Area Manager 179 views0 applications

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC), an international non-governmental organization (NGO), has been providing relief and development services in the Horn of Africa since 1997. DRC promotes and supports solutions to the problems faced by refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), and migrants. The organization has offices across the region, and has been operational in Ethiopia since 2009.  With funding from bilateral and multilateral donors, DRC is currently implementing a range of activities across Ethiopia and Djibouti, including WASH and shelter provision, child and youth protection, gender based violence response, awareness-raising of migration risks, protection monitoring of migration routes, and livelihoods support for returning migrants or those at-risk of migration.

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

The Shire-based Area Manager is responsible for the overall implementation and strategic direction of the organization’s current and future projects in Tigray Regional State, and is the direct supervisor of both program and support staff in the Shire field office. The Area Manager advises DRC’s program and support staff to ensure all programming in Tigray regional state is in line with DRC Ethiopia’s country strategy and is in full compliance with the organization’s policies and best practices. Furthermore, the Area Manager is responsible for leading project cycle management, proposal development and program strategy – ensuring the successful implementation of all activities, and relevance and responsiveness of the activities to priority humanitarian needs in Tigray Regional State. In this capacity, the Area Manager is also responsible for representing DRC publicly at the site level, including in coordination fora with other agencies, and for providing the direct link in communications between DRC’s Shire field office and the organization’s Addis Ababa country office. Finally, it is essential the Area Manager collaborates with the Addis Ababa based Security Coordinator and Senior Management Team to provide safety and security management of the Shire-based team and ensure all safety and security measures, including contingency plans and standard operating procedures, are in place and well understood by all staff.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

 Management and Coordination:

• Overall responsibility for the recruitment and daily management of the Shire-based program and support teams, including ensuring positive and collaborative working relationships in line with DRC’s Code of Conduct and assessing staff capacity to provide or recommend relevant training or coaching as needed.
• Daily management of the Shire office, including ensuring compliant financial operations and budgeting, administration, human resources, logistics, procurement and security in line with DRC and donor regulations.
• Represent DRC publicly at the site level, including in coordination fora with other agencies, and for providing the direct link in communications between DRC’s Shire field office and the Addis Ababa office.
   
  Programming and Technical Support:

• Provide oversight of all programming in Tigray Regional State in compliance with core protection principles and best practices, and DRC and donor regulations, while upholding rigorous project cycle management standards.
• Design and support in conducting needs assessments to inform program design as well as identify risks and vulnerabilities, including those related to gender, age and diversity.  
• Develop concrete initiatives to respond to protection risks experienced by the Eritrean refugee population in Tigray Regional State as well as specific strategies which build upon existing assets within the population.  
• Contribute to the strategic direction of Shire’s programming through active and ongoing participation in and contribution to strategic planning meetings and development of strategic documents.
• Work with the Head of Programs and finance team to contribute to new project development, including both narratives and budgets, by coordinating and compiling inputs from other technical and support staff.
• Ensure the timely and quality delivery of all organizational and project reports and staff contributions to organizational monitoring and evaluation requirements to ensure project quality, relevance and accountability to DRC’s beneficiary populations.
• Support staff to integrate protection and migration concerns and awareness into other sectors as relevant.

Finance and Administration:

• Provide daily management of the field office’s finance team.
• Oversee and regularly update a comprehensive master budget of all of DRC’s operations in Tigray Regional State.
• Assume responsibility as primary budget holder of all projects and lead in the development of new budgets and spending plans.
• Collaborate regularly with the Addis Ababa based finance team to monitor spending and ensure the timely utilization of all grants.
•  Ensure full compliance with DRC and donor financial guidelines and policies.

Human Resources:

•  Manage the Shire-based team and support respectful and positive working relationships which allow for the effective implementation of all activities. This is to be achieved through leadership, team building, day-to-day support, capacity-building and strong, generalist knowledge in all of DRC’s core sectors, including protection, migration and infrastructure.
• Lead site-level recruitment processes and ensure that relevant staffing structures are in place and are reflective of appropriate gender balance.
• Promote professional development by identifying training and capacity building opportunities and ensure staff are well versed in core protection concepts, DRC’s code of conduct, accountability, respectful dialogue with the refugee population, and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse.
• Collaborate with the Addis Ababa human resources department to ensure staff evaluations are conducted on a regular basis.

Logistics and Procurement:

• Collaborate with the Logistics and Procurement Coordinator and Addis Ababa based logistics and procurement team to develop and maintain procurement plans.
• Ensure logistics and procurement processes are in place and fully compliant with DRC and donor policies and standards.
• Collaborate with the Logistics and Procurement Coordinator to ensure field-based records are well managed, fulfill DRC and donor requirements, and are always up-to-date for use in donor reports.
• Monitor budget lines to ensure spending is in line with project timelines and implementation schedules. 
• Regularly review procurement plans with procurement and logistics, and finance teams to adjust spending as required in advance of project closure.

Safety and Security:

• Assume responsibility for staff safety in the area of operation.
• Ensure all relevant information regarding safety, security and the context is collected, updated and shared in a regular and timely manner.
• Collaborate with the Addis Ababa based Security Coordinator and Senior Management Team to make decisions and manage security incidents at a local level.

REQUIRED

• Master’s degree in law, social sciences, international development, or other relevant field.
• Minimum of 8 to 10 years of work experience within the field of law or protection, particularly within the field of humanitarian response and refugee protection, with experience working for an international NGO, UN agency or relevant ministry or local authority.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a senior project management position.
• Excellent analytical and writing skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English.

• Knowledge of Amharic or Tigrinya an added advantage.