Kaaman Phibia Erot is a Gender, Women Empowerment and Child Protection Consultant and expert with 12 years hands on experience gained from working with County and National Governments, and Humanitarian and development sectors. She has technical expertise in gender and gender-based violence (GBV), including designing GBV prevention and response programming for GBV in an emergency, male engagement programming, movement building, women’s rights advocacy & women’s socio-economic empowerment and child protection programs. Outstanding skills in implementation and providing technical oversight, gender analysis & GBV programming. Proven experience creating and sustaining networks and liaison with stakeholders and capacity building for partners and staff. Proposal development, logical framework & program cycle management expertise. Experienced trainer, including training of trainers.
Kaaman recently worked with Turkana County government as the Partnerships, Gender and Children Affairs Advisor to the Governor. Her achievements include; Supporting the development of the Turkana County Sexual Gender Based Violence Policy and the Gender Policy in collaboration with the Council of Governors, developed policy brief that led to the engendered recruitment by the Turkana County Public Service Board, developed executive briefs that led to strategic management of partnerships, documented and shared the role of women in conflict management in an IGAD Gender and Resilience Fair Share, participated in the development of Gender Transformative Approaches in mitigating climate change risks. She also spearheaded the development of gender-sensitive budgeting in the department/ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the appointment of the Gender focal persons across ministries.
She has also worked with Caritas Lodwar as the Gender-Based Violence Specialist. She is credited with supporting the development of the World Bank’s best practice guidance note, successfully trained social infrastructure staff including road Engineers, Sociologists, Environmentalists and Chinese contractors on GBV safeguarding policies, acted as the Focal Point on Prevention from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in all EARTTDFP (A1) road projects, she also acted as the lead investigator of all PSEA incidents relating to the road construction project. She was instrumental in establishing SGBV clinics in seven (7) health facilities to offer comprehensive, competent and compassionate care for SGBV survivors. This included Lopiding SGBV Centre of Excellence serving Kenya and South Sudan residents at the border. Successfully integrated SGBV programming in the Ministry of Health Services and Sanitation and was appointed as the Gender and Child Protection Advisor to the Bishop-Catholic Diocese of Lodwar.
Kaaman also worked with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) as Senior GBV Officer and later promoted to the role of the Women Protection and Empowerment (WPE) Programme Manager. She oversaw successful collaboration between IRC, UNICEF, and the Kenya Government that culminated in the launch of the only GBV one-stop center in Turkana County (Turkana Wellness Centre) in 2015 for the host community. Developed effective community campaigns on GBV, which resulted in the number of survivors reporting to the GBV one-stop center increasing. Supported the development of GBV coordination mechanisms for host community in Turkana, Supported the training of multi-sectoral response actors in health, psychosocial, safety and legal, Supported the IRC WPE program trainings in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps and represented IRC Kenya in Global WPE Conference in Tanzania in 2014.
She ensured adequate monitoring systems were in place which were used to demonstrate project impacts and informed ongoing program design. Managed and oversaw all GBV grants in line with IRC policies and practices; developed and maintained work, spending and procurement plans for multiple projects. Participated in all WPE Grant Opening, Mid-Term and Closing meetings, ensured that all internal and donor reporting requirements were met and that reports were of a high quality and timely. In coordination with WPE Coordinator, DDP, Grants Unit and HQ Technical Unit, played a leading role in the development of proposals.
Kaaman is a holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Development Studies from Mount Kenya University (MKU), a Diploma in Community Development from Premise Africa Development Institute and Primary 1 Teacher Professional Certificate from Bungoma Teachers Training College. Other professional trainings include; Gender Transformative Approaches in Mitigating Climate Change Risks-IGAD, Gender Knowledge and Resilience Fair Share-IGAD, Leadership and Management Training-Kenya School of Government, Child Protection in Emergencies Coordination-UNICEF Kenya, Gender Mainstreaming in Emergencies-UN Women Kenya, GBV Emergency Response and Preparedness-IRC Kenya, Monitoring For Action-IRC Kenya, Communication for Development-UNICEF Kenya, Gender Equality; Our Pathway to Change-IRC Technical Unit, SASA Methodology-IRC Ethiopia, Preventing Violence against Women & Girls: Engaging Men through Accountable Practice-IRC Technical Unit, Adolescent Girls Programming-Population Council Kenya, Addressing domestic violence in humanitarian settings-IRC Technical Unit, Clinical Care for Survivors of Sexual Assault-IRC Kenya, Protecting women and child survivors in emergencies through improved coordination-UNICEF Uganda and Caring for Child Survivors in Emergencies-UNICEF Uganda.