Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global leader in providing emergency relief, rehabilitation, post conflict development, human rights protection, resettlement services and advocacy for refugees and other uprooted or affected by violent conflict and oppression. The IRC is committed to restoring hope, freedom, dignity, and self-reliance.IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and thorough accountability to those we serve. Since 1996, IRC has been implementing gender-based violence programs in refugee, internally displaced and other conflict-affected communities and has gained a reputation as a global leader in this field.
Background IRC is one of the only humanitarian organizations to maintain an independent Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) Technical Unit. This team of experts ensures that IRC’s programs adhere to the principles of best practice and promote the ongoing evolution of knowledge and practice in the prevention of and response to violence against women and girls. Together, the WPE Technical Unit supports 17 country programs working in partnership with communities and institutions to promote and protect women’s and girls’ human rights through gender equality and to meet the safety, health, psychosocial and justice needs of gender-based violence survivors.
A cornerstone of IRC WPE’s work is centered on preventing gender-based violence. The IRC WPE approach to prevention focuses on the importance of changing attitudes and the need for women to develop their voices and learn leadership skills to be active agents of their own change. The IRC WPE is seeking a dynamic individual to help spearhead IRC WPE’s efforts to develop a transformative prevention framework to help guide IRC WPE’s overall prevention programming in humanitarian settings. As part of this effort, the IRC WPE has received funding to build the global humanitarian sector’s capacity to effectively engage communities in the prevention of GBV through the development of a primary prevention resource package. This prevention package includes both men and women to prevent violence against women and girls.
SCOPE OF WORK The Primary Prevention Specialist will inform strategic direction and oversight to the IRC WPE’s prevention framework and strategies, with a focus on the PPRP. Specific responsibilities include finalizing the Primary Prevention Resource Package (PPRP), developing the training curricula and rolling out key trainings for the humanitarian sector. The Primary Prevention Specialist will coordinate collaboration with other IRC sectors and external actors as part of the effort to finalize and promote the PPRP resource package.
This position reports to the Senior Technical Advisor and is based in Headquarters with some travel to the field to conduct trainings.
Main responsibilities include:
Resource development and capacity building Resource Development • Contribute to developing an overarching prevention framework that builds on existing evidence base and practice to support country programs implementing primary prevention programming. • In consultation with the WPE Senior Technical Advisor and Technical Advisors and incorporating learning from existing pilot interventions, finalize two curricula, develop training modules and guidance to support programming in the field. • In consultation with the WPE Senior Technical Advisor and Technical Advisors, develop overarching guidance package for roll-out of PPRP, including guiding principles for engaging with men, information on preparing staff, ensuring appropriate resources, and navigating safety and ethical issues. • Coordinate the establishment of the Technical Review Panel and facilitate the vetting process of the resources. • Develop a promising practices document highlighting recommendations for future programs.
Training/Capacity Building • Train practitioners and key stakeholders in humanitarian settings on the PPRP. This includes: organizing introductory workshops to ensure senior-level support for the PPRP, training practitioners from numerous NGOs in two different regional trainings; training on monitoring and supporting the implementation of the PPRP. • Lead a one-day session for UN and NGO staff on how to implement the PPRP with a specific focus on guiding principles around effectively engaging men and women to prevent violence.
Evaluation, monitoring and learning
• Lead IRC WPE’s efforts to analyze and evaluate the Primary Prevention Resource Package. This includes developing monitoring tools and guidelines to support practitioners in measuring the progress of participants at the local level. • Ensure systems for PPRP are in place and utilized by participants in order to inform programs implementing the PPRP. • Help identify key questions and evaluation methodologies for examining the effectiveness of IRC’s approach to prevention. Work with the WPE team to identify strategic academic partnerships to evaluate key questions as it relates to prevention of gender-based violence.
Visibility and resource dissemination • Work with WPE STA to develop visibility plan to highlight the PPRP and ensure practitioners are aware of and utilizing the resource • Organize official launch introducing the PPRP to the humanitarian sector • Present the PPRP throughout the wider community, including at learning sessions at the GBV AoR, Interaction and through online networks • Develop donor reports and external resources using monitoring data and feedback from those implementing the PPRP. • Represent IRC’s WPE programming as requested
REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS POSITION • MA in education, social work or other related field. • 5 years experience in humanitarian, development or similar organizations with direct experience working on primary prevention programming. • Excellent oral and written communication, including proven success communicating in challenging and cross-cultural contexts. • Demonstrated ability to create curricula and training manuals, with direct training and facilitation experience. • Demonstrated ability to engage in research and evaluation methodologies. • Highly organized and self-motivated, able to work efficiently on his/her own • Excellent technical computer skills • French language proficiency desired
