EMERGENCY RESPONSE MANAGER 224 views0 applications

CARE is an international NGO with local staff and community partners in more than 90 countries. We create local solutions to poverty and inequality and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis. These solutions have a broad range, from clean water to access to education; from microfinance to ensuring that everyone has nutritious food; from agriculture and climate change to disaster response. CARE puts women and girls at the center of everything we do because they have proven to be the best hope for creating lasting change in the world. Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for over 70 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE Package® of food for the post-war hungry in Europe. Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us, and fight with CARE.

The Emergency Response Manager (ERM) will assume the overall oversight of East Sudan’s (Gedaref and Kassala) Ethiopian refugee emergency response under the Humanitarian Program Coordinator’s supervision and in collaboration with the Program Director and head of operations. The ERM will be based in Gedaref state to lead the emergency response, including the Gedaref office’s supervision and a portfolio of grant-funded projects, mainly WASH, with a plan to diversify the portfolio. The ERM will provide strategic leadership to ensure the emergency portfolio is coherent and effective in supporting the refugees and other vulnerable communities and is in line with CARE’s global and country ambitions. The ERM is responsible for the planning, implementation, budget management, and monitoring of the emergency response activities in their respective areas and will also provide guidance for the emergency response team and project portfolio (10 staff, 2.5 million USD for 12 months) to ensure commitments to donors are met.

The person is expected to have excellent coordination and interpersonal skills, a high ability to work independently, take initiatives, and negotiate and influence policy and advocacy. S/he will build and sustain close working partnerships with UNHCR, other NGOs operating in the area, the local government, etc., through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate program implementation.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Program Development and Implementation

• Overall responsibility for a coordinated and planned implementation, measurement, monitoring, and reporting of all Humanitarian /emergency projects and other assigned tasks
• Improving and maintaining emergency plan and response capacity and in line with the project technical documents and budgets, ensure the project activities are implemented and verified as planned with the allocated budget and timeline
• Manage the implementation of WASH & Public Heath activities and budgets, ensuring donor compliance and program quality standards are met; ensure the tracking, monitoring, and quality reporting.
• Support the monitoring of the ongoing local context and produce occasional updates/SitReps when needed.
• Follow-up and monitor local NGOs implementing partner’s activities and take timely corrective action
• Ensure the link between the Humanitarian projects interventions and the overall outcome of all programmatic aims according to the objectives and goals outlined in the projects documents
• Lead the integration and link the Humanitarian project interventions with the country office program framework and the country presence review, impact reviews, and feedback mechanisms (FAM)
• Report timely any discrepancies and deviations in implementing the Humanitarian projects
• Track budget expenditure against activity implementation, recommending necessary budget line adjustments or budget review on time
• Regularly communicate with finance and field team to track the Humanitarian project’s expenditures and take timely corrective action for over or under expenditure
• Build the capacity of the field teams’ through on-job training in technical areas, finance and budget.
• Technically supervise and support the Humanitarian projects staff
• Ensure clear JDs and defined roles and responsibilities for the program team
• Contribute to the development of new Humanitarian program strategy, resources, and budgets for successful interventions
• Engage and work closely in the identification of humanitarian funding opportunities with support from the Humanitarian
• Program Coordinator and Program Director for regular scanning of donor environment

2. Staff Management

• Daily supervision of the program and program support teams in the Gedaref office
• Participate in staff team recruitment and revision of job descriptions
• Ensures the whole team has a clear understanding of the CARE’s mandate and projects in the Gedaref
• Lead and manage staff, encouraging effective teamwork and providing supervision and guidance, including regular & feedback
• Proactively enhance performance through regular, constructive, and honest feedback, coaching, and mentoring, as well as administering formal performance assessment
• Coordinate and conduct capacity building of relevant staff to maintain and develop awareness and understanding of international standards in humanitarian program implementations and incorporate context-specific and culturally acceptable approaches at the local level.
• Contribute to ensuring that all the Gedaref staff operate and behave in a manner that is consistent with the CARE’s code of conduct and uphold its values, including PSHEA, do no harm principles, and FAM.

