Forced displacement and migration have been an enduring characteristic of Afghanistan for many decades, as populations rely on mobility to manage chronic crisis due to conflict and insecurity, resulting in socio-economic disruptions. For instance, approximately 866,672 people were newly displaced in 2021. While, widespread conflict ended, Afghanistan is in a devastating economic crisis. In consequence, an urgent imperative to address immediate lifesaving needs but also exploring solutions to address forced displacement, the vulnerabilities of the population and enhancing community resilience is needed.

The severe economic contraction, an alarming unemployment rate of 40 per cent, combined with at least 400,000 new labour market entrants annually, disproportionately large population of youth (60 per cent of total population), a population growth rate of 3 per cent (among the highest in the world), a multi-ethnic and multilingual society have placed massive pressure on severely overstretched resources. The result is a complex and multi-faceted crisis that generates and amplifies existing community tensions and animosities, resulting in significantly degraded protection environment for all persons of concern, particularly women and girls and persons belonging to minority groups.

Situation of women and girls continues to remain a challenge in Afghanistan since women’ s access to employment, education, freedom of movement and the enjoyment of other basic rights, are restricted.  Furthermore, the demographic profile of Afghanistan, characterized by a disproportionately large population of youth, compounds existing challenges and underscores the urgency of addressing the aspirations of Afghanistan’ s young people. Also, rural-urban migration due to lack of services in rural areas prompting continued population movement further compounds pressure on urban centers. As per the 2022 HNO/HRP, we entered 2022 with unprecedented levels of need amongst ordinary women, men and children of Afghanistan and 24.4 million people in humanitarian need – more than half the population.

Above mentioned challenges compound protection risks and limit reintegration prospects for returnees, which often results in harmful coping mechanisms (e.g., child labour, early and forced marriage, labour exploitation, debt, onward migration, etc.) and secondary displacement.

While conflict and insecurity remained the primary drivers of displacement in 2021, with the end of large-scale conflict after August 2021, natural disasters, climate change and other environmental risks will become more recurrent disruptors, frequently contributing to displacement and heightened vulnerability.

Between 2002 and 2021, nearly 5.3 million refugees voluntarily repatriated to Afghanistan with UNHCR’s assistance while the return trends remain low in the past few years including 1,576 refugee returnees in 2022 so far. Full and impactful inclusion of returning refugees into national development planning and programming is essential to enable their sustainable reintegration which will in turn solidify and fortify the broader stabilization efforts. In addition, there are currently 67,200 refugees and asylum seekers in Afghanistan. Most of this group were displaced from Pakistan to Afghanistan in 2014 and settled in areas of Khost and Paktika provinces. Small numbers are residing in urban areas of Kabul and other cities. Refugees constitute one of the most vulnerable populations in the country. They face significant legal challenges since that the National Law on Asylum still has not been enacted. On the other hand, increasing number of IDPs (nearly 1 million in 2021 and 2022(up to July) started to return to their places of origin mainly after August 2021.

UNHCR provides protection and finds solutions to the refugee and IDP situation in Afghanistan building upon the ongoing consultations within the context of the Support Platform for the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR) and the Global Compact on Refugees. In addition, UNHCR is the lead agency for Protection and ES/NFI (Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Item) clusters and CCCM WG, providing technical guidance and coordinating humanitarian response.

The Community-Based Protection Associate is a member of the Protection Unit and may report to the Protection Officer, Community-Based Protection Officer, or another more senior staff member in the Protection Unit. Under the overall direction of the Protection Unit, and in coordination with other UNHCR staff, government, NGO partners and other stakeholders, the Community-Based Protection Associate works directly with communities of concern to identify the risks they face and to leverage their capacities to protect themselves, their families and communities. The incumbent may have direct supervisory responsibility for part of the protection and/or support staff and supports the application of community-based protection standards, operational procedures and practices in community-based protection delivery at the field level. To fulfil this role, the Community-Based Protection Associate is required to spend a substantial percentage of the workday outside the office, building and maintaining networks within communities of PoC. The development and maintenance of constructive relationships with PoC that measurably impact and enhance protection planning, programming and results, form the core of the work of the incumbent. S/he also supports the designing of a community-based protection strategy by ensuring that it is based on consultation with PoC.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR’s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

