Job Purpose
As part of the MENA DCPRR unit and under the overall guidance and leadership of the Head of DCPRR, the operations coordinator is responsible overseeing the coordination of timely, efficient and effective IFRC support to the MENA Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies through IFRC’s Country Cluster Delegations (CCD) and IFRC country Delegations (CD) to ensure innovative, high quality, timely and coherent localized responses to sudden and slow-onset disasters and crises and well-coordinated with the RCRC Movement partners.
In doing, so the coordinator provides leadership for the international coordination and support for the management of IFRC disaster and crises assistance in support of an affected National Societies. The Operations Coordinator generally focuses on coordination, leadership, strategic support and technical guidance, with the option of time-bound operation management support at country-level, as may be needed and in line with COVID-19 travel related measures.
The post-holder will provide support to CCDs/CDs and NSs in the management of the ongoing emergency response, ensuring close coordination with Movement actors, coordinating actions amongst different Units within the IFRC at the regional- and sub-regional-levels, and contributing to strengthening the capacities of NS’ throughout the implementation of the response and recovery operations. S/He will closely coordinate with all thematic leads and technical specialized units such as Health and Care, Wash, Logistics, Finance, Partnership and Resource Mobilization (PRD), Communications, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Reporting (PMER) & Quality Assurance among other units.
Inherent to the role is the need for flexibility, the ability to travel, and willingness to work in multiple contexts with different stakeholders. S/He must be able to deploy at a short notice for significant periods of time traveling to remote and potentially unstable areas.
Contribute to an effective, high quality IFRC team:
- Provide progress reports on results against objectives and risk analyses as required.
- Work with PMER&QA leads in IFRC and the NSs to ensure that planning and reporting requirements are met in a timely and efficient manner.
- Ensure effective use of operation’s monitoring tools, operations status tracking system and tools and ensure adherence of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of assigned operations, develop operations risk registers and support implementation of operational risk mitigation measures.
- Contribute to a client-oriented approach that values proactivity, continuous improvement, innovation, high performance, and cost effectiveness.
- Foster a collaborative working environment with movement colleagues (at all levels) and with host national Societies’ counterparts and external partners.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Provide support in strengthening operation’s coordination and management:
- Facilitate a shared understanding of the Principles and Rules of Red Cross Red Crescent Humanitarian Assistance, IFRC Emergency Response Framework (ERF), Rapid response guidelines, and other IFRC policies, standards, tools, procedures, and strategic guidelines among heads of IFRC Delegations, Disaster, Climate and Crisis (DCC) extended team, National Society leadership and representatives of Movement components in geographical areas of responsibility.
- Lead the categorization of disaster and crisis levels, in accordance with the ERF, where necessary facilitating the Joint Task Force (JTF) and organising the Regional Task Force (RTF) for emergency response operations in the MENA region.
- Provide operational guidance and mentoring to Operations Managers and the extended DCC team in the MENA region in line with the agenda for renewal, the ERF and relevant SOPs.
- Closely with the rapid response focal point, guide CDs and CCDs in developing and maintaining office-specific plans for enhancing organizational readiness for disasters and crises.
- In collaboration with the Disaster Risk Management Coordinator, support CDs, CCDs and National Societies in facilitating preparedness-for-disaster (pre-disaster) meetings, bringing together Movement and external partners with the view of positioning them to deliver coordinated humanitarian action in disasters and crises.
- Closely with the rapid response focal point, guide CDs, CCDs and National Societies of affected countries to anticipate and HR needs for emergency responses, identify suitable expert/sector profiles, determine the nature of surge capacity suitable, and formulate terms of references.
- Closely with the rapid response focal point, ensure timely deployment of IFRC global response tools and Rapid Response Personnel – when they are requested.
- Together with the Disaster Risk Management Coordinator Disaster Management and the rapid response focal point and the HR team, support CDs and CCDs to identify and deploy Secretariat, National Society and other Movement personnel for non-nominal surge assignments or peer-to-peer support.
- Provide thought support, innovation and operational direction in COVID-19 response and recovery programming.
- Work with IFRC technical leads to ensure they work closely with the focal points of relevant NSs’ departments in all related operational roles and responsibilities, providing advice and recommendations that carefully consider local capacities and context.
- Initiate, plan and mobilise IFRC-wide resources in support of assessment, planning, and implementation of the MENA NSs’ response operations.
- Capture the learning and knowledge from operations and integrate them into future response and recovery programming.
