Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified Head of Multi Country Operations.
DRC has been operating in West Africa since 1998 and in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2011. The DRC West-North Africa & Latin America (WANALAC) Regional Office is based in Dakar, Senegal, and covers several countries. Led by the Regional Executive Director, the DRC WANALAC oversees, supports, and provides strategic directions for DRC’s Country Offices within the above-mentioned regions. From May 2022, it includes Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Colombia and Venezuela. A department of multi-country grants and operations has been established at the Regional Office since February 2021 for multi country and cross border projects and regionally held grants.
About the job
The Head of Multi Country Operations is overall responsible for ensuring the timely and compliant delivery of DRC’s programme activities in the field for i) multi country and cross border projects; ii) regionally held grants as outlined in the Strategic Programme Document, Sector Strategies and Area Strategies, and in line with the programme technical guidelines and advice deriving from those documents and the work plans for individual grants.
The Head of Multi Country Operations works collaboratively with the Regional Head of Programmes and her/his team to ensure that the multi country operations programme strategies are realistically achievable, and sufficient technical guidance and support is available to implement the grant components of those strategies effectively. The Head of Multi Country Operations also works collaboratively with the Regional Head of Support Services and her/his team to ensure that processes to enable smooth delivery of multi-country operations in the field (e.g. HR, Admin, IT, Finance, Supply Chain, etc.) are being consistently applied and improved. The Head of Multi Country Operations also coordinates closely with the Regional Humanitarian Access and Safety Coordinator to ensure operations are conducted safely and in line with humanitarian principles wherever they are implemented. The Head of Multi Country Operations works with the Country teams, in particular Area Managers where regional and/or multi country operations are implemented. S/he ensures technical support in grant management and project cycle management is available to Area Managers and monitors the timely implementation of activities in these areas.
Your main duties and responsibilities will be:
Management and Programming
- Supervise, monitor and evaluate regional projects, multi-country projects and cross-border projects (implementation by Area Managers and Head of Bases)
- Manage Regional Office’s multi-country operations staff
- Ensure full project cycle management for the projects in her/his portfolio (design, fundraising, kick off, implementation, evaluation, redesign…)
- Oversee the provision of high-quality grant management services for grants managed by the Region
- Support concerned Area Managers in countries in planning operations and activities; contribute to their training plan and capacity building and develop tools to improve operations planning and monitoring
Strategy:
- Contribute to developing regional and multi-country strategies and related processes
- Oversee development of Area Strategies by the Area Offices within the framework of Country Strategic Plans & Sector Strategies
Partnerships:
- Supervise and develop strategic partnerships involved in the regional projects / at regional level (INGOs, Local NGOs and networks, authorities, research institutes, international networks …)
- Support Area Managers in managing partnerships at the local level
Business Development:
- Lead the development of concept notes and proposals for regional / multi country projects
- Engages with donors and partners for the development of new regional / multi country projects
- Contributes to set-up of regional / multi-country consortia with international and local partners
Accountability:
- Support the role out of accountability processes in multi-country operations
- Champion a positive approach to gender and diversity mainstreaming in DRC’s regional operations
Representation:
- Contribute to represent DRC in meeting with regional projects financial partners and donors
- Contribute to represent DRC in relevant forums at Regional Office level
- Represent DRC in relevant forums at Country level as requested by the CD, when regional activities are concerned
About you
In order to be successful in this role, we expect the following:
Required
- 7 years senior management experience
- Previous experience as a Country Director essential
- Strong people management skills
- Strong operational background (project management, finance, HR, safety)
- Demonstrated ability to develop strategic partnerships (NGOs, authorities, donors …)
- Demonstrated ability to raise funds and lead complex project development and proposal writing (consortia, multi-sectoral/multi-annual, multi-country …)
- Ability to develop close working relationships with a diverse range of colleagues and partners
- Practical understanding of DRC core programmatic sectors
- Excellent analytical skills; ability to think strategically, and take a flexible, creative and innovative approach when needed
- Excellent communication, representation, coordination and writing skills
- Excellent written and spoken French and English
Desirable
- Previous experience in the region
In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies:
- Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process
- Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback
- Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation
- Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly
- Demonstrating integrity: Upholding and promoting the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to DRC’s values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.
We offer
Contract length: 12 months (extendable)
Band: E
Designation of Duty Station: Accompanied Family Duty Station
Start date: As soon as possible
Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates or National staff; please refer to drc.ngo under vacancies. For questions regarding the vacancy please contact Florent Milesi at [email protected]. Applications sent by email will not be considered.
Application process
All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages) through the vacancy. Both must be in English. Applications sent by email will not be considered.
DRC encourages all applicants to apply and does not practice any discrimination in any recruitment process. DRC provides equal opportunity in employment and prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.
However, candidates should take into consideration that the DRC cannot employ, under an international contract, a national of the country in which he/she will be working (in this case, the Republic of Senegal).
Closing date for applications: 5 June 2022. Applications submitted after this date will not be considered.
Due to the urgency of the position, DRC has the right to recruit a candidate who matches the required profile before the above deadline.
Please note that the opening of this position depends on the confirmation of funding availability, which is expected shortly.
