Advisor Community-Based Service Delivery

Job description

GIZ has been operating in Syria since 1976. It has thus established valuable contacts in civil society and garnered experience that is now crucial for supporting the country. From 2013 onwards, it worked without government involvement with the assistance of local non-governmental organizations. Despite the difficult conditions, GIZ has consistently contributed to improving people’s living conditions.

In view of the developments since December 2024, which have led Syria into a decisive phase of transformation, GIZ has reopened its Country Office in Damascus in September 2026. It is currently implementing 14 projects on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Foreign Office (FFO), with co-financing from the European Union and other donors. From 2026, the portfolio is planned to be expanded by several new projects.

The Return and Reintegration project aims to support national and local actors in Syria in ensuring that return and reintegration processes are coordinated, inclusive, and responsive to identified needs, thereby contributing to socio-economic development and increased social cohesion. Adopting a multi-level approach, the project seeks to facilitate the sustainable integration of returnees, internally displaced persons, and host communities through improved access to basic services, enhanced economic reintegration opportunities, and the promotion of social cohesion. In parallel, the project aims to strengthen the capacities of national and local stakeholders in the planning, coordination, and management of return and reintegration activities.

Your tasks

• Provide continuous technical and process-oriented advice to selected DoSAL and selected rural development centres on the gender-responsive delivery of social basic services in the context of return and reintegration.

• Conduct and accompany assessments of the organisational capacities of the centres and translate the findings into concrete measures, including procedures, service standards, referral pathways, SOPs, and structured learning processes.

• Support the capacity development of centre staff for the delivery of services particularly needed in return and reintegration settings, including low-threshold MHPSS offers for adults and children, counselling on SGBV, legal advice on housing, land and property, referral to alternative dispute resolution, and catch-up classes for children with education gaps.

• Advise on the service-related requirements for the rehabilitation and equipping of the centres, including the functional layout of service and counselling spaces, privacy and confidentiality requirements, accessibility for persons with disabilities, gender-responsive sanitary facilities, and safe access routes, and provide these requirements as technical input to the engineering experts responsible for rehabilitation works.

• Coordinate closely with UNHCR, civil society, and specialised service providers on the transfer of basic services from humanitarian community centres into the MoSAL structures, and advise on the arrangements required to sustain these services within the state system.

• Support the centres in assessing and improving the quality, accessibility, and utilisation of their services by different population groups, and facilitate exchange between centres so that experience is usable across locations.

• Contribute to monitoring of activities and indicators, prepare technical inputs for reports, and document good practices and lessons learned, ensuring the consistent application of gender-responsive, conflict-sensitive, and do-no-harm approaches.

Your profile (required qualifications, competencies and experience)

• Advanced university degree in a field relevant to social development, public or social services, gender, public administration, or development cooperation.

• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in social-service delivery, institutional advisory work, or capacity development, preferably within development cooperation or public sector reform contexts.

• Strong experience in institutional capacity development, including the assessment of organisational capacities and the development of systems, procedures, service standards, and learning processes.

• Demonstrated experience advising government institutions responsible for social-service delivery, and coordinating with UN agencies, civil society, and specialised service providers.

• Strong expertise in gender-responsive and inclusive service delivery, with a good understanding of protection, MHPSS, referral mechanisms, and safeguarding standards.

• Practical experience in assessing service quality, accessibility, and utilisation by different population groups, and in using disaggregated evidence to improve institutional performance.

• Experience translating service, user and accessibility needs into requirements for public facilities, and working alongside engineering experts on the design and equipping of service spaces.

• Strong technical advisory and facilitation skills, including the ability to translate technical concepts into practical institutional solutions.

• Proven ability to work sensitively in fragile and conflict-affected contexts and to apply participatory, conflict-sensitive, and do-no-harm approaches.

• Knowledge of Syria's social-service system, including MoSAL structures at central and sub-national level, and of the return and reintegration context is highly desirable.

• Willingness to travel regularly to project locations.

• Professional fluency in written and spoken Arabic and English, knowledge of German is an asset.