IOM supports the Federal Government of Somalia in its efforts to assist with the rehabilitation and reintegration of women formerly associated with armed groups under the National Programme on the Treatment and Handling of Disengaged Combatants. IOM jointly manages two rehabilitation centres in an effort to ensure a gender responsive, comprehensive and context-nationally owned programme in support of women formerly associated with armed groups, in line with the Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most widespread human rights abuses in the world, affecting individuals everywhere. Humanitarian crises and situations of fragility more broadly can exacerbate exposure to different forms of GBV. In Somalia, there are high rates of forced marriage and forced recruitment of women and young girls to armed groups, and the need to provide alternatives and prevention-oriented services for women remains pertinent. While gender-based violence (GBV) is widespread, women and girls who live outside of the protected areas are particularly vulnerable due to a lack of access to protection mechanisms.
Embedded in its broader approach to protection, and building on knowledge and good practice, IOM launched and rolled out its Institutional Framework to address GBV in Crises (the GBViC Framework) in 2018, grounded on IOM’s overall vision that crisis-affected persons live free from GBV. The GBViC framework has represented a major step in the institutionalization of actions to address GBV across IOM’s emergency programming, reaching a key commitment made under the Global Call to Action to Address GBV in Emergencies.
IOM’s operations are mandated to safeguard the dignity and well-being of all crisis-affected persons, especially women and girls, and aims to ensure that their equitable access to services is prioritized, integrated and coordinated across all IOM crisis operations. Furthermore, IOM’s protection interventions have been designed to reduce vulnerabilities to GBV at the onset of emergencies, by building the capacity of field practitioners to identify, prevent and mitigate GBV risks; providing innovative tools to improve the management of sectoral responses and coordination of service provision in response to identified risks; enhancing operational collaboration between IOM sectors, GBV and other specialized Protection actors; and improving women’s participation in camp governance structures.
IOM seeks to build local and national capacities to respond to the complex and sensitive needs of women formerly associated with armed groups and survivors, raise awareness on services and key issues, increase social acceptance through community participation, and increase leadership among women from communities. IOM is working in partnership with the Government of Somalia, Civil Society Organizations and other actors from the GBV-Sub Cluster to address a critical gap in providing direct support to conflict affected women, survivors and communities to mitigate the risks of violent extremism and conflict related sexual violence (CRSV).
The successful candidate will be responsible for coordinating and overseeing the implementation of GBV and CRSV related activities for IOM Somalia to include supporting efforts to rehabilitation and reintegrate female beneficiaries, as well as improving the quality and availability of MHPSS and specialized supports for CRSV survivors