The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

Advanced/Fluent in written and spoken English.

 The IRC began planning to reopen an oPt country program in mid-2022 and launched an emergency response in Gaza in October 2023. The organization is currently supporting a network of local partners in both Gaza and the West Bank to sustain critical health, protection, food security, cash, education, and early childhood development interventions. The IRC is also deploying emergency medical teams to provide surge clinical capacity in hospitals and other health facilities. 

The IRC is working to scale its emergency response while building a longer-term oPt country program in parallel. This effort is being jointly managed by the Emergencies and Humanitarian Action Unit (EHAU) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a view to eventually transition the country program fully under the MENA region.

In Gaza, the IRC is currently scaling up its direct program implementation in protection, with a particular focus on child protection and women’s protection and empowerment / gender-based violence (GBV) programming. The aim of IRC’s WPE programming in Gaza is that women and girls receive GBV response services and are supported through risk mitigation.

Job overview

The Women’s Protection and Empowerment Officer, Violence Prevention (WPE Prevention Officer) will oversee Violence against Women and Girls(VAWG) prevention, community engagement and risk reduction activities. These activities will focus on - engaging with women and girls; and targeting communities on issues relating to VAWG to using a variety of context appropriate methods – information dissemination through discussion sessions and info boards, creative events. conducting regular safety audits and community mapping, and risk identification and mitigation. Messages developed by the WPE Prevention Officer, with supervision and collaboration from the WPE manager, will cover the types of services available to women and girl survivors, where these services are available, how communities can support survivors to access services, and the consequences of VAWG and the benefits of seeking care and support.

Major responsibilities

Technical Quality

• Reinforce adherence to the VAWG/GBV guiding principles throughout all WPE activities. 
• Ensure that engagement with women, girls and the wider community adheres to best-practice principles when working with women and girl survivors.
•  Experience in managing caseworkers/or providing technical supervision for case managers.

Staff Supervision & Development

• Directly supervise WPE Outreach Workers / Community Workers.

• Mentor and support staff professional development and foster a positive team spirit to encourage innovative and quality programming.

• Identify training needs for Community Outreach Workers, and support organization and facilitation of training to meet those needs, in collaboration with the WPE Officer and WPE Program Manager.

• Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions. 

• As requested, assist in providing capacity building support for partners 

Grant Planning & Implementation

• Prepare and maintain/update detailed work plan(s) that support and achieve activities.

• Provide direct support to WPE Community Outreach Workers / Community Workers in developing and implementing activity plans that respond to case trends and identified needs.

• Develop key messages, outreach activities and community engagement plan in coordination with outreach workers.

• Oversee regular engagement activities with women and girls to assure access to services. 

Coordination & Representation

• Identify concerns related to and support adherence to referral protocols by all relevant stakeholders.

• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with relevant stakeholders including community leaders and other implementing partners.

Monitoring responsibilities

• Prepare and submit weekly, monthly and three-month work plans in a timely manner, and incorporate supervisor feedback as requested.

• Compile monthly activity report for submission to the WPE Manager. 

• Ensure that all relevant financial documentation is accurately completed and submitted, as required by IRC policies.

Other Duties:

• Ensure all activities are carried out in accordance with IRC Operational policies.

• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.