Senior Community-Based Protection Assistant

Organizational Context

The Senior Community-Based Protection Assistant is part of the Protection Unit, reporting to a Protection Officer or similar. The role involves working directly with communities of concern to identify risks and leverage capacities for self-protection. This position requires significant fieldwork to build and maintain relationships with communities, impacting protection planning and programming.

Job Purpose

The Senior Community-Based Protection Assistant's primary purpose is to support the integration of participatory and community-based approaches into UNHCR's overall protection strategy. This involves working closely with communities of concern to understand their perspectives, capacities, needs, and resources, and advising the protection team accordingly, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups such as women, children, older persons, and persons with disabilities. The role supports the development of community-owned activities addressing social, educational, psycho-social, health, and livelihood concerns, and contributes to the analysis of community capacities and risks. A key aspect is building the office's capacity for community-based protection and ensuring communities understand UNHCR's commitment to accountability and quality assurance in its responses.

Responsibilities

Assist functional units and senior management in integrating participatory and community-based approaches into the protection strategy. Maintain awareness of political, social, economic, and cultural developments impacting the protection environment through community and partner networks, advising the protection team on these matters. Understand and communicate the perspectives, capacities, needs, and resources of communities of concern, highlighting specific protection needs of diverse groups. Support initiatives involving host communities and national civil society groups in protecting persons of concern. Assist implementing partners and displaced communities in developing community-owned activities for social, educational, psycho-social, health, organizational, and livelihood concerns, including child protection and GBV prevention. Support participatory assessments and ongoing consultations with communities. Aid in building the office's capacity for community-based protection and support communities in establishing representation and coordination structures. Ensure community understanding of UNHCR's accountability and quality assurance commitments. Collect data for programme and budget monitoring from an Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) perspective. Draft routine correspondence, documents, and reports, maintaining filing systems. Act as an interpreter for routine information exchange and respond to queries. Enforce AGD-sensitive analysis and interventions on community-based protection issues. Identify individuals or groups for prioritization for counselling and field visits. Ensure implementing partners comply with global protection policies and standards. Support risk management and opportunity identification within the area of responsibility.

Work Experience

2 years of relevant experience with a High School Diploma, or 1 year of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's degree or equivalent or higher.

Skills

Community-based Protection Principles and Methodologies Multi-stakeholder Communications with Partners, Government & Community UN/UNHCR Administrative Rules, Regulations and Procedures Computer Literacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

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