Background
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 192 member National Societies. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, our work is guided by seven fundamental principles; humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.
Organizational Context
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC or “the Federation”) is the World’s largest volunteer-based humanitarian network. The Federation is a membership organization established by and comprised of its member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Along with National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Federation is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The overall aim of the IFRC is” to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies 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.” It works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises. The Federation is served by a Secretariat based in Geneva, with regional and country offices throughout the world. The Secretariat is led by the IFRC Secretary General and provides the central capacity of the International Federation to serve, connect, and represent National Societies. The Secretariat’s focus includes providing support to the IFRC governance mechanisms; setting norms and standards; providing guidance; ensuring consistency; coordination and accountability for performance; knowledge sharing; promoting collaboration within and respect for the RCRC Movement; and expanding engagement with partners. The Secretariat’s headquarters is organized in three main business groups: (i) Partnerships, including Movement and Membership; (ii) Programs and Operations; and (iii) Management. The Secretariat has five regional office, as follows: Americas (Panama City); Africa (Nairobi); Asia/Pacific (Kuala Lumpur); Europe (Budapest); Middle East and North Africa (Beirut). The Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF), established in 1985, provides National Societies with start-up funds for large-scale disaster response operations and as grants to cover the costs of small-scale disasters. Through close collaboration with its major partners, the International Federation is seeking to promote the quality of DREF operations, timely and quality reporting and transparency in the use of the funds and to further enhance the confidence of partners in the performance of the National Societies in implementing operations. In 2020, 8 DREFs were launched in MENA with a total allocation of 3.5 million CHF. It may not seem a high number in comparison to other regions, yet in comparison with 2018 with only 2 DREFs of a total allocation of 500 K for MENA, its clearly demonstrated that the demands has increased while MENA NSs are getting more acquainted with the DREF tool accessibility.
Job Purpose
The DREF Officer for MENA region will contribute to the overall understanding of the DREF mechanism and the DREF application and implementation process by:
- Providing dedicated technical support to National Societies and IFRC delegations involved in DREF operations within these Country and Cluster delegations,
- Supporting effective and rapid DREF requests, ensuring adherence to established criteria, and to monitor the operations achieve their goal, objectives and expected results as per the DREF Procedures.
- Fostering compliance to DREF Procedures and Guidelines amongst NSs, making sure that eligibility and scope of DREF mechanism is clearly communicated to the national societies.
The DREF Officer for MENA will ensure that information on DREF operations National Societies is collected and analyzed in a systematic way to assist in assessing and recording key achievements and challenges from DREF operation to contribute to improving future disaster responses and learning from emergencies. The DREF Officer for MENA will equally support the operations team as part of the DCC Unit for MENA in overall management of DREF requests, timeframe extensions and final reports as well as the learning of and review of DREF operations.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Technical
- Provide guidance to National Societies, Cluster and Country Delegations in preparing DREF allocation requests, including the support to develop and use relevant resources to strengthen the understanding and use of the DREF mechanism.
- Promoting timeliness and advising on the eligibility of the proposed activities and compliance with DREF Procedures, ensuring initial timely operation strategy calls with regional and country delegations, or participating on joint task force calls and providing advice on the eligibility or not of the proposed requests, and advising on DREF grant or loan procedures according to the Emergency Response Framework
- Support the DREF approval process by ensuring appropriate and timely technical inputs from regional technical and support services teams and validation by finance; including liaising with DREF team in Geneva for quality control and sign off.
- Work with the DREF operation budget holders to maintain an overview of DREF expenditure, revision of operation plans where necessary and timely and transparent financial and narrative reporting on the use of DREF funds. This will be done in collaboration with Cluster and Country Delegations’ Operations, Finance and PMER teams to ensure proper monitoring of operations.
- Facilitate and encourage quality and timely reporting on DREF-funded operations through close cooperation with Country and Cluster PMER and Finance Units.
- Disseminate and promote understanding of the Procedures and Guidelines for the use of DREF.
- Monitor respect of DREF Procedures in the MENA Region, reporting issues of non-compliance to the HoDCC.
- Provide on-site and hands-on support to MENA National societies on DREF capacity development and learning.
- ensure close collaboration with other technical teams to maximize the opportunities of using the DREF tool (linkages with PER mechanism, anticipation, contingency planning ….etc.)
Representation & Relationships
- The DREF Officer for MENA works under the management of the HoDCC MENA within the Disaster and Crisis Prevention, Response and Recovery (DCPRR) Unit to ensure that DREF Procedures and Guidelines are respected for DREF operations and provides regular updates and information for informed decision making related to the DREFs. The DREF officer shall work in close coordination with and seek technical guidance from the HoDCC as necessary.
- Work in close collaboration with the relevant CCSD/CD’s, as well as Operations, Health, Logistics, WASH, Shelter, NSD and other colleagues on thematic files to promote an integrated approach in disaster response operations.
- Work in close collaboration with PMER and Finance colleagues to ensure timely and quality DREF bulletins and reports.
The DREF Officer has a technical reporting line to the DREF Senior officer in Geneva, who will advise the DREF Officer on DREF technical issues and parameters on overall operations.
Duties applicable to all staff
- Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals
- Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles
- Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager
Education
Degree level (or equivalent qualification) in Disaster Management, International Development, or other relevant subject - Required
Experience
- At least 5 years' relevant experience of disaster management and particularly disaster response operations in multiple country contexts - Required
- Previous experience of monitoring and evaluation- Required
- Previous experience of using International Federation planning, reporting and finance tools - Required
- Experience of programme design, project management and reporting, preferably in relation to disaster response - Required
- Practical experience in sectors that link with disaster response (i.e. relief, food security, health, WASH, logistics) - Required
- Disaster response experience in MENA context - Required
Knowledge, skills and languages
- Excellent written and oral communication skills - Required
- Excellent computer skills (including presentations, database and use of statistics - Required
- Facilitation and training skills - Required
- Networking skills - Required
- Fluently spoken and written French, English, and Arabic - Required
Competencies and values
- Collaboration and Teamwork
- Communication
- Creativity and Innovation
- Judgement and Decision Making
- National Society and Customer Relations
- Building Trust
- Empowering Others
How to apply:
For those who are interested in this position, the application is ONLY accepted through the following link:
https://www.ifrc.org/en/who-we-are/working-with-us/current-vacancies/job-description/?id=84675
Any application sent by email or applied by any other means will not be considered.