1. Duties

• Assist functional units, the Multi-Functional Team (MFT) and senior management to integrate participatory and community-based approaches in the overall protection strategy and operational procedures.
• Through relationships with PoC and network of partners, stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment and provide advice to the protection team. Understand the perspectives, capacities, needs and resources of the PoC and advise the protection team accordingly, highlighting the specific protection needs of women and men, children, youth and older persons, persons with disabilities, marginalized groups.
• Work with host communities to identify opportunities for national civil society involvement in improving the protection of PoC.
• Work with implementing and operational partners as well as with displaced and local communities to develop community-owned activities to address, where applicable, the social, educational, psycho-social, cultural, health, organisational and livelihood concerns as well as child protection and prevention and response to GBV.
• Assist in the analysis that identifies the capacities of communities of concern and risks they face.
• Support participatory assessments by multifunctional teams and ongoing consultation with PoC.
• Assist in planning and monitoring of programmes and budgets, with an AGD perspective
• Build office capacity for community-based protection through training and establishing systems for community mobilization and participation of PoC.
• Support communities in establishing representation and coordination structures.
• Ensure community understanding of UNHCR's commitment to deliver on accountability and quality assurance in its response.
• Act as an interpreter in exchange of routine information, contribute to related liaison activities and respond directly to routine queries.
• Contribute to the enforcement of participatory AGD sensitive analysis as an essential basis for all of UNHCR’s work.
• Initiate AGD sensitive interventions at the appropriate level on community-based protection issues and to respond to protection concerns and incidents within the office, with external interlocutors, groups and individuals based on agreed parameters.
• Identify and select which individuals or groups to prioritize for counselling and field visits based on agreed criteria.
• Intervene with authorities on protection.
• Enforce compliance of implementing partners with global protection policies and standards of professional integrity in the delivery of protection services.
• Recommend and prepare payments to individual cases.
• Perform other related duties as required.

For G6 - 3 years relevant experience with High School Diploma; or 2 years relevant work experience with Bachelor or equivalent or higher

Field(s) of Education

Not applicable.

Certificates and/or Licenses

Development Studies,                      Human Rights                    Community Development /Social Work

Social Science,                                 Political Science                 International Law

Relevant Job Experience

Essential

Not specified.

Desirable

UNHCR learning programmes (PLP). Knowledge of MSRP.

Functional Skills

*IT-MS Office Applications

*IT-Computer Literacy

IT-Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

UN-UN/UNHCR Administrative Rules, Regulations and Procedures

UN-UN/UNHCR Financial Rules and Regulations and Procedures

PR-Community-based Protection

PR-Community-based Protection - Principles and methodologies

CL-Multi-stakeholder Communications with Partners, Government & Community

PG-Experience with coordinating with Implementing Partners (Governmt/INGO/NGO/Corporate)

TR-Capacity Building

(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements

For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.

For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.

For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

1.Competency Requirements

All jobs at UNHCR require six core competencies and may also require managerial competencies and/or cross-functional competencies. The six core competencies are listed below.

Core Competencies

Accountability

Communication

Organizational Awareness

Teamwork & Collaboration

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Client & Result Orientation

Managerial Competencies

Judgement and Decision Making

Managing Performance

Cross-Functional Competencies

Stakeholder Management

Planning and Organizing

Political Awareness

The management of the advertised openings in this announcement is in line with UNHCR Recruitment and Assignment Policy (RAP).

The vacancies are open to eligible internal and external applicants.

• Internal applicants are requested to submit their applications through Workday – Menu – Career. It is important that applicants update their Profiles (languages, education and prior working experience) before submitting their applications.
• External applicants are requested to submit their applications through the UNHCR Careers -  Careers (myworkdayjobs.com). You will need to create an account as “New User” and then click on “My Account Information”. Complete the application and submit it.