UNFPA Surge Response Roster 2025 : Join the United Nations Population Fund PSEA Experts

Are you a committed professional passionate about safeguarding human rights, ensuring accountability, and protecting vulnerable populations from sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA)? The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) invites you to join its Surge Response Roster as a Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Expert — a vital role in ensuring dignity, respect, and safety for all, especially women and girls, in humanitarian crises.

UNFPA is the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, dedicated to a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. Through gender equality and empowerment, UNFPA works to end unmet needs for family planning, preventable maternal deaths, gender-based violence, and harmful practices — including SEA — by 2030.

Why Join the UNFPA Surge Roster?

The UNFPA Surge Mechanism deploys skilled professionals to humanitarian emergencies around the world, providing rapid support when crises strike. As a PSEA Expert, you will:

• Make a tangible impact by protecting women and girls during emergencies.
• Deploy short-term (3–6 month) missions in critical humanitarian contexts.
• Lead and strengthen UNFPA’s protection systems and contribute to global PSEAH (Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment) strategies.

This is your opportunity to apply your expertise where it matters most — ensuring that survivors receive care, perpetrators are held accountable, and systems prevent abuse before it happens.

Key Responsibilities of a PSEA Expert

As part of the UNFPA humanitarian response, PSEA Experts will provide strategic, technical, and operational leadership in preventing and responding to SEA. Core duties include:

1. Programme Coordination & Implementation

• Provide expert guidance on SEA prevention and response in line with international standards.
• Lead capacity-building initiatives for government and civil society partners on PSEA principles.
• Oversee SEA reporting mechanisms, accountability systems, and survivor support pathways.
• Conduct rapid assessments to identify SEA risks and design mitigation strategies.
• Integrate PSEA and GBV (Gender-Based Violence) programming to ensure holistic survivor care.
• Develop and enforce Codes of Conduct and PSEA clauses in partnership agreements.
• Support staff training on conduct, reporting obligations, and ethical humanitarian work.

2. Establish and Strengthen Reporting Mechanisms

• Ensure the creation of safe, confidential, and accessible reporting systems, designed in consultation with affected communities — especially women and girls.
• Advocate for joint interagency PSEA reporting systems to strengthen accountability.
• Coordinate with Protection, GBV, and Child Protection clusters to map and close service gaps.
• Empower communities with knowledge on reporting procedures and survivor support options.

3. Monitoring, Reporting, and Evaluation

• Track and evaluate the effectiveness of PSEA interventions across all UNFPA operations.
• Maintain documentation of training, risk mapping, and safety audits.
• Prepare progress reports and share lessons learned across field and regional offices.
• Conduct field visits, focus groups, and program reviews with community stakeholders.
• Analyze data to refine PSEA strategies and ensure effective program delivery.

Qualifications and Experience

To qualify as a PSEA Expert on the UNFPA Surge Roster, candidates should possess:

• Advanced university degree in social work, social sciences, public health, international law, human rights, or a related field.
• 5–7 years of experience, including 3+ years at the international level in SEA or GBV coordination in humanitarian or development settings.
• Proven leadership and coordination experience in complex, multicultural environments.
• Direct experience supporting SEA survivors is a strong asset.
• Deep understanding of the intersection between GBV and SEA programming.
• Fluency in English (other UN languages are an advantage).

Assessment Process

Candidates for the PSEA Surge Roster undergo a multi-step evaluation to ensure readiness for field deployment:

1. Application & Resume Review: Screening for technical alignment with UNFPA’s needs.
2. Technical and Soft Skills Assessment: Evaluation of analytical, coordination, and problem-solving capabilities.
3. Video Interview: Behavioral and technical questions on humanitarian contexts.
4. Reference Checks: Validation of professional integrity, field experience, and performance under pressure.

Why Your Role Matters

In crisis settings, the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse increases as communities become more vulnerable. Your role as a PSEA Expert is critical — ensuring the humanitarian community upholds its promise of “Do No Harm”, that survivors receive the support they deserve, and that systems are in place to prevent abuse, punish perpetrators, and protect dignity.

Every deployment is a chance to shape safer humanitarian action — and every action saves lives.

Join the UNFPA Surge Response Roster Today

If you are ready to use your expertise to protect, empower, and restore trust in humanitarian action, apply to join the UNFPA Surge Response Roster for PSEA Experts.

Help UNFPA build a world where respect, dignity, and equality define every humanitarian response.

Learn more and apply: Visit UNFPA Careers Portal