Protection Officer | Oromia

About the Organization

Development for Peace Organization (DPO) is an Ethiopian civil society organization established in 2020 with a mission of striving to meet the humanitarian and developmental needs of societies regardless of race, color, religion or cultural background. The organization is legally registered to work in Ethiopia (Reg. 5164), South Sudan (Reg. 4178), Kenya (OP.218/051/22-400/12732 and Somalia (Reg. NGOD/Moifar0422/022); it is also processing its registration in Yemen.

Job Summary

The Protection Officer reports to the Program Director and the Protection Officer will be develop and maintain good relations with the persons of concern and will support the implementation of DPO’s protection objectives and activities to provide timely and effective protection assistance to target people. The position will, furthermore, be tasked to develop and adapt monitoring tools, to provide direct assistance and support to target people with specific needs.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Undertake regular field visits to conduct interviews with target people and other relevant stakeholders in order to gather protection-related information;
• Identify protection issues through an age, gender by focus group discussions and individual interviews in a safe environment;
• Preparing protection information in an easily-understandable format for communities;
• Plan, design and implement protection awareness-raising activities for communities, in consultation with the target audience;
• Design, with the participation of representative community groups, appropriate protection interventions, including referrals to relevant authorities and agencies;
• Initiate or support community or municipal level advocacy activities designed to improve the protection situation of target population;
• Identify protection issues in beneficiary communities and flag them for the attention of the supervisor;
• Follow up on individual protection cases within communities and with partner organizations.
• Conduct impact monitoring of project activities, in accordance with the organization’s methodology;
• Co-operate and interact with partner organizations, relevant government departments and local authorities, and other protection partners on a regular basis;
• Actively participate in the Protection Cluster and work with appropriate stakeholders;
• Accurately and responsibly document information and share with appropriate partners, Donors, with approval of supervisor or senior management;
• Work within an agreed work plan and ensure timely attention to priority tasks;
• Play an active role in developing new protection strategies within the organization;
• Prepare documentation of all relevant activities (protection monitoring forms, field trip reports, Collective Centre database, minutes of meetings, work plans, budgets etc.) in accordance with the organization’s guidelines and regulations;
•  Propose corrective actions where necessary;
• Supervise and support protection field assistants/Community mobilizers, where relevant;
• Protection monitoring, referrals and delivery of assistance;
• Engage in planning and conducting rapid needs assessments to understand protection needs of target populations;
• Collect intake and assistance provision data ensuring the highest standards of data protection and confidentiality;
• Provide advice and guidance as well as referrals to target people on issues related to accessing required services;
• Perform any other duties as requested by supervisor.

Reports to: Project Coordinator

Min. Education

• BA  in Social Work, Sociology, Psychology, education, law or other related fields

Experiences

• Minimum 3 years professional experience in a similar position, NGO/INGO Experience is Preferable
• Experience in a social service, psychology, education, or development sector, of which at least 1year experience is working in development or humanitarian settings;

Essential Competencies & Skill

• Technical understanding of core protection concepts including experience implementing protection programming in humanitarian contexts;
• Ability and willingness to maintain regular presence at project sites and to work during irregular working hours and in insecure environments;
• Strong interpersonal skills and commitment to learning and implementing organizational policies and procedures;
• Good computer skills (Excel, Microsoft, PowerPoint and Outlook, ERP);
• Good understanding of international human rights and principles of humanitarian work;
• Previous working experience with humanitarian agencies will be considered as a strong advantage;

Language Requirements

• Knowledge of English and working language of the duty station is an asset
• Knowledge of the local language Oromiffaa is a plus