The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) seeks a Protection Associate to ensure the protection of refugees and other persons of concern. You will monitor protection standards and operational procedures, coordinate protection responses, and work directly with populations of concern to involve them in decisions affecting their lives.
What You'll Do
- Stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that impact the protection environment.
- Consistently apply International and National Law and applicable UN/UNHCR and IASC policy, standards and codes of conduct.
- Assist in providing comments on existing and draft legislation related to persons of concern.
- Provide advice on protection issues to persons of concern and liaise with competent authorities to ensure issuance of personal and other relevant documentation.
- Assist in conducting eligibility and status determination for persons of concern.
- Contribute to measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness.
- Contribute to country-level child protection and education plans as part of the broader protection strategy.
- Monitor Standard Operating Procedures for all protection and solutions activities.
- Manage individual protection cases, including those on gender-based violence and child protection, and intervene in cases of refoulement, expulsion and other protection incidents.
- Assist in identifying durable solutions through voluntary repatriation, local integration, and resettlement.
- Contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of protection-related Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) based programming with partners.
- Facilitate effective information management by providing disaggregated data on persons of concern and their problems.
- Participate in initiatives to capacitate authorities, institutions and NGOs to strengthen national protection-related legislation and procedures.
- Assist the supervisor in prioritizing persons of concern for interview and counselling, and propose protection support for individual cases.
- Assist the supervisor with enforcing compliance of implementing partners with global protection policies and standards of professional integrity.
- Assist with enforcing compliance with all protection standard operating procedures.
- Submit individual payments requests for persons of concern for approval.
- Support the identification and management of risks in your area of responsibility, raising concerns to a supervisor or relevant colleague.
- Perform other related duties as required.
What We're Looking For
- For the G6 level: 3 years of relevant experience with a High School Diploma; or 2 years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's degree or equivalent or higher.
- Certificates and/or Licenses in International Law, Political Science or a related field.
- Functional Skills: IT-Computer Literacy, PR-Refugee Protection Principles and Framework, PR-Protection-related guidelines, standards and indicators.
- For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or the UN working language of the duty station if not English.
Nice to Have
- Protection Learning Programme certification.
Team & Environment
You will report directly to the Protection Officer or the Senior Protection Officer and will coordinate closely with information management and programme staff.
Work Mode
This position is local-country based in Zambia, Malawi, or Zimbabwe.
All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description and must discharge their responsibilities consistent with UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity. All workforce members must contribute towards a safe and empowered working environment, demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment, discrimination, and abuse of power.
