Protection Specialist - GBV, Child Protection and Legal Aid

About the role

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is looking for a Protection Specialist to support the implementation, quality and coordination of its Protection activities in West Nile, Uganda. The postholder works in the Protection team under the guidance of the Country Protection Manager, based in Arua, and focuses on gender-based violence (GBV) response and prevention, child protection, community-based protection and legal aid. Protection is mainstreamed across all programme areas.

Key responsibilities

• Follow up on the quality of implementation of project activities at field level, including documentation and management of protection cases, and ensure beneficiary selection criteria are applied correctly.
• Ensure referral pathways are updated and used, and that a protection risk analysis is in place and kept current.
• Train, coach and mentor protection staff on protection tools and standards, and help identify and disseminate advocacy messages.
• Support the Protection action plan for West Nile, contribute to protection mainstreaming trainings, and take part in NFI/Cash/Water, WASH distributions on a need basis.
• Help develop context-specific SOPs and guidelines, support needs assessments and gap analyses, and contribute to programme proposals.
• Contribute to protection reports and ensure monitoring activities are mainstreamed with protection, in collaboration with the PIM officer and MEAL team, keeping data confidential.
• Take part in protection sector working group meetings and with line ministries and stakeholders, and provide regular analysis of protection issues in West Nile and Uganda.

Required profile

• At least 5 years of experience implementing and overseeing protection activities in GBV, child protection and community-based protection.
• Bachelor's degree in international relations, sociology, social sciences or a related field.
• Experience developing technical guidance and tools, designing and delivering protection training, and collaborating with information management colleagues on protection risk evidence.
• Legal aid experience is an asset.
• Ability to engage and mobilise colleagues without direct management lines; the role calls for the DRC core competencies of striving for excellence, collaboration, taking the lead and effective communication.