Job Description

For over half a century, Tanzania has been a country of asylum, hosting one of the largest refugee populations in Africa.  Currently, the country hosts approximately 311,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees, many of whom arrived over the last 2 years as the crisis in Burundi increased. To date, refugees continue to arrive in the region expressing multiple reasons and needs.

Within this context, IRC provides protection and basic assistance in the areas of child and youth protection and development, Community-based rehabilitation for persons with disabilities and special needs, gender-based violence / women’s protection and empowerment, livelihoods, mental health services and primary health care, both at border posts for the Burundian new arrivals and in refugee camps in the Kigoma region.

Job Overview/Summary: The Protection and Rule of Law Senior Manager leads the IRC’s efforts to meet conflict-affected people’s safety and protection needs, reducing risk and responding to cases of violence, coercion and deprivation, as well as mainstreaming protection throughout the IRC’s response in Tanzania. Protection is a signature part of the IRC’s strategy in Tanzania. The Protection and Rule of Law Senior Manager will define and manage a clear direction, drive forward implementation and ensure robust and effective management and oversight to best meet the needs and aspirations of local communities and accountability to stakeholders.

Major Responsibilities

Program Strategy and Business Development

• Provide strategic direction, leadership and overall technical and management support to the Protection Rule of Law (PRoL) programming, ensuring it is risk-based, context-appropriate, responsive, coherent, collaborative, and operationally feasible.
• Contribute to the development of IRC’s Strategic Action Plan outcomes for Safety (and Power).
• Proactively grow the PRoL portfolio through development of concept notes and proposals to existing and new donors, maintaining a coherent strategy across IRC’s areas of intervention in Tanzania.
• Promote joint work across the 3 protection streams of WPE, CP and PRoL as well as the ERD and health sectors to enhance the quality of programming and a holistic approach to addressing the protection needs of the target populations.
• Identify, monitor and report unmet needs. Explore the potential of the IRC to address those needs within the parameters of the Strategic Action Plan and sector priorities.
• Ensure alignment and coherence with relevant IRC country, regional and global strategies.

Program Management and Quality

• Ensure projects and activities are of high technical quality, meet humanitarian standards, mainstream protection, align with IRC’s Outcomes and Evidence Framework, and respond to community and monitoring feedback.
• Recruit qualified team members, when needed, and support and supervise the teams to achieve program goals and maximize national ownership and leadership.
• Proactively identify, assess, monitor and implement measures to reduce or control risks that may impact program delivery, quality or compliance.
• In collaboration with program, finance, HR and Supply Chain departments, provide oversight on implementation, integration and donor compliance.
• Lead assessments and context-appropriate research aimed at generating a strong evidence base for IRC protection programming, as well as informing IRC advocacy.
• Liaise with Technical Advisors to ensure relevant support, tools and resources are being provided and integrated into programming.
• Liaise with the M&E Manager to support M&E activities for the PRoL program, map lessons learnt and identify opportunities for evaluations and quality improvement.

Staff Management & Development

• Coach, train, and mentor staff with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and providing professional development guidance
• Supervise and mentor staff, including communicating clear expectations, and in partnership with the direct line supervisor, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely performance feedback, and contribute to the annual and mid-year performance reviews.
• Provide constructive feedback and counsel on appropriate career paths and professional development. Support the development of business development skills and responsibility among the integrated protection team, with a particular focus on national staff.
• Promote and monitor staff care and well-being; approve and manage all leave requests to ensure adequate coverage.
• Offer leadership support for successful adherence by staff to IRC’s Global HR Operating Policies and Procedures.
• Adhere to and act in accordance with the IRC Global HR Policies and Procedures, and communicates through word and example a high standard of compliance with all applicable policies and regulations.

Grant Monitoring & Reporting

• Undertake regular field monitoring visits to assess progress and identify technical quality issues and/or other implementation issues, provide solutions and implement modifications as required.
• Ensure that proper M&E systems are in place.
• Ensure that all internal and external reporting requirements are met, that reports are of a high quality and are submitted on time.

Representation, coordination and advocacy

• Engage and maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders and protection coordination structures in Tanzania, including NGO, UN, and technical and government actors.
• Identify advocacy opportunities together with the Deputy Director for Programs and based on information coming from the field.
• Together with the DDP, work closely with IRC’s advocacy and media teams, and the Violence Response and Prevention Technical Unit for the launch and dissemination of research reports and findings.
• Together with the DDP, contribute to the advocacy efforts of IRC Tanzania and the Great Lakes Region through analysis of the policy environment and trends.
• Support the greater sharing and use of research and learning within IRC’s program sectors, including by contributing to program development and design, to ensure interventions are responsive to needs and informed by a sound understanding of the environment(s) in Tanzania.

Key Working Relationships

Position Reports to: Deputy Director of Programs, dotted line with Kigoma Field Coordinator.

Position technically supervises: PRoL Managers, M&E Manager

Indirect Technical Reporting: PRoL teams’ staff

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal:  Other program sector coordinators, PRoL Technical Advisor, Supply Chain Coordinator, Finance Controller, HR Coordinator, Grants Manager and M&E Coordinator.

External: Protection Working Groups, INGOs, Government administration.

Job Requirements

• Advanced degree in humanitarian assistance, social work, human rights, international law, social science or related field.
• 3 – 5 years’ experience implementing Protection and Rule of Law programming in an emergency or complex emergency context and demonstrable understanding of the relevance of international humanitarian law and human rights law to humanitarian action
• Professional practical experience in program implementation in the field of protection monitoring, community-based protection and/or access to justice in conflict-affected areas; applied experience in case management and international experience are a plus
• Ability to manage up and across and to influence others to mainstream protection across units
• Strong team and people leadership, management, organizational and development skills
• Strong program and budget management skills including planning and reporting across multiple grants
• Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representation and liaison with external parties
• Works well in and promotes teamwork, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure effectively and productively
• Fluent in spoken and written English

Working Environment

Security is at Green level. Lodging in Kasulu is in a shared IRC guesthouse, together with other IRC staff.  All IRC sites have electricity and internet.

Professional Standards

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.