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 has been responding in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022. The team is providing emergency assistance to refugees in neighboring countries and people displaced inside Ukraine so they can meet their basic survival needs. We also fund local organizations that know their community best and are working quickly to address their most urgent needs.

Building on the successes and lessons learned of the original Locally led, Inclusive and Versatile Emergency Support to Conflict Affected Populations in Ukraine and Poland program (LIVES), under LIVES 2.0 Mercy Corps will continue to work with CSO partners to deliver a comprehensive package of emergency assistance to the most vulnerable conflict-affected individuals and communities in Ukraine. With a focus on reaching those most in need in frontline, recently de-occupied or hard-to-reach areas, Mercy Corps and our local partners aim to reach over 80,000 individuals with emergency cash and other humanitarian aid. Another principal objective of LIVES 2.0 is to support local partners with the resources they need to grow their knowledge of, leadership in, and capacity to deliver the humanitarian response. The overall outcome is “The most vulnerable conflict-affected Ukrainians are enabled to meet their basic needs through rapid, localized and appropriate humanitarian assistance, delivered in a gender, age, and ability responsive way.”

The Position

The Protection and GESI Coordinator reports to LIVES 2.0 Program Manager, with a technical line to the Ukraine Response Protection Advisor. S/he will focus on technical support to partners and Mercy Corps staff in carrying out the program’s protection activities (psychosocial support, legal assistance, protection counseling, awareness raising etc.) and promote gender equality, diversity, and inclusion throughout our programs and operations.

The role will support the promotion of safe and inclusive access to our programs by marginalized groups and people at risk, ensuring that our programs are properly informed on how to include them through consultations with partners, community members and other colleagues.

In addition, this role will be responsible for facilitating capacity strengthening for Mercy Corps staff and partners to improve the quality of protection programming, promote the inclusion of women and other marginalized groups, such as people living with disabilities and the elderly population.

Essential Responsibilities

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• •  Conduct risk assessments and gender and social inclusion assessments and reviews and suggest appropriate adaptations with both Mercy Corps staff and partners.
• •  Contribute to development of standard operational procedures (SoPs) and develop and implement checklists and tools for Mercy Corps staff and partners, including integrating a protection mainstreaming and GESI lens in tools developed by other departments.
• •  Help identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in Mercy Corps’ response and contribute to the development of protection and GESI strategies and action plans.
• •  Facilitate regular community and partner consultations, group meetings, events, roundtable discussions and training sessions to ensure programming remains gender sensitive and inclusive, working together with local partners and relevant Mercy Corps teams
• •  Review partner proposals to ensure protection activities are technically solid and well organized and contribute to safe programming.
• •  Work with implementing partners and Mercy Corps technical program staff, to ensure effective integration of protection and GESI into program activities throughout the program cycle.
• •  In coordination with MEL and program focal points, undertake field visits to monitor program activities from a protection and GESI perspective.
• •  Establish a network of protection and GESI focal points across the Mercy Corps partners; develop coordination mechanisms to provide opportunities for learning and exchange of experiences.
• •  Support partner organizations in establishing safe referral mechanisms in line with the referral pathways and cluster guidance.
• •  Contribute to an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed, where the project teams work together, exchange information and coordinate activities.

CAPACITY BUILDING

• •  Coordinate and deliver protection and GESI-related capacity building initiatives for Mercy Corps and partner staff, including on topics such as psychological first aid (PFA), protection mainstreaming (do no harm approach), GBV risk mitigation, etc.
• •  Sensitize Mercy Corps and partner staff on do no harm and best practices to access and engage with marginalized groups, at risk populations, individuals who’ve experienced harm, people with disabilities, etc.
• •  Support in the development and review of protection and GESI integrated training curriculums and materials

REPRESENTATION

• •  Represent Mercy Corps at relevant protection, GBV, and gender clusters/sub-clusters at the national and local levels and report back on critical information.
• •  Lead on reporting of protection activities to national protection cluster platforms (i.e. Activity Info).

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Program Manager LIVES 2.0, with technical line to Protection Advisor

Works Directly With: LIVES 2.0 Program Team, GESI Officer, Safeguarding Advisor, Partnerships, MEL, CARM, Subawards & Compliance, Finance, HR, Operations and Security Teams

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, education, related fields
• •  Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience; of which at least 2 years of experience working in a non-governmental organization (NGO), private sector or community-based organization focused on protection and/or gender equality and social inclusion programming.
• •  Demonstrated technical expertise in protection programming (preferably inclusive of general protection, psychosocial support, legal assistance etc.) and mainstreaming in an emergency context.
• •  Strong contextual understanding of the barriers faced by women, the elderly, people living with disabilities, and/or other marginalized members in Ukraine.
• •  Experience in organizing events and facilitating trainings.
• •  Fluency in Ukrainian and English required. Russian fluency preferred.
• •  Willingness to travel across Ukraine, particularly to Mercy Corps project sites.
• •  Knowledge of Sphere standards and other training in humanitarian response preferred.

Success Factors

The Protection and GESI 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 gender and protection mainstreaming 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 be adept at 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. 

PLEASE, APPLY: https://recruiting2.ultipro.com/MER1024MERCY/JobBoard/7a14d810-d41a-4542-9b9c-ba39a563b91a/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=16c0994b-704b-4941-b385-311cbb232c7b