- Maintain an overview of all operations in designated countries, analyse trends and propose adaptations in preparedness, response and recovery approaches
- Ensure for and design integrated operational strategies considering movement partners’ respective capacities to ensure that all components of the response are co-created, planned and carried out in a coordinated, collaborative and integrated manner
- Lead the processes related to the Emergency Appeal/DREFs, plan of action revisions, and make recommendations on the scope and content of plans of action (EPoA) and Operational Strategy in line with standard operating procedures.
- Ensure rigorous monitoring and management of budgets to all Federation-assisted operations ensuring compliance with IFRC finance procedures and that expenditure is within income and approved ceilings and within donors earmarking requirements. This includes Identifying problems and solutions in a timely and effective manner.
Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)
- Ensure timely activation of the rapid response mechanism including the deployment of needed human resources in close coordination with the rapid response focal point/s,
- Network and coordinate with Red Cross Red Crescent Movement partners, governments, NGOs, UN agencies, private sector and others.
- Represent the Federation Secretariat on operational briefings in internal and external fora and establish effective working relationships with key organizations and institutions.
- Develop and share regular information updates and strategic briefings as required on operational trends, innovations and emerging best practices.
- Working closely with Finance, Risk Management, Security and Logistics ensure that effective risk monitoring is ongoing within the operation and communicating risk monitoring and controls to respective CCDs/CDs.
Support to the quality operational assurance and standards of emergency operations:
- Coordinate the commissioning of mid-term, final and longitudinal evaluations of IFRC response and recovery and contribute to the management response plans where appropriate and in close coordination with PMER and Quality Assurance unit.
- Lead the support on the revision national societies domestic plan of action narrative and budget to enhance operational information and reflect integrated programming and accountable impact across all technical areas as appropriate.
- Coordinate the development of response norms, principles and standards and support the dissemination, monitoring and evaluation of the adherence to these standards.
- Overall monitoring and follow up with CCDs/CDs on emergency plan of action implementations, timely extension of operations and trends in financial spending rates.
- Integrate Preparedness for Effective Response (PER) approach into response operations together with the DRM team.
- Contribute to the overall planning, budgeting, and reporting of the Operational Strategy, Implementation Plan and EA and the DCPRR Unit plan.
- Champion high quality accountability standards and ensure transparency and compliance with relevant policy and procedures.
- Contribute to the continuous improvement of DREF and Emergency Appeal guidelines and templates, operational quality control and approval processes.
Information Management:
- When covering for assigned areas of responsibility, collaborate with relevant thematic functions on the monitoring, analysis and dissemination of timely and accurate disaster and crisis threat, impact and response information before during and after disasters, ensuring that Senior Management Team is informed on emerging or significant humanitarian situations as required.
- In collaboration with the Information Management (IM) team, lead the extraction, analysis and validation of data related to response and recovery operations and produce a range of IM products – including graphs, maps and dashboards – to facilitate sharing information with Movement and external stakeholders.
Coordination and Networking:
- Network and coordinate with Movement partners, UN agencies, international organizations, NGOs, national disaster management agencies, inter-governmental organizations and private sector to ensure that the IFRC shares information and is well informed on best practices and key developments related to response and recovery operations while providing operation support.
Be available to deploy to CCDs/CDs or Operations to provide support as necessary.
Education
University degree in relevant area or equivalent experience - required
Technical training in disaster policy, preparedness, response, and recovery - required
Experience
- 7 years’ experience in international disaster response and recovery Operations - required
- 3 years’ field experience with RC/RC with special attention to complex and protracted crises and settings - required
- Experience in project cycle management including proposal development, budgeting, and reporting, monitoring and evaluation - required
- Experience in working to enhance the capacity of local partner organizations
- required
- Experience in establishing and following monitoring systems to track
progress of implementation - required - Experience in narrative and financial reporting and proposal writing - required
- Experience in the MENA region - required
Knowledge, Skills and Language
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and independent decision-making capacity.
- Results oriented and demand driven individual, entrepreneurial, ability to lead in unprecedented and/or ambiguous situations.
- Excellent communication and inter-personal skills with the ability to represent the
- International Federation and to negotiate and influence people’s opinions.
- Knowledge of technical aspects of disaster preparedness, relief and recovery and of key donor and partner organisations.
- Knowledge of minimum standards for disaster relief and performance and accountability frameworks.
- Ability to lead a complex or major disaster operation if required.
- Flexible and adaptable to work effectively in a multicultural environment and ability to travel at short notice.
- Computer knowledge as a user – self-supporting in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Languages:
English and Arabic - required
Competencies and Values
Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability.
Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.
Functional competencies: Strategic orientation; Building alliances; Leadership; Empowering others.
How to apply:
If you are interested in this position, please apply on the IFRC website: