Ethiopia: Emergency Coordinator

Background

DRC has been providing relief and development services in the Horn of Africa and Yemen since 1997. DRC initially focused on assisting those displaced by conflict in Somalia, but now works with those in the region impacted by forced displacement. DRC has offices across the Horn of Africa and Yemen region and opened its first office in Ethiopia, in 2009. The program overseen in Addis Ababa now covers nine offices spread across Ethiopia and Djibouti to address the needs of refugees, IDPs, and migrants in transit. In Ethiopia, DRC has been in the forefront of responding to the refugee influx from South Sudan into the Gambella region, primarily by providing water to refugees in camps, and also through livelihoods and protection programming. DRC Ethiopia also has activities in Dollo Ado and Jijiga in eastern Ethiopia to assist Somali refugees and host communities there. DRC’s work in Djibouti began with its registration in April 2015 and addresses a wide range of challenges raised by the displacement to and through that country, including mixed migratory flows heading to the Middle East, Yemeni refugees fleeing conflict, and protracted Somali refugees in Djibouti for two decades or more.

DRC’s global mandate is driven by three global strategic objectives within the DRC Assistance Framework: Saving lives and alleviation of immediate suffering among people affected by conflict, Safeguarding, restoration and development of livelihoods, and, Institutional and organizational change that contributes to protection of people’s rights and peaceful handling of conflict.

The main areas of focus for the program-wide Emergency Coordinator for DRC in Ethiopia and Djibouti will relate to the saving of lives and alleviation of immediate suffering objective, but the incumbent will also contribute to working towards the other objectives. This position will primarily focus on coordinating and furthering DRC’s response to the El Niño climatic event and the severe drought in Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Responsibilities

The overall responsibility of the Emergency Coordinator is to support DRC’s drought response operation in Ethiopia and Djibouti to adequately respond to existing or emerging needs with respect to water sanitation hygiene (WASH), shelter, NFI distribution, protection, and livelihoods. In this regard, the Emergency Coordinator will work for all the sectors active within the Ethiopia and Djibouti program.

Due to the specific nature of this post, the overall TOR will remain quite generic, but the deliverables within six (6) months of the initial contract will be specific while allowing room for flexibility.

Internal relations

The Emergency Coordinator has no permanent supervisory responsibilities, but s/he may provide direct supervision to national staff temporarily as outlined in the specific ToR for that task.

The Emergency Coordinator reports to the Country Director. When seconded to a specific task or operation, the Emergency Coordinator reports to the respective Area Manager (AM) for that operation.

External relations

The Emergency Coordinator maintains extensive contacts with local authorities and with regional, prefecture, zonal, and woreda representatives, as well as field representatives of UNHCR, IOM, UNICEF, OCHA, other donors and partners in the areas to which s/he is being seconded.

Specific duties and responsibilities:

• Focal point person for emergency response and preparedness for DRC Ethiopia and Djibouti.
• Train DRC and other partners’ staff, as appropriate, on basic emergency response and preparedness principles, especially as regards protection mainstreaming.
• Provide Senior Management Team (SMT) and relevant AMs with updated information on ongoing/emerging humanitarian crises and needs within Ethiopia and Djibouti.
• Participate as relevant – depending on ongoing tasks – in coordination mechanisms throughout the both countries and represent DRC as requested.
• Undertake needs assessments for existing and new emergencies/projects/programmes in existing operations.
• Support existing operations with surge capacity when taking on new projects and assist in staff recruitment, staff training, setting up systems, planning, and starting activities.
• Provide troubleshooting for existing emergency operations facing bottlenecks in program implementation.
• Facilitate information exchange between DRC operations with respect to systems, standards and best practices in emergency response and starting new operations, including training DRC field staff on the DRC Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning (EPRP) process and monitoring status.
• Provide support and training with respect to procurement, supply chain and asset management in emergency operations.
• Assist in assessing possibilities to expand DRC emergency response to new areas in Ethiopia and Djibouti, with special reference to access and safety, as needed.

On a general level:

• Guarantee that DRC emergency programming reflects its mandate, policies and values through use of DRC’s operational and programmatic procedures for implementation (e.g. Code of Conduct, DRC Program Handbook, DRC Operations Handbook, etc.).
• Ensure that DRC’s accountability obligations are delegated and carried out in accordance with the HAP/CHS standards and DRC protocols.
• Other duties as agreed with the DRC Ethiopia/Djibouti Senior Management Team.

Reporting

The Emergency Coordinator will report to the Country Director.

Conditions:

Contract: Six (6) months with possibility of extension, subject to funding.

Salary and other conditions are offered in accordance with DRC’s Terms of Employment at A15 for international staff or competitive salary and conditions as per national staff terms of employment, as relevant. This is a non-family posting.

Availability: Immediately

Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with extensive travel to Jijiga, Dollo Ado and Shire, Ethiopia as well as other needy locations in Ethiopia and Djibouti.

General

Commitments: DRC has a Humanitarian Accountability Framework, outlining its global accountability commitments. All staff are required to contribute to the achievement of this framework.

For general information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult www.drc.dk.

Qualifications

Essential*:***

• A Bachelor degree in a relevant field
• At least five (5) years INGO experience, including at least two (2) years management of emergency response programs in insecure environments
• Strong analytical, organizational, and management and leadership skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead vulnerability assessments, beneficiary registration, distributions, monitoring and evaluation in emergency situations
• Demonstrated ability with project grants management, including project design, budget preparation, expenditure tracking, monitoring and evaluation, reporting, supervision and performance
• Proven commitment to accountable practices and knowledgeable of quality assurance systems
• Hands on experience in managing staff in insecure locations and strong human resource management skills in general.
• Good communicator and proven diplomacy with all types of stakeholders
• Experience of managing budgets and multiple donor contracts, particularly with OCHA pooled funds, OFDA, ECHO and UN agencies
• Fluent and articulate in spoken and written English.
• Ability to work independently, but also coordinate effectively as part of a team.
• Ability to lead a multi-cultural team with a high level of respect for local culture.
• Strong computer skills (MS Word, Excel, Outlook and Power Point).
• Ability and willingness to work and live in diverse, challenging and potentially unstable environments.

Preferable*:***

• Experience in donor contact, fundraising and networking.
• Working knowledge of spoken and written French, Somali, Amharic, Tigrinya, or Afar.
  

For general information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult www.drc.dk.

DRC encourage all qualified candidates to apply, irrespective of nationality, race, gender or age.

Application and CV

Interested candidates who meet the required qualifications and experience are invited to submit updated CV and cover letter explaining their motivation and why they are suited for the post.

We only accept applications sent via our online-application form on www.drc.dk

Please forward the application and CV, in English through the online application on www.drc.dk under vacancies no later than 22 April2016. Applications will be reviewed as they are received.

If you have questions or are facing problems with the online application process, please contact job@drc.dk