Community-Based Protection Associate

Organizational Context

The Community-Based Protection Associate is part of the Protection Unit, reporting to a Protection Officer or senior staff. This role works directly with communities to identify risks and leverage their capacities for protection. The incumbent supports community-based protection standards and operational procedures, often working outside the office to build community networks.

Job Purpose

The Community-Based Protection Associate's primary purpose is to work directly with communities of concern to identify the risks they face and to leverage their capacities to protect themselves, their families, and communities. This involves spending a substantial amount of time outside the office, building and maintaining networks within these communities. The core of the role is developing and maintaining constructive relationships with People of Concern (PoC) that measurably impact and enhance protection planning, programming, and results. The Associate also supports the design of a community-based protection strategy by ensuring it is based on consultation with PoC, integrating participatory and community-based approaches into the overall protection strategy and operational procedures.

Responsibilities

The Community-Based Protection Associate assists functional units, the Multi-Functional Team (MFT), and senior management in integrating participatory and community-based approaches into the overall protection strategy and operational procedures. By maintaining relationships with PoC and partners, the incumbent stays informed about developments impacting the protection environment and advises the protection team. They understand PoC perspectives, capacities, needs, and resources, highlighting specific protection needs of vulnerable groups. The Associate works with host communities and implementing partners to develop community-owned activities addressing social, educational, psycho-social, cultural, health, organizational, and livelihood concerns, including child protection and GBV prevention. They support participatory assessments and ongoing consultations with PoC, assist in planning and monitoring programmes and budgets with an Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) perspective, and build office capacity through training. The role involves supporting communities in establishing representation structures, ensuring community understanding of UNHCR's accountability commitments, and acting as an interpreter for routine information exchange. The Associate contributes to AGD-sensitive analysis and interventions, identifies individuals/groups for counselling, intervenes with authorities on protection matters, and enforces compliance of implementing partners with protection policies and standards. They also recommend payments to individual cases and manage risks impacting their area of responsibility.

Work Experience

3 years of relevant experience with a High School Diploma, or 2 years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's degree or equivalent.

Skills

Community-based Protection Principles and Methodologies, Multi-stakeholder Communications with Partners, Government & Community, Stakeholder management and coordination with Implementing Partners (Gov/NGO/Corporate), Capacity Building, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Computer Literacy, UN/UNHCR Administrative Rules, Regulations and Procedures

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