The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

About the International Rescue Committee (IRC) The International Rescue Committee responds to the worlds most severe humanitarian crises, supporting people affected by conflict, displacement, and instability to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. Working in over 40 countries and in fragile and crisis-affected contexts, the IRC delivers life-saving assistance while strengthening systems that protect people from harm and enable longer-term safety, dignity, and resilience. At the core of the IRCs work is a commitment to protection, gender equality, and survivor-centered practice. The IRC has deep expertise in addressing gender-based violence, exploitation, and abuse across humanitarian and displacement settings, with a strong emphasis on prevention, ethical response, accountability, and the leadership of women-led and community-based organizations. This experience has generated robust approaches to safeguarding, case management, referral systems, and risk mitigation that are grounded in local realities and aligned with international standards. Increasingly, the IRC is applying this expertise beyond traditional humanitarian programming, recognizing that many drivers of harm such as power asymmetries, labor mobility, informality, and weak accountability mechanisms are shared across crisis, recovery, and global value-chain contexts. Through innovative partnerships with private-sector actors, brands, and suppliers, the IRC supports the adaptation and transfer of humanitarian protection and safeguarding practices to settings where workers face heightened risks of exploitation, harassment, and abuse. In this project, the IRC works to strengthen PSEAH systems within garment factories while reinforcing the leadership of women-led organizations as primary actors in survivor response. The IRCs role is not to replace local expertise, but to help bridge corporate safeguarding commitments with trusted, community-anchored support, ensuring that prevention and reporting mechanisms translate into meaningful, ethical, and survivor-centered outcomes. This approach reflects the IRCs broader ambition to position humanitarian protection practice as a transferable system asset, capable of informing risk reduction, accountability, and survivor support across sectors and geographies where patterns of vulnerability and harm are structurally similar.

JOB OVERVIEW/SUMMARY

The GBV Specialist will provide technical leadership to strengthen the design, implementation, and sustainability of PSEAH systems within factories, while mentoring and supporting women-led organizations (WLOs) to deliver survivor-centered, ethical, and confidential remedial care for survivors of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH).. The role bridges corporate safeguarding, worker protection, and community-based survivor support, ensuring that prevention, reporting, response, and accountability mechanisms are functional, accessible, and aligned with international safeguarding standards and local legal frameworks. The GBV Specialist will provide technical leadership to support innovative programming that strengthens the design, implementation, and sustainability of PSEAH systems within garment factories, while working in partnership with women-led organizations (WLOs as lead actors in survivor response) to ensure the availability of survivor-centered, ethical, and confidential remedial care for survivors of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH). The role sits at the intersection of technical assistance, model adaptation and transferability, and mobility-informed GBV risk reduction within global value chains. It supports WLO-led responses by helping translate factory-based safeguarding commitments into trusted, community-anchored survivor support pathways, and by mitigating SEAH risks linked to labor mobility, subcontracting, and power asymmetries across factory and community contexts. Prevention, reporting, response, and accountability mechanisms are strengthened to be functional, accessible, and aligned with international safeguarding standards and national legal frameworks. The role requires a high degree of professional judgment to navigate complex power dynamics between brands, factory management, workers, and community-based organizations, and to balance safeguarding integrity with private-sector engagement. It contributes to positioning humanitarian protection practice and strategies as transferable assets across sectors and geographies where drivers of risk, vulnerability, and harm share common characteristics, enabling learning, adaptation, and potential scale beyond a single project or context. Key Responsibilities 1. PSEAH Systems Strengthening in Garment Factories

Conduct organizational PSEAH risk assessments within garment factories, with specific attention to power dynamics, subcontracting, migrant and casual labor, and gender-based risks.

Support factories to develop, adapt, and implement PSEAH policies, Codes of Conduct, SOPs, and reporting mechanisms aligned with international standards (e.g., ILO, UN, OECD Due Diligence Guidance).

Build the capacity of factory management, supervisors, HR teams, and worker representatives on:

i. PSEAH principles and survivor-centered approaches ii. Safe and ethical complaints handling iii. Confidentiality, non-retaliation, and whistleblower protections

Support the establishment or strengthening of worker-accessible, gender-responsive reporting and referral pathways, including anonymous and informal reporting options.

Promote worker awareness and empowerment, ensuring information on rights, reporting options, and support services is accessible, culturally appropriate, and inclusive of women, young workers, and marginalized groups.

• Survivor-Centered Response and Remedial Care through WLOs Work with women-led organizations to ensure the availability of safe, confidential, and survivor-centered remedial care, including: i. Psychosocial support and counseling ii. Medical referrals iii. Legal information and accompaniment iv. Safety planning and case management (where appropriate) Support WLOs to strengthen case management systems, ethical data handling, informed consent processes, and referral protocols. Ensure that survivor response mechanisms uphold the do no harm principle, prioritize survivor choice, and are responsive to workplace-related SEAH risks. Facilitate referral agreements between factories and WLOs, ensuring clear roles, survivor consent, and safeguards against retaliation.
• Capacity Building and Technical Support Design and deliver tailored PSEAH training curricula for factory staff, workers, and WLO partners, adapting content to literacy levels, language needs, and cultural contexts. Provide ongoing coaching and mentoring to safeguarding focal points within factories and partner organizations. Support WLOs to engage effectively with private-sector actors while maintaining independence, survivor trust, and feminist principles.
• Coordination, Compliance, and Accountability Liaise with brands, buyers, factory associations, labor inspectors, and relevant government authorities (where appropriate) to align PSEAH efforts with broader ethical labor and compliance frameworks. Ensure PSEAH systems are aligned with national labor laws, national GBV…