Protection Coordinator at Mercy Corps

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

The Program Summary 

Mercy Corps’ Ukraine response meets the humanitarian needs of people affected by the war in Ukraine. Since the escalation of the war in 2022, Mercy Corps has supported more than 750,000 conflict-affected people in Ukraine and neighboring countries. We have provided cash assistance, food and hygiene kits, and psychosocial support for people in emergency situations; grants for micro, small and medium businesses, as well as small to medium farming enterprises; and conducted large-scale information campaigns. Notably, nearly all our programming is delivered in partnership with civil society organizations matching humanitarian action with capacity strengthening and a real commitment to localization.

The Position

The Protection Coordinator is responsible to support teams in ensuring the design and delivery of both direct and partner-led activities address protection risks and barriers to services facing women, men, girls, and boys affected by violence and conflict. They will facilitate the design of protection mainstreaming methodologies, provide technical support to partners on the implementation of protection interventions such as psychosocial support and referrals, ensure adherence to program quality standards, and lead capacity building of staff and partners. The role will ensure high-quality programming that will advance the promotion of safe, dignified, and inclusive access in Mercy Corps program initiatives particularly for marginalized groups and people at risk, through consultations with partners, community members and other colleagues.

In particular, this role will be responsible for designing and facilitating capacity strengthening for partners to improve the quality of programming, promote the inclusion of women and other marginalized groups, such as people living with disabilities and the elderly population. The Protection Coordinator will also explore opportunities to support field teams in ensuring meaningful engagement of women and marginalized groups with Mercy Corps’ Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms (CARM). In addition, this role will help to ensure that the different vulnerabilities of women, marginalized groups, and other vulnerable populations are adequately raised, and incorporated in program design, implementation and learning.

The Protection Coordinator will also strengthen Mercy Corps’ representation in in national and sub-national Protection Clusters and networks by attending relevant meetings, networking with other NGO actors and identifying potential partners for future programming.

Essential Responsibilities

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

• With Mercy Corps’ teams (e.g. MEL) conduct protection risk assessments and reviews to inform program design improvements and adaptations to programming for both Mercy Corps and partners.
• Support the establishment of a network of protection focal points across Mercy Corps’ partners supporting learning and exchange of experiences.
• Help identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in Mercy Corps’ response and contribute to the development of protection strategies and action plans.
• Inform strategy based on analysis demonstrating evolving protection risks and trends.
• Collaborate with Mercy Corps and partner team in the mapping and dissemination of locally available protection services and the establishment of safe referral pathways and mechanisms.
• Review partner proposals to ensure protection activities are technically solid and well organized, and contribute to safe programming, ensuring the integration of protection principle into implementation.
• Develop and implement quality checklists and progress tools to oversee the protection programming and mainstreaming activities of Mercy Corps and our partners.
• Contribute to development of standard operational procedures (SoPs) on different thematic areas of protection that Mercy Corps partners are working on.
• Document community concerns and recommendations on how to best overcome identified barriers by engaging local populations.
• Contribute to the design of new programs and the development of new proposals, ensuring protection principles are adequately considered, and the design address protection risks and barriers to services and is inclusive.

CAPACITY BUILDING

• Coordinate protection capacity building initiatives for Mercy Corps and partner organizations for integrating protection programmatically and institutionally.
• Build the capacities of partners on psychological first aid (PFA), protection mainstreaming (do no harm approach), GBV risk mitigation through trainings and sensitization.
• Sensitize Mercy Corps and partner staff on do no harm, best practices to access and engage with marginalized groups, at-risk populations, and individuals who have experienced harm; sensitize on best practices to enable access for people with disabilities and assistive support.
• Support in the development and review of protection training curriculums and materials.
• Facilitate regular community and partner consultations, group meetings, events, roundtable discussions and training sessions to ensure programming remains safe and inclusive, working together with local partners and relevant Mercy Corps teams.
• Contribute to an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed, where the project teams work together, exchange information, and coordinate activities.

MONITORING, EVALUATION, LEARNING (MEL) AND REPORTING

• Support the integration of protection aspects into the M&E system and processes by coordinating with MEL teams in field offices, this will include identification of appropriate outputs and outcomes.
• In coordination with MEL focal points, undertake field visits to monitor and track the progress of program activities using appropriate qualitative research tools.
• Work with the MEL team to incorporate questions related to access and safety in monitoring activities, and to assess access to services/activities/information for identified groups.
• Promote the use and analysis of sex, age, and disability disaggregated data and support for marginal groups where safe and appropriate.
• Participate in the development and implementation of program learning activities to integrate lessons learned for protection activities and protection mainstreaming.
• Review partner reports ensuring they capture required information and support the completion of internal and external reports.
• Contribute to reporting of protection activities to national protection cluster platforms (i.e. Activity Info).

COORDINATION & REPRESENTATION

• Coordinate and collaborate with counterparts in GESI and Protection teams.
• Represent Mercy Corps at relevant protection fora at the national and subnational levels and report back on critical information.
• Regularly coordinate with internal program and operational stakeholders.

Supervisory Responsibility

Protection Officer

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Program Quality and Standards Lead

Works Directly With: Resilience and humanitarian program teams, GESI team, Regional and global protection & GESI advisors, partnerships capacity development team, MEL team, CARM team, Safeguarding Advisor

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Degree in social sciences, social work, international relations, law, or a related field
• Minimum three years of experience working with NGOs focused on humanitarian protection; experience working with internally displaced populations including marginalized or vulnerable community members.
• Experience in protection programming (preferably inclusive of general protection, psychosocial support, legal counseling, etc.) and mainstreaming in an emergency context.
• Experience in managing and supervising people, including providing mentorship, coaching, and performance management.
• Understanding of barriers and risks for women, older people, people living with disabilities, and other marginalized members of the local community.
• Experience in organizing and assisting with trainings and events.
• Strong understanding of protection principles, IASC guidelines, humanitarian principles, human rights frameworks, international humanitarian law, gender equality, and social inclusion.
• Fluency in Ukrainian and English required.
• Willingness to travel across Ukraine, particularly to Mercy Corps project sites.

Success Factors

The Protection Coordinator will have the ability to work closely with a diverse team of individuals in a highly fluid work and security environment. S/he will have the capacity to support ambitious and innovative approaches while helping to strengthen understanding of the sensitivities of the cultural context.

The successful candidate will have strong communication and interpersonal skills and must adapt to building strong partner relationships and advocating for change at all levels. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination based on race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Benefits

Mercy Corps is offering competitive 25 Benefits Packages (10 law statutory and 15 market competitive), including but not limited to the relocation, transportation, phone allowances, remote and flexible working modality, duty of care, well-being support, 24/7 free resilience consultations in addition to a salary offer. Team positive working environment in a well-established and growing international humanitarian organization with career development opportunities through our global talent development platform.