Overview
The Associate Protection Officer provides protection leadership and technical support across Cabo Delgado and Nampula Provinces, ensuring UNHCR’s protection mandate is effectively implemented. The role supports the implementation, monitoring, and analysis of protection activities with a focus on field engagement, partner support, and emergency response.
Key Responsibilities
- Monitor the implementation of protection activities carried out by UNHCR partners and government counterparts.
- Assess the quality, coverage, and effectiveness of protection interventions.
- Review partner reports and provide technical feedback.
- Support follow-up on identified gaps in implementation.
- Contribute to ensuring accountability to affected populations (AAP).
- Support the implementation and strengthening of Protection Monitoring systems.
- Analyse protection risks, trends, and patterns.
- Contribute to the drafting of protection monitoring reports, analytical briefs, and situation updates.
- Support the use of data to inform programming, prioritization, and advocacy.
- Ensure data collection and analysis are conducted in line with safe and ethical standards.
- Support emergency response activities, including rapid protection assessments.
- Participate in field deployments to respond to new displacement, returns, or emerging protection risks.
- Contribute to the identification of urgent protection needs and support response interventions.
- Coordinate with partners and local authorities at field level.
- Engage with government counterparts to support coordination and monitoring of protection activities.
- Strengthen collaboration between UNHCR, partners, and government entities.
- Support the integration of protection principles within broader humanitarian and government-led responses.
- Support the implementation of Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) activities.
- Contribute to community-based protection approaches.
- Promote the integration of Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) considerations.
- Support partners in mainstreaming protection principles.
- Provide technical support to partners and field teams.
- Contribute to the organization of trainings and capacity-building initiatives.
- Support the dissemination and application of UNHCR protection policies, standards, and tools.
- Perform other related duties as required.
- Support the integration of GBV risk mitigation measures.
- Contribute to the identification and analysis of GBV-related risks and trends.
- Support partners and field teams in the application of GBV guiding principles.
- Facilitate safe and ethical referral pathways for GBV survivors.
- Support the strengthening of coordination and collaboration with GBV actors.
- Contribute to the capacity building of partners and community structures on GBV risk mitigation.
- Ensure GBV-related data collection and reporting are conducted in accordance with safe and ethical standards.
Required Experience
- Minimum 3 years of relevant professional experience in protection in an international humanitarian or development context, including at least 2 years of field-based experience.
- Experience in the implementation and/or monitoring of protection programmes, including engagement with partners and government counterparts.
- Experience in protection monitoring, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
- Sound knowledge of protection principles, including Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD), Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).
- Experience in coordinating with or engaging government counterparts and humanitarian partners.
- Demonstrated ability to contribute to analytical outputs.
- Knowledge of GBV prevention, risk mitigation, and response.
- Familiarity with UNHCR and inter-cluster protection frameworks, tools, and guidance.
- Experience in data management and analysis (desirable).
- Demonstrated understanding of safe and ethical data collection (desirable).
- Experience in capacity building and training of partners, community structures, or government counterparts (desirable).
- Knowledge of participatory approaches and community engagement methodologies (desirable).
- Good understanding of displacement contexts and cross-cutting protection issues (desirable).
- Previous experience working in emergency or conflict-affected settings (desirable).
Qualifications
- Human rights
- Social Anthropology
- Social work
- Law
- International Development
- Social Sciences
- or other relevant field.
