Accountability and Safeguarding Officer (part-time) - National Post - Lebanon - Beirut

Under the direct supervision of the Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator, the Accountability and Safeguarding Officer will work on supporting project teams in ensuring program quality as well as ensuring constructive and positive communication with Relief International program participants and other community members. The Accountability and Safeguarding Officer will work closely as a part of the Accountability and Safeguarding team with direct contact with program field staff. The Accountability and Safeguarding Officer will act as the focal point in receiving complaints, and feedback through different feedback, complaints channels adopted by Relief International while also ensuring proper reporting of findings for relevant intervention.

Key responsibilities

Acting as a point of contact with RI participants

• Receive calls on the RI’s Hotline during the designated hours and fully document the communication on the complaints and feedback system database.
• Receive referred complaints, requests, and feedback from RI’s field staff and fully document them on the complaints and feedback system database.
• Attend meetings, trainings, distributions, workshops, forums, and other key events to collect feedback and complaints from project participants and key stakeholders,
• Alert the Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator of any major complaints or reportable incidents received through RI’s accountability channels.
• Ensure the confidentiality of information collected from beneficiaries
• Report findings to Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator daily

Documentation and Follow-up.

• In collaboration with the Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator, the Accountability and Safeguarding Officer will follow and track daily and when needed all received complaints/ requests and feedback through the accountability channels
• In collaboration with the Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator, maintain and regularly update feedback/complaint system database
• Based on the case sensitivity coordinate with the program teams when any complaint/request is received following the complaints/feedback sensitivity for relevant intervention under RI’s programming
• Conduct referrals when needed to other organizations using the available referral modalities (such as email, Referrals Information Management System (RIMS), Refugee Assistance Information System (RAIS), and others) and fully document them on the referrals tracker.

Collaboration with the Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator in disseminating information in field related to accountability and safeguarding:

• Conduct field visits to attend meetings, trainings, distributions, workshops, forums, and other key events to disseminate information related to accountability, and RI feedback, complaints, and response mechanism (FCRM) and Safeguarding policies.
• In coordination with the program team, SCO makes sure that all partners, and service providers in direct contact with participants are trained on RI’s Safeguarding Policies and available reporting channels.
• Update FCRM information sharing tracking sheet following the completion of FCRM session conducted to beneficiaries, and key stakeholders.
• Conduct systematic accountability refreshes to participants ensuring their awareness of FCRM mechanism.

Conduct with the support of the Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator capacity-building activities for the program team on Accountability, Safe Identification and Referrals, Protection, and Gender mainstreaming in humanitarian work including training on Safeguarding Policies:

• Provide AAP and the Safe Identification and Referrals Training to program team.
• Provide Protection and Gender mainstreaming in humanitarian work training to program team.
• When needed, in coordination with HR, provide Safeguarding Policies training to staff (direct and indirect).
• Document and report all training conducted..

Lead on the reporting of Accountability and Safeguarding activities in designated donors reports (monthly reports/in-term reports) while ensuring close coordination with the monitoring and evaluation team:

reports

• Provide monthly detailed reports that show the analysis of feedback/complaints received highlighting their sensitivity and status with a brief analysis of key trends/findings
• Ensure that Accountability and Safeguarding indicators are well documented over the Indicator Performance Table Tracker (IPTT) monthly/quarterly
• Update existing AI reporting tools on RI Feedback Complaint and Response Mechanism procedures on a quarterly basis
• Provided Program Referral focal points with continuous guidance, training and refresher on referral pathways while ensuring that all referrals are shared to the appropriate sector following the Inter-Agency Minimum standards on referrals.
• Closely follow up with Program Referral focal points on Referrals conducted through the adopted referral mechanism while ensuring proper tracking on compiled referral trackers.
• Conduct regular satisfaction survey analysis to collect complaints and feedback from program participants.
• Actively engage, share achievements, challenges, and gaps when it comes to accountability, safeguarding, protection, and gender in Lessons Learned activities organized on quarterly basis to feed into the program adaptation for more relevance to targeted communities.

Conduct additional data collection efforts as needed:

• Support Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator in safe storage of hard and soft copy of data related to complaints, feedback, and referrals; filing of all completed hard and soft copies; and securing information by completing database backups.
• Any other task as requested by the Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator.

Represent RI Lebanon Country Office in internal and external meetings:

• Attend Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and AAP network meetings when needed and provide inputs on RI efforts to ensure adherence to PSEA, and AAP policies and standards
• Attend RI’s Safeguarding Focal point meetings when needed and provide inputs on RI’s Safeguarding activities at Lebanon Country Office.
• Attend meetings related to gender, protection and inclusion when needed.
  

Person Specification

Skills, knowledge and expertise required for the role.

Essential criteria

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, humanitarian, law or any other relevant field
• Two-year work-related experience in Accountability to Affected Population, Participant Safeguarding including PSEA-H and Feedback and Complaints mechanisms
• Experiences in working with vulnerable populations in emergency field activities
• Commitment to beneficiary accountability and humanitarian ethics
• Impartiality, objectivity, and confidentiality are imperative
• Commitment to and understanding of RI’s Accountability approaches, aims, values and core humanitarian standards
• High proficiency in mobile data collection tools such as KoboToolBox.
• Ability to work towards achieving objectives and results.
• Effective time management and ability to work to deadlines.
• Ability to collaborate well with others and support others in the pursuit of team goals.
• Fluency (written and oral) in Arabic and English is required
• Flexibility and ability to travel to the field when needed
• Good knowledge in Microsoft Office tools

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Relief International is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Relief International (RI) is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to RI’s Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.