فرص عمل لدى الاتحاد الدولي لجمعيات الصليب الأحمر والهلال الأحمر: مطلوب مدير/ة للعمليات (Roving Operations Manager)

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies (NSs). The overall aim of IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.

Job Purpose

As a member of the HDCC Unit in MENA Region, the Roving Operations Manager will strengthen the region’s work in providing operational leadership when launching a new operation or when a crucial need for operational management is needed by ensuring a physical presence at and deployment within 48 hours to various crisis locations.

The Roving Operations Manager will deploy to operational epi-centers as much as 75% FTE to promote a holistic and integrated approach to disaster response and operations management through the provision of timely and high-quality management on the field. Specifically, the Roving Operations Manager will be based in MENA Region. S/He can be deployed within 48 hours of any request to provide first-phase strategic leadership and coordination in various cases of emergency and operations led by the IFRC. Individual deployments will be up to three months and shall not exceed seven to eight months a year. In “peace time” the function contributes to the MENA efforts to build operational management skills including surge readiness through training but also remote coaching to existing Operations Manager based on the field.
The post-holder will dedicate around 60% of their time to assisting with the operations related to the Morocco Earthquake, Libya Storm Daniel, and the Middle East Crisis.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Operational Management:

Upon deployment, and as tasked through terms of reference, assume responsibility for leading the operation on behalf of the IFRC in the affected country, ensuring appropriate links with the IFRC structure, especially within the MENA Region;

Act as the link between the affected National Society (NS) requiring assistance and the support mechanisms offered by the IFRC regional and global structure to ensure efficient use of Movement resources in responding to an emergency;

Develop, with the NS, and communicate a clear plan of action and operational strategy for the emergency response with clear, measurable objectives, ensuring that this is appropriate to the humanitarian needs, makes optimal use of RC/RC capacities and is properly aligned with the strategies of other actors and the UN clusters.

In close collaboration with the NS, oversee all aspects of the emergency operations, including operational planning, the development of DREF applications, emergency appeals, operational strategies, implementation plans, financial management, performance management and reporting;

Ensure the maintenance of existing processes and effective working relationships for the coordination and collaboration with Regional Office and Global technical units;

Ensure the implementation of the operational strategy and related activities in a timely, effective and efficient fashion;

Coordinate the request for the deployment of international disaster response tools and other human resources in coordination with the field; Define the required Support Services for the operation to ensure that appropriate HR, Admin and Finance systems are in place and resourced;

Ensure that the NS response is appropriate and aligned with the SPHERE guidelines, the Better Programming Initiative (BPI) and other Federation policies and strategies);

Ensure good coordination at the country level with the National Society as well as with the ICRC and the PNS in the country. Promote when relevant the set-up of a Movement Cooperation framework to ease this coordination at the field level;

Ensure that adequate Movement Coordination frameworks are in place as required by the operation;

Ensure good coordination with external partners and promote operational strategies that are aligned to other actors and the wider humanitarian sector;

Seek to secure the buy-in, compliance and coordination of all Movement actors by ensuring that they are assigned clear and appropriate roles and responsibilities wherever possible;

Identify opportunities for strengthening of National Societies and take concrete steps to build the capacity of an affected NS;

Ensure that operations, where appropriate, include recovery elements which reduce the disaster impact in the future;

Ensure that the response strategy is forward-looking, integrates early recovery, shelter, cash-based programming, etc, and seeks opportunities to strengthen the capacity and reputation of the host NS;

Manage internal and key external relationships, notably with the host NS, country and RO, PNS, ICRC, donors, host government, the UN, other INGOs and the media in the assigned operation;

When tasked, lead analysis of the political, social, economic and humanitarian context for the operation;

Ensure that the progress of the operation is routinely monitored against the key deliverables and milestones articulated in the operational strategy and that the implementation plan reflect these and are used to ensure individual and collective accountability;

Work with Resource Mobilisation to liaise with donors and ensure that appropriate systems are in place and are monitored properly;

Ensure and above all anticipate the smooth handover of the operation to an Operations Manager for the medium to long term. This should be completed as soon as feasible and not later than three months after deployment;

Ensure operational adherence/ fulfilment to institutional commitments on Safeguarding (PSEAH, Child Safeguarding)

Ensure that PGI is considered throughout the operations from needs assessments, mainstreaming in technical sectors and provision of specialised protection services, where appropriate

Advance a learning culture from the onset of any operation and ensure timely capturing of good practices and lessons.

Support operational risk management initiation as part of any operations’ kick-start.

Provide hands-on support to operational membership coordination and initiation at the country level.

Deploy as a preparedness measure for imminent crises or disasters based on agreed triggers.

When not on mission tasks:

Contribute to the development of operational management capacity across the region;

Provision of coaching and on-the-job training to all Operations manager being deployed in the MENA Region in order to increase the quality and the monitoring of the operations implementation;

Keep up to date with developments and best practices in operations management and maintain regular contact with key staff in Region and also Geneva and maintain a good understanding of the local operating contexts and existing capacities in disaster-prone countries in MENA;

Develop some key lessons learned initiatives and documents in order to increase learning across the region;

Develop SOP’s for Roving Operations Manager deployments in agreement with current SOP’s at regional and global level;

Support contingency planning exercises together with the DRM team and the relevant country delegations.

Participate in operational reviews and evaluations or management response exercises when tasked;

Support the strengthening of the IFRC response systems in MENA through direct support to training events, simulations and other initiatives in coordination with the relevant units in IFRC MENA regional office and delegations.

Education

Relevant university degree or extensive professional experience in related field or professional qualification in operations management – Required

Relevant degree in project management/Operations management  -Required

IMPACT, Basic Delegates Training Course -Required

Experience

Minimum of 5 years’ experience in leading and managing operations programs in a humanitarian organization in developing countries and in complex emergencies or similar contexts -Required

Good understanding of the humanitarian environment, strong analytical skills and capacity to translate analysis into strategy and planning -Required

Good track record of managing people, networking, influencing and negotiating and building relationships effectively. -Required

Experience in proposal development, report writing, and developing budgets

Experience of field-based implementation -Required

Experience of setting up, managing and coordinating disaster response, including leading multi-national response teams, managing staff -Required

Experience of financial management to ensure compliance -Required

Experience of report writing (narrative and financial) -Required

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Coordination and partner relationship building / Excellent skills in networking with other agencies and organisations -Required

Demonstrated technical expertise in strategic management, project planning and budgeting, resource management, implementation ability as well as programme monitoring and evaluation -Required

Excellent communication and inter-personal skills with the ability to represent the International Federation and to coach, mentor and influence people -Required

Knowledge of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement financial and project management tools -Required

Skills in training and developing staff capacity -Preferred

Good knowledge of the MENA region -Preferred

National Society relations -Preferred

Languages

Fluently spoken and written English and Arabic -Required

Good command of French -Preferred

Competencies, Values and Comments

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability

Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust

Functional competencies: Strategic orientation; Building alliances; Leadership; Empowering others

Managerial competencies: Managing staff performance; Managing staff development

NB: The salary calculation is based on the internal IFRC salary scale, taking into consideration job requirements, years of experience and the applicant's qualifications

IFRC Ensures equal employment opportunities.