Responsibilities
Job Overview/Summary:
The Protection Cluster Sub-National Co-Coordinator will work in partnership with UNHCR, as the Cluster Lead Agency, to provide leadership and facilitate the processes that will ensure a well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, and effective response across the northwest of Syria. The Co-Lead will have specific responsibility for ensuring that the position is informed by the NGO perspective, including, importantly, that of local partners. The Co-Lead will also be responsible for ensuring that the NGO membership is contributing to and sharing Cluster responsibilities and will play a lead role in developing the active engagement and technical capacity of members of the working group. The Protection Cluster Sub-National Co-Coordinator together with the UNHCR Protection Cluster Coordinator will be representing the Sub-National Protection Cluster for northwestern Syria, based in Aleppo, and raise protection issues affecting Syrians across northwest Syria within the centralized Protection Cluster system which will be operationalized from July 1st, 2025.The position will report to the Protection Co-Lead at the National Level (hosted by IRC).
Main Responsibilities:
- Co-chair regular coordination meetings of the Sub-National (Aleppo/northwest) Protection Cluster. Actively identify, make contact with, and offer technical and operational support to new and existing protection partners, including both large and small Syrian organizations; lead follow-up with prospective Cluster members.
- Provide leadership and strategic direction, reflecting the NGO perspective in particular, within the context of core Cluster processes, including those related to the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP); otherwise support coordination so as to enable coherent and timely responses to protection and humanitarian needs.
- Support Technical Working Groups, where needed, and operational working groups to facilitate emergency responses and to strengthen emergency response capacity and coordination.
- Support in developing periodic and ad hoc protection analyses to inform strategy development, as well as operational responses and advocacy; likewise, in collaboration with UNHCR, develop periodic response analyses to further assist in identifying response gaps in relation to identified needs;
- Support the other Clusters and their membership with protection mainstreaming initiatives and promote analysis and integration of protection risks into their strategies and accompanying responses;
- Support representation of the Cluster in interagency fora; otherwise support protection mainstreaming through engagement in interagency and direct support to protection and non-protection actors;
Other Core Responsibilities
- Work with UNHCR Coordinator, the Protection Monitoring Task Force and Protection Cluster members to ensure that key protection (including CP and GBV) concerns are reflected in OCHA or NGO led multi-sectoral assessments, as well as other protection specific sectoral assessments;
- In collaboration with the Cluster’s Information Management Officer, support the Cluster’s data collection efforts, helping Syrian partners to submit accurate and consistent data; Provide analysis back to the Cluster and other inter-agency fora;
- Provide direct training in protection for key stakeholders, in line with agreed upon Cluster priorities;
- Work with protection and non-protection partners to promote understanding of and adherence to humanitarian and protection principles and standards according to international legal frameworks.
- Serve as the representative of the Cluster in key cross-sector working groups, such as the MHPSS Technical Working Group and Family Tracing and Reunification Task Force.
Staff Performance Management, Learning & Development
- Hire, supervise, and build the capacity of team members in relevant technical and management competencies.
- Develop and implement remote management capacity building approaches to build the strengths the teams in Syria.
- Coach, train, supervise and mentor direct-report staff, including communicating clear expectations, setting annual performance objectives, providing regular and timely positive and constructive performance feedback, and providing documented semi-annual performance reviews.
- Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions.
- Provide a measurable development plan including on-the-job learning with the aim of strengthening technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team, and providing guidance on career paths.
- Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions.
- Promote and monitor staff care and well-being. Model healthy work-life balance practices. Support appropriate interventions in response to identified staff care needs of both national and international staff.