Position : Community Based Protection Assistant (CBPA)

Duty Station: Aden

Reporting to:

• Hierarchical: Project Manager
• Functional: Technical Manager - Protection

Main Purpose:

Under the direct supervision of the Community Based Protection Officer and Protection Project Manager, and with technical support and collaboration with the Protection Technical Referent and Protection Coordinator, the Community Based Protection Assistant will be responsible for assisting the rolling out of INTERSOS CBP Approach in different projects funded by SV, BHA, ECHO etc. This will focus on ensuing that each project follows the process of meaningful engagement with communities to identify protection risks, enhancing their capacity to respond and empowering them to develop sustainable strategies that reduce and mitigate protection risks and vulnerability. The position holder will ensure our CBP work follows Strength-based approach that focuses on the bottom-up way of working with communities that focuses on community strengths and assets rather than on deficits and problems.  It will also assist the effective roll out of three steps of CBP approach namely 1. Act & Engage 2. Act & Partnership and 3. Ownership. The position holder will be working closely with local CBOs to strengthen equitable partnerships and engagements following INTERSOS ‘ localization’ approach. The Community Outreach Volunteer is responsible for establishing relationships with communities in the areas of intervention based on trust and cooperation. S/he will aim at strengthening existing community resources, increasing community protection capacities and facilitating a continuous two-way communication between INTERSOS and communities.

Key Responsibilities

INTERSOS is using two approaches for its CBP work 1. Self-implementation and 2. With local CBOs. The focal person will ensure that s/he works directly with INTERSOS projects teams on the following : 

1.     Administrative, Financial, and Logistical Support Responsibilities:

• Support in leading, implementing, and monitoring the community-based protection strategy in line with organizational priorities.
• Apply participatory, strength-based, and conflict-sensitive approaches in all community-based protection activities.
• Coordinate team movements and ensure cost-effective use of resources through regular mission planning.
• Support the clearance of pending expenses and ensure accurate administrative and financial documentation.
• Plan monthly procurements (e.g., awareness refreshments and materials) in collaboration with logistics.
• Ensure timely submission of volunteer incentives and staff support documents for monthly payments.

2.    Assist in leading the site-level protection analysis in collaboration with local communities and structures to understand protection risks, vulnerabilities, strengths and assets within the communities.
3.    Assist in leading and guiding the process of meaningful engagement with communities and ensure 

• A process of provision of quality Protection response (particularly in active emergency contexts)
• Protection analysis based on secondary data and primary data collection and community mapping if appropriate
• Informing and engaging Community in Response plans/project design
• Exploring Community assets and Strengths along with practices and norms that enable Protection including existing structures 

4.    Assist in Leading and guiding the process of meaningful partnerships with communities to further strengthen existing assets and address protection risks by themselves 

• Strengthen existing capacities of identified community-based structures and mechanisms 
• Supporting and engaging with community-based structures to conduct protection analysis and prioritization of risks and strategies to address
• Conducting Risk Transfer Analysis with community-based structures to identify possible risks and opposition and develop mitigation strategies 
• Support Community based structures to develop a comprehensive awareness raising plan on identified protection risks
• Support the community-based structures with implementation of their own action plans vis-a vis identified and prioritized protection risks

5.    Support the transfer of ownership to existing community-based structures 

• Facilitate their planning of the vision and strategies for their future work 
• Facilitating and connecting them with other resources (INGOs, Networks, Clusters, Donors)
• Advocate within interagency coordination mechanisms at country, regional, global levels on issues affecting vulnerable groups

6.    Assist in the following tasks, together with the CBPO, related to program development and reporting 

• Prepare and submit qualitative and quantitative weekly / monthly reports to the Project Leads (including PAT updates), giving a comprehensive overview of the achievements and targets reached per activity (activity implementation progress), indicating the challenges and mitigating measures proposed or to be implemented, and referring to next month’s planning
• Support the Project/s lead in donor reporting (interim, final and adhoc) by providing inputs in relation to the CBP component of the project, including trends analysis as required
• Support the Reporting Officer with identification of success stories and taking consent from community for documentation
• Support in developing one quarterly case study about the impact and effectiveness of each CBP Phase, detailing lessons learned and best practices, and clearly identifying the reasons for effectiveness (or lack thereof, as relevant)
• Ensure systematic documentation and filing of all documents related to CBP activities, in line with safety and confidentiality standards for data management through case auditing, etc.
• Support any protection and CBP related assessment to be conducted by INTERSOS 

7.    Provide regular technical feedback and advise to the Protection Technical Referent, highlighting gaps, challenges, best practices, and lessons learned of community-based protection activities to inform programming
8.    Contribute to the Yemen component of INTERSOS global strategic initiative: 

• Support in the implementation of the Survivor and Community-Led Response Pilot Program
• Contribute to monitoring, reporting and analysis of best practices, development of lessons learned documents 
• Ensure regular communication with INTERSOS Localization Advisor 

9.    Provide technical support for the Protection Monitoring team, monitor the work quality, and guide them in their daily tasks, through: 

• Support the planning of Protection Monitoring daily field visits. 
• Guide the implementation of FGDs and Awareness raising sessions. 
• Reflect the protection trends in the monthly protection monitoring reports. 
• Provide on-job-coaching to the PMs through field visits, weekly and monthly meetings. 

10.    Conduct regular field visits with the COVs and provide support and guidance on the work implementation. 

Requirements

Technical skills and experience:

• Minimum Bachelor degree in a social work, community development and or psychology field 
• Minimum 3 year of demonstrated experience in community-based protection programming in Yemen (implementation and management of protection and community-based engagement activities)
• Technical knowledge of protection and community engagement 
• Demonstrated experience working with communities directly and collaboratively with CBOs, including for capacity-building and support would be a strong asset
• Demonstrated experience working on and with community-based structures with positive results and impact
• Essential computer literacy, especially in Word, PowerPoint, as well as Excel for database management;
• Good English-writing and reporting skills.

Soft skills:

• Ability and willingness to operate in challenging environments and travel to remote field locations on a regular basis;
• Excellent communication, diplomatic and interpersonal skills;
• Excellent organizational skills;
• Strong analytical skills (qualitative and qualitative);
• Strong problem-solving skills;
• Strong team spirit and ability to work collaboratively in a multi-cultural environment with colleagues from diverse horizons;
• Strong leadership skills – motivating self and others
• Ability to communicate clearly and respectfully with communities, in accordance with humanitarian principles;
• Adherence to strict confidentiality and information management standards and protocols, sharing information only in compliance with these standards;
• Adherence to INTERSOS Charter of Values, Code of Ethics, CP and PSEA policies;
• Comply with all relevant INTERSOS policies and procedures;
• Stress-resilient to be able to cope with deadlines and complex problems;
• Native Arabic – fluent written and spoken English.