related protection concerns, data protection, etc.
• Conduct workshops and/or meetings on sector related protection risk analysis and the use of SADD and the Washington Group Questions for informing their programming.
• Orient emergency response teams on PSEA and MC safeguarding policies and procedures

MONITORING AND LEARNING

• Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) teams to ensure that assessments, monitoring, and evaluation tools incorporate questions that enable protection mainstreaming.
• Develop tools to measure Mercy Corps’ adoption of protection mainstreaming in the emergency response.
• To inform program design and implementation, conduct focus groups (especially with marginalized groups) about safety, preferences, and challenges with access/use of Mercy Corps services and activities.

COORDINATION AND REPRESENTATION

• Regularly coordinate with the TRaQ Sr. Protection Advisor for support, aligning approaches, and strategies.
• When on assignment, coordinate with regional GESI advisors and the Safeguarding and AAP-CARM teams to align with GESI Standards and Safe Programming initiatives.
• Coordinate with in-country Protection cluster and/or working groups during assignment to learn from and contribute to country-wide Protection activities (e.g. assessments, referral pathways, etc.); facilitate engagement of country program staff for sustained participation during and after ERT assignment.
• Represent MC at internal or external technical coordination meetings related to protection.
• Inform the development of Mercy Corps’ evolving “protection in programming” strategy on protection mainstreaming in emergency response.

SAFEGUARDING RESPONSIBILITIES

• Actively learns about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.
• Practices the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members.
• Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options.

Supervisory Responsibility

The Emergency Response Protection Mainstreaming Advisor has no supervisory responsibilities.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: VP of Emergency Response, with technical support line to Director Social Inclusion/Young People and Protection; country program leadership team while on assignment.

Works Directly With: Members of the Global Emergency Response Team; country program leadership team while on assignment.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualifications & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in social sciences, international development, public health or related field.
• 5+ years of professional experience managing projects or providing technical leadership in protection, GBV, or child protection programming in humanitarian and/or development settings.
• Demonstrated experience as part of an emergency team, providing protection mainstreaming in at least 2-3 acute emergency responses.
• Strong foundation in providing technical support and implementing protection mainstreaming (including mainstreaming GBV risk mitigation and child protection).
• Experience conducting protection risk analysis and protection risk mitigation plans with other sectors.
• Experience collaborating with at least one of the following sectors (CVA, WASH and/or Food Security) with basic knowledge of the sector’s core activities, approaches, and common methodologies used in emergencies, preferred.
• Current with protection mainstreaming initiatives, tools, and guidance in the humanitarian space, especially for the acute emergency.
• Experience with the development, implementation & compliance of USAID/BHA, FCDO, ECHO and other humanitarian donors and funded programs.
• Fluency in English (both verbal and written) is required. Proficiency in Spanish, French, or Arabic is preferred.
• Ability to effectively represent Mercy Corps and its interests to key stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing capacity strengthening strategies
• Demonstrated ability to manage and communicate effectively with ethnically diverse team members of varied work styles.
• Previous experience working in insecure environments.
• Ability to multitask, organize and prioritize daily tasks and the big picture.
• Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem-solving.
• Ability to distill complex information and data into accessible conversation and written pieces.
• Knowledge of Sphere standards, Protection Principles, and other training in humanitarian response
• Ability to effectively apply relevant Mercy Corps’ procedures and approaches.

Success Factors
The successful Senior Advisor will skillfully support impact and high-quality Mercy Corps’ responses that align with our organizational Pathway to Possibility, our Humanitarian Response Approach and regional priorities. They will represent the technical priorities of the agency to donors and other key stakeholders while providing exemplary leadership to Mercy Corps teams.

They will have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability and enjoy developing networks to build partnerships and identify solutions. They will be capable of multitasking, rapid decision-making, have initiative and drive, as well as high emotional intelligence, constructive mentoring skills and proven experience with capacity strengthening. The candidate should have significant experience working in complex, insecure operating environments, be attentive to risk management, and have a proven track record in successfully providing technical support and guidance to teams in diverse locations and contexts.

The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.