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Protection Referrals Advisor

Ref INT5069
Region Horn, East & Central Africa
Location Goma
Division International
Department Humanitarian Department
Position Type Fixed Term
Job Family Programme
Closing date for applications
(UK Time)
19 January 2012
Job Profile

Salary: from £24,245 pa (net) plus competitive benefits and additional allowance of £4,000 net per annum
Contract Length: Fixed Term, 6 months
Anticipated Starting Date: 8th January 2011



We are looking for an expert in protection referral systems who is passionately interested in grass-root experiences of service provision in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Background
Oxfam is one of the world's leading humanitarian agencies assisting people affected by natural disasters and conflict throughout the world. With many thousand staff and dedicated volunteers in more than 80 countries, Oxfam is able to achieve the greatest impact to end poverty and suffering through combining emergency response work, long-term programmes for poverty alleviation and campaigning for lasting change. DRC is one of Africa's largest, most diverse and poorest countries. Oxfam's DRC programme is one of our biggest, providing both emergency aid and long-term development to some 800,000 people, with over 350 staff; it is also Oxfam's biggest protection programme globally. The protection programme has been running since 2009 and currently works with 10 local partners in 56 communities across 8 territories in the Eastern DRC. A recent evaluation highlighted successes of the programme but also suggested that we look further at how and why communities refer cases in the way they do, despite the programmes intention to discourage case management, and how to adapt our approach to different contexts.
The role
Reporting to the Protection Coordinator, you will develop the programme's approach to referral. You will talk to communities to better understand their motivation behind "case management", and what good practices they have developed around this. You will look in more remote areas, such as Haute Uele and Fizi where there are very limited referral services, at what local support mechanisms are in place, and how we can reinforce these. Where there are referral services, you will suggest ways communities can increasingly self-refer. You will train staff and partner staff to design an appropriate approach for different areas with community members, developing tools for a diagnostic; you will coach them as they train communities as appropriate, and develop simple methodology for assessing the quality of services. You will document lessons learnt and work closely with Oxfam GB's global advisor to feed into Oxfam GB policy and wider lessons learnt and good practice.
The Person
To achieve this you will need to be dynamic, determined and genuinely interested in communities' contexts and motivations. You will have a wide range of skills and experience, including in humanitarian protection programming, developing referral systems and psychosocial support in complex emergencies. You will have worked with civil society groups and community networks at grassroots level, set up referral systems and developed communities psychosocial support capacity in a context similar to Eastern DRC. You will have strong proven experience in training trainers, and proven capacity to write guidelines in French and reports in professional English. Fluency in English and French is essential. You must be a strategic thinker, consultative and analytical, and accustomed to developing your own work. You will have an active commitment to promoting gender equality and the interests of marginalised groups and an ability both suggest practical solutions to complex issues and to engage with global learning from a country perspective. Previous working experience in DRC would be an advantage. You will need strong interpersonal skills and the capacity to work effectively in a multi-cultural team.