Background/IRC Summary: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war and disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

IRC has been working in Pakistan for approximately 40 years, managing and delivering large, complex programs to meet the needs in health, education, safeguarding, environmental health and livelihoods for displaced, poor and disaster affected communities. With the support of the federal and provincial governments, and generous donors like FCDO, ECHO, USAID, GAC and Australian Aid Agencies the IRC is currently implementing projects across the country.

The IRC launched 5-year USAID’s “Women’s Economic Empowerment Activity” (WEEA) to promote women’s economic empowerment through safe and dignified access to livelihood opportunities, information, resources, and services in the target districts of Pakistan. The WEEA target districts include a total of six districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab.

Job Overview/Summary: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is seeking a dynamic and self-motivated individual for the position of WPE Manager for a five-year USAID-funded Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment Project in Pakistan in six districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Punjab. The WPE Manager will advise and oversee Women Protection and Empowerment (WPE) interventions which includes prevention and response services, awareness campaigns, coordination with and capacity building of relevant stakeholders including GBV case management service providers. With the direct management support from the Gender specialist and technical support from the Integrated Protection Coordinator, the WPE Manager will ensure that the relevant objectives of the project are met in a timely and effective manner. Specific responsibilities include oversight of service delivery, monitoring and evaluation, professional development and training of IRC and partners’ WPE staff. He/she will provide appropriate mentorship to WPE officers and promote coordination among the local stakeholders.

Major Responsibilities:

Technical Oversight and Support

• Planning and implementation of WPE interventions, ensure effective use of resources against planned activities and expected output and compliance with the donor agreement and project proposal;


• Develop capacity building plans of the filed based staff on WPE/GBV and work with the Gender Technical Advisor and Integrated Protection Coordinator to identify resources and materials, plan and lead trainings and capacity building to IRC WPE staff and partners;


• Lead the field level implementation of IRC Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) by conducting trainings and refreshers, regular field visits and meetings with partners;


• Support Gender Technical Advisor in capacity building of teams on EMAP, GBV case management, awareness campaigns, Community based protection approaches and peace building social cohesion.    


• Engage with Provincial Commissions on Status of Women, Social Welfare Departments, Women Development Departments and federal ombudsperson in the Sindh and Punjab to support strengthening of field-based referral mechanisms and pathways and capacity building of service providers on GBV case management;


• Develop SOPs and provide technical support to field-based staff in developing and strengthening community-based women support mechanism and committees;


• Take evident lead and close technical oversight to GBV Campaign (SASA!) including but not limited to community-based activities, engagement with local media with the support of communications team, Information, Communication & Technology interventions (including radio, mobile phones etc.);


• Identify gaps in WPE sector and work with the team to develop innovative approaches and mechanisms to address them based on best practice and in line with GBV guiding principles, and women-, girl-, survivor centered programming;


• Take evident lead in establishing district and provincial coordination committees/forums and ensure regular meetings to progress the project advocacy related agenda


• With the support of technical specialist, develop and update advocacy briefs and support coordination committees in effectively engaging with the relevant stakeholders to progress the advocacy agenda.


• Assist Senior Protection Coordinator in the program development and design process through assessments, proposal writing, and budget development.

Project Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation

• facilitate in effective monitoring of WPE activities in coordination with the Technical Gender Specialist and Integrated Protection Coordinator and technically backstopped by WPE Technical Advisor


• Compile and prepare quality monthly and periodic progress reports, as well as the final reports, and feed in other information as required


• Support in the effective application of monitoring and evaluation tools that are contextually appropriate and will allow the IRC to measure the impact of programming without compromising safety, confidentiality, and informed consent.


• Work closely with government line departments for the development of GBV data protection and sharing protocols in targeted districts.


• Ensure that all internal and external reporting requirements are met and that reports are of a high quality and submitted on time.

Coordination and Representation:

• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with all stakeholders - including Government, community leaders, NGOs, UN agencies, community-based organizations and other IRC sectors to enhance cooperation and coordination in Sindh and Punjab;


• Participate in IRC regular meetings, reviews, strategic planning; and assist in the preparation of new initiatives for the WPE program in Pakistan;


• Participate in WEEA Technical Working Group and other project coordination and partners’ review meetings;


• Represent IRC in relevant coordination fora at national and provincial level;


• Ensure that information from coordination meetings is shared internally and with other sectors, as appropriate;


• Ensure regular communication with Integrated Protection Coordinator, Head of Office, and other departments regarding the project’s progress and processes;


• Any other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Gender Technical Specialist

Technical Supervision: Integrated Protection Coordinator.

Position directly supervises: WPE officers

Job Requirements:

a) Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, Women’s Studies, gender studies or other related field

b) Work Experience:

• Minimum 7 years professional experience developing, managing, and implementing GBV / Women Protection & Empowerment programs with reputable local and/or international organizations or UN agencies.


• Thorough understanding of the gender equality and GBV issues at national level, with a focus on Sindh and Punjab


• Familiarity with the laws, policies, and key government stakeholders working on GBV response and prevention.


• Thorough understanding of best practices and evidence-based strategies in GBV response (case management, psychosocial support, legal support) and GBV primary prevention and risk reduction.


• Experience implementing GBV response and prevention programs in collaboration with multiple stakeholders and direct technical support to field-based staff.


• Strong understanding of Feminist Principles and Gender Inequalities in Pakistan


• Proven experience supervising and providing case management services and psychosocial support services.

c) Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Strong project planning and organizational skills


• Successful experience and ability working within a volatile and unstable security environment is a must.


• Strong planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation skills.


• Successful experience in developing new programs in line with strategic goals


• Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representation and advocacy with external parties.


• Experience managing, supervising, coaching and mentoring staff.


• Proven track record to work well in and promote teamwork, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure.

Language Skills: Proficiency in Spoken and written English and Urdu is essential; while working level proficiency in local languages (Sindhi, Punjabi, Saraiki etc) is desirable.

  The IRC Core Values and Commitments.

• The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and implements policies on Adult Safeguarding Policy, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.


• IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children (under 18) and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.


• Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children particularly adolescent girls


• IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have proficiencies to solicits and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.


• IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this dedication.