3. Monitoring and Reporting

• Monitor the Gedaref projects’ implementation against contractual requirements, including regular field visits to ensure timely and appropriate project inputs/outputs/outcomes.
• Work with the finance team, regularly scrutinize project expenditure (burn rates), monitor proper utilization of the project budget monthly, and provide timely feedback to field teams and finance department on any variance in the BvAs. Lead on all grant revisions, extensions, and donor reporting.
• CARE actively work with communities, CSOs, government authorities at different levels. The Emergency Response Manager is required to maintain regular and effective communication with all actors at the field level.
• Consistent with the country office reporting flow, put in place project-specific report tracking tools and system.
• Generate and share regular technical and financial reports on a timely basis as per the requirement for the donor, government, and CARE
• Provide/facilitate training to the implementing partners on monitoring and reporting as required.
• Work with the MEAL team to carry out Real-Time Evaluations (RTE), After Action Reviews (AARs), and other forms of project monitoring and evaluation
• Ensure that lessons learned are documented and shared with the emergency program team and across CARE Sudan
• Ensure projects and proposals are gender, environment, and protection sensitive and responsive.

4. External Coordination

• When needed, attend state-level cluster meetings with a focus on CARE’s sectors of intervention
• Work and submit all required information and reports to the clusters and other forums (4/5Ws, ad-hoc, etc.)
• Support the relation with CARE’s donors and new potential donors to maintain and increase the emergency portfolio in Gedaref.
• Support donors’ visits to project implementation sites by liaising with the Humanitarian Response Coordinator and the Program Director.
• Review donor priorities and evidence from on-going grants (results, objectives and impacts)

5. Staff safety and security

• The ERM has a role in ensuring staff safety and security with technical support from the CO safety and security focal person. As such, s/he will be responsible for ensuring programs are delivered safely and securely. S/he works to ensure that security management protocols and procedures are updated, made locally relevant, and applied consistently.

6. Uphold CARE´s values and contribute to the CO shared priorities

• Be aware of the CIS Safety and Security Management Plan (SSMP) and comply with it at all times
• Be aware of CARE’s commitments to Gender and Diversity, PSEA and strive to uphold them
• Be committed to promote CARE’s core values at all times
• Ensure program staff under her/his supervision understands individual and collective responsibilities for safety, security, and protection.
• Liaise with the Security Officer to ensure compliance with CARE’s Security Guidelines and their effective application in the local context.
• Monitor the operational environment with respect to increased level of threat.

Qualifications

1. Basic degree and a combination of qualifications and experience in humanitarian setting, including WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene)
2. Masters degree, or relevant combination of qualifications and experience, in a relevant field would be an added advantage.
3. A minimum of 5-7 years’ experience in emergency response, WASH, and field office management;
4. Experience in program design, management, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, including SPHERE standards, security, and protection considerations;
5. Experience in managing donors funded project, including ECHO, UNHCR, CHF, and relevant rapid response funding mechanisms
6. Strong management skills and competencies in planning and organizing – Can prioritize effectively, build alternative actions into plans, review priorities and gather and deploy resources effectively
7. Commitment to equal opportunity and gender equality
8. Demonstrated experience in integrating gender and diversity issues into programs
9. Evidence of project cycle management experience, including strategic planning, budgeting, reporting, monitoring & evaluation.
10. Ability to work with local authorities and rural communities, including traditional and political leadership
11. Ability to communicate ideas in a culturally-sensitive manner and conducive to their practical application, especially in Sudan context with an ability to adapt and work within a multicultural, multilingual and multidisciplinary environment
12. Familiarity with CARE’ ‘s business rules and program quality processes is an asset.
13. Experience in building the capacity of the team internally and of external stakeholders.