Team Leader (Shonghoti Project)

Job Description

Title: Team Leader (Shonghoti Project)

Company Name: Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)

Vacancy: 1

Age: At least 30 years

Job Location: Dhaka (Kakrail)

Salary: Tk. 110000 - 120000 (Monthly)

Experience:

• At least 7 years
• The applicants should have experience in the following business area(s): Development Agency, NGO

Postgraduate degree in Law, Human Rights, Development Studies, Social Sciences, or a related discipline.

• At least 7 years
• The applicants should have experience in the following business area(s): Development Agency, NGO

• Age At least 30 years

• At least 7 years of relevant experience, including three years managing projects or coordinating teams.

• Experience in human rights protection, access to justice, or work with minority and marginalised communities in Bangladesh.

• Demonstrated experience developing advocacy plans and coordinating joint action with civil society organisations.

• Experience managing sensitive incidents, field documentation or case referral systems.

• Ability to manage workplans, budgets, records and donor reporting.

• Strong written and spoken Bangla and English.

• Availability for regular field travel and urgent coordination under agreed working arrangements.

Desirable:

• Legal qualifications or experience working with litigation and legal aid teams.

• Experience engaging national institutions and district administrationc.

Project Background: The Shonghoti project supports religious and ethnic minorities, Dalit and Indigenous communities, and other marginalised groups affected by violence and discrimination. It combines legal assistance, fact-finding, community protection, service referrals, and advocacy. The Team Leader will manage implementation across the five project districts and coordinate national engagement, ensuring that information about violence leads to timely protection measures, legal follow-up, and action by relevant institutions.

Job Context: The Team Leader will lead project delivery by connecting district-level responses with national legal, advocacy and management support. The position will establish clear responsibilities between the different clusters and departments of Head Office, unit offices, Legal Team and collaborating organisations; coordinate prompt action following reported violence; and ensure sustained follow-up with affected individuals and families. The Team Leader will develop and implement an advocacy and partnership strategy with like-minded organisations, using documented cases to seek specific protection measures, legal remedies, access to services and institutional improvements. The role will also ensure reliable incident records, coordinated case reviews, functioning district platforms, accountable use of project funds and timely reporting. The Team Leader is responsible for organising, assigning, tracking, and escalating actions. Legal advice and litigation decisions remain with authorised lawyers; public statements and financial commitments require the relevant BLAST approvals.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Project Management and Coordination:

• Prepare a consolidated implementation plan showing activities, district allocations, responsible staff, costs, and deadlines.

• Convene a weekly project check-in with relevant staff, including direct reportees and focal points from the legal department, to review existing cases and to plan for future actions.

• Conduct a weekly operational review with district focal persons. Review new incidents, priority cases, referrals and overdue actions; record only decisions requiring follow-up.

• Submit a monthly consolidated update to the Project Management Team (including Director Programme, Director Legal, Director Advocacy and Communication), identifying progress, unresolved barriers and decisions required from senior management, i.e., Honorary Executive Director.

• Arrange direct coordination between district staff and the relevant legal, protection, advocacy or finance personnel when a matter requires specialist input.

• Maintain one project action tracker with the help of the MEAL team, assigning each action to a named person with a deadline and completion evidence.

• Establish a contact and escalation list identifying the primary and alternate focal persons in each unit office and the relevant Head Office teams.

Violence Monitoring and Case Tracking:

• Assign responsibility to monitor emerging threats and reports of violence against minorities and vulnerable communities (religious and ethnic minorities / adivasis, indigenous persons, disabled persons, transgenders) and review weekly updates.

• Based on weekly reviews and updates, oversee the maintenance of an incident tracker that logs violence against communities.

• Establish a written incident-response procedure during the first month, and arrange an initial assessment with the relevant Unit Coordinator or alternate focal person. Record the source, location, reported harm, immediate risks, and assistance already available.

• For reports indicating immediate danger, initiate coordination on the same day the information is received.

• Notify the programme supervisor and relevant Legal Team focal person of serious incidents, identifying decisions or resources required.

Case Coordination and Continuing Support:

• Agree case priorities with the Legal Team and Unit Coordinators, considering protection risks, detention, upcoming hearings, investigation delays and the wishes of affected individuals.

• Ensure each supported case records the assigned lawyer, unit focal person, current procedural stage, next hearing or deadline, and required action.

• Convene monthly case strategy reviews with relevant lawyers and unit staff, with additional reviews for urgent cases. Discussions will focus on existing barriers and practical next steps.

• Track implementation of agreed legal and administrative actions. Refer questions about legal arguments, remedies,s or representation to the assigned lawyers.

• Ensure unit staff communicate material developments to clients and families and record outstanding questions or concerns.

Fact-finding and Documentation:

• Agree a fact-finding plan for each approved visit, specifying the questions to be examined, team members, safety measures, information sources and reporting deadline.

• Review reports for completeness, consistency and clear separation of allegations, verified findings and information requiring further checking.

• Ensure the central database is updated weekly and distinguishes incidents, individual victims, affected households and collective community impacts.

• Maintain agreed fields covering demographic information where safely available, location, allegations, rights affected, responses, referrals and case status. Missing information must be identified rather than inferred.

• Require each report to identify recommended action, the institution or person responsible and the proposed follow-up date.

• Apply informed consent, confidentiality and secure access arrangements. Use anonymised information in external materials unless disclosure has been appropriately authorised.

Advocacy Strategy and Institutional Follow-up: Develop an advocacy strategy within the first six weeks, in consultation with the Legal and Advocacy teams and district staff. For each priority issue, specify:

a. The documented problem and evidence.

b. The remedy or institutional change sought.

c. The authority able to take that action.

d. The proposed engagement method.

e. The responsible BLAST focal person and collaborating organisations.

f. The timeline and evidence that will demonstrate progress.

• Separate urgent case-related advocacy from longer-term institutional advocacy. Urgent engagement should seek a defined response, such as protection, action on a complaint, or access to assistance.

• Use recurring findings from cases and fact-finding reports to prepare submissions and briefings for relevant institutions, including the National Human Rights Commission, Directorate of Bangladesh Legal Aid and appropriate government authorities.

• Coordinate national meetings around specific requests and documented cases. Record commitments and assign responsibility for follow-up.

• Work with district staff to communicate agreed requests to local administration, police, District Legal Aid Committees and service providers.

• Obtain approval before issuing public statements or sharing sensitive case information.

Partnerships with like-minded Organisations:

• Map organisations working on minority rights, legal aid, documentation, protection and survivor support, identifying their district presence and practical contribution.

• Agree collaboration arrangements for selected activities, such as joint fact-finding, protection referrals, legal support, evidence review and advocacy. Record focal persons, tasks, information-sharing conditions and approval requirements.

• Maintain an agreed contact mechanism for rapid coordination following serious incidents.

• Convene quarterly national coordination meetings to review shared concerns, identify joint action and assess progress on previous commitments.

• Avoid duplicate visits or repeated interviews by agreeing how organisations will coordinate contact with affected families, subject to consent.

• Document the results of collaboration. Do not commit BLAST to partner funding or other obligations without written approval.

District Platforms and Referral Networks:

• Ensure each Solidarity and Security Platform maintains an updated membership list, contact directory, meeting schedule and record of agreed actions.

• Support Unit Coordinators to structure platform meetings around unresolved protection concerns, case barriers and service needs.

• Ensure affected communities can raise concerns through accessible focal persons without requiring attendance at formal meetings.

• Maintain district service directories identifying eligibility requirements, contact persons and referral procedures.

• Require referral records to show whether assistance was received, declined, unavailable, or still pending. Escalate unresolved needs to the relevant provider or Head Office specialist.

• Review completion of platform commitments before each subsequent meeting and document reasons for non-completion.

Capacity Development:

• Identify training needs from gaps in incident reports, referrals, case follow-up, and field practice.

• Coordinate approved foundational and refresher training for human rights defenders and paralegals, assigning resource persons to defined topics.

• Include practical exercises on safe reporting, interviewing, consent, evidence documentation, referrals, and escalation.

• Arrange follow-up mentoring using participants’ actual work and record whether identified weaknesses have improved.

• Organise the panel lawyers’ workshop around selected existing cases, with legal specialists responsible for developing the substantive case strategies.

Financial Management and Reporting:

• Review expenditure and forecasts monthly with Finance and compare them with activity progress.

• Submit procurement, travel and activity requests within the required lead times and approval procedures.

• Resolve differences between narrative activities, staffing arrangements and budget provisions before making commitments.

• Prepare management and donor reports using verified records, distinguishing completed activities from results and outstanding actions.

• Work with monitoring personnel to track case progress, receipt of services, platform commitments and institutional responses against the approved results framework.

• Maintain a project risk register and report issues affecting delivery, staff safety, confidentiality or financial compliance.

Safeguarding and Professional Conduct:

• The Team Leader will follow BLAST’s applicable employment, safeguarding, security, confidentiality and financial policies; disclose conflicts of interest; and report misconduct through designated channels.

• Engagement with affected individuals must respect their informed choices, privacy and safety. Staff and partners must not promise legal outcomes, compensation or services that BLAST cannot authorise or deliver.

Performance Assessment: The programme supervisor will assess performance against:

• Timeliness of initial coordination following urgent reports.

• Completion of assigned actions and escalation of overdue matters.

• Accuracy and frequency of case and referral records.

• Implementation of the advocacy and partnership strategy.

• Documented follow-up on institutional and platform commitments.

• Delivery within approved resources and reporting deadlines.

• Weekly 2 holidays,Mobile bill,T/A,Tour allowance
• Lunch Facilities: Partially Subsidize
• Festival Bonus: 2
• Salary Review: Yearly