Country: Panama
Closing date: 25 Feb 2018
DEPARTMENT OVERVIEW:
The International Services Department (ISD) of the American Red Cross (AmRC) seeks to prevent and alleviate human suffering around the world by responding to disasters, building safer, more resilient communities, and educating future humanitarians. With programs and partners in 70 countries, the American Red Cross works to strengthen the global Red Cross Red Crescent Network in order to deliver critical assistance to some of the most vulnerable communities in the world, reaching 100 million people annually.
POSITION SUMMARY:
Although some disasters are highly visible events garnering significant media attention and generous contributions from the public, many responses are lower profile and, as a result, under-resourced. Millions of people’s urgent humanitarian needs go unmet. In other cases, the American Red Cross has potential to mobilize humanitarian actors in the countries affected by disaster by addressing operational or financial constraints. This position helps meet the needs of those impacted by “underfunded disasters,” those disasters that do not garner the necessary attention and resources as well as be more effective in the field for emergency response.
The Global Surge Delegate will be responsible for contributing to the ISD capacity to surge in support of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent network response. The Delegate will be embedded in the response operation to support assessments, planning, implementation, operations, and reporting. They would provide leadership and technical expertise to the operation with the intention to improve timely and appropriate service delivery. Additionally, from their global work, the response specialist will be able to bring back lessons learned and best practices to the American Red Cross in further support of our response capacity and decision making processes.
The Global Surge Delegate will have significant technical disaster management experience and will be expected to deploy for extended periods of time primarily for underfunded operations or support that is needed to implement the response.
The Global Surge Delegate will be expected to deploy in the following capacities:
Assist the national society, ARC delegation, or IFRC delegation with:
- accessing US-based resources such as OFDA or Food for Peace
- operational issues in which US officials can influence positive outcomes in their daily work with national governments and other actors
- appeals, plans of action, assessment and other gaps as identified by RC/RC leadership in-country
- coordinate with existing AmCross entities such as regional offices, NHQ, and AmCross delegation leadership
In some cases, the surge delegate with deploy in a specific requested positions within the RC/RC structure such as:
- Emergency Response Unit (ERU) Team Leader
- Field Assessment Coordination Team (FACT) Team Leader or as Technical Specialist
- Interim Country Representative
- Operations Manager
- Disaster Management Coordinator
Inherent in the role is the need for flexibility, the ability to travel, and willingness to work in multiple contexts with different stakeholders. The Delegate must be able to deploy at a short notice for significant periods of time and up to 75% of the year traveling to remote and potentially unstable areas.
The position will report directly to the regional director in either Panama. They will also work closely with the International Response Operations Manager and Operations Specialists in Washington, D.C.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Operational Support:
- Fill emergency coordination and management positions in the field with the AmRC, IFRC, or to undertake specific projects or tasks, as defined by the IROC Manager.
- Develop, support or manage projects at potentially any stage of the project cycle, including support or management of teams to assess, identify, design and implement appropriate response operation activities.
- Manage and lead a team of delegates, staff and volunteers, as appropriate.
- Identify potential financial resources from US government resources (OFDA, FFP, BPRM) to support RC/RC Movement disaster response; write concept papers and proposals as appropriate.
- Coordinate the development of a Federation emergency appeal or the Plan of Action against a Federation emergency appeal (or revised appeal) and budget. This may include leading or participating in needs assessments as well as program development.
- Coordinate, as appropriate, with USG entities (USAID, US Embassy, US military) to enable the RC/RC Movement operations
- Maintain communication and coordination activities with key counterparts and ensure strong working relationships with the host National Society, partner National Societies, the ICRC and Federation representations.
- Coordinate as required with other actors and stakeholders, depending on the position held at the time (e.g. this might mean Humanitarian Coordinator, cluster leads, UN agencies, NGOs and others, as well as national and local government authorities).
- Participate, and where appropriate lead, in relevant internal and external coordination, ensuring strong sharing of information and development of consistent and/or complementary program approaches that seek to maximize value for money and impact.
- Provide capacity-building support as required to national and, where appropriate, expatriate staff.
- Ensure effective communication and reporting of program activities to relevant stakeholders, including AmRC donors if appropriate.
Support Partnership Development, Institutional Learning and Development:
- Maintain contacts at regional level with USG and other US-based potential partners with offices in region to enable coordination during emergencies.
- During periods of non-deployment the position would contribute to organizational capacity by supporting institutional learning opportunities, reviews and evaluations of AmRC-implemented or supported activities and support the effective dissemination and follow-up of findings and recommendations.
- Support AmRC accountability obligations and contribute to donor reporting and management responsibilities.
- Undertake ad hoc projects to develop operational tools and procedures to support program implementation.
Facilitate or run AmRC or Federation training courses, or act as mentor to other AmRC delegates, roster members, and staff. REQUIREMENTS/QUALIFICATIONS:**
4-year degree in international development, disaster management, climate change adaptation, water and sanitation, environmental rehabilitation, organization development or related field required. Master’s degree preferred.
Minimum 7-years working in emergency humanitarian response, disaster relief and/or development environment with at least 2 years total in international disaster response in a variety of contexts.
Minimum 2-years of supervisory experience, particularly in a team setting with strong relational and strategic leadership competencies.
Proven ability to work successfully in the humanitarian field for periods of up to 6 months outside one’s home country.
Demonstrated knowledge of roles of USG entities in international disaster response, including experience working with grant mechanisms or operations of USAID, Department of State, or US military.
5-years experience in geographic focus area (Asia/Middle East or Latin America/Caribbean)
Demonstrated knowledge and experience in Disaster Management cycle including preparedness, response, and recovery.
Strong preference for knowledge in supply chain, relief distributions, information management and reporting, logistics, shelter, cash transfer programming, telecommunications, assessment methodologies, and monitoring.
Proven management ability to assess, plan, manage, implement, direct, and monitor multi-faceted projects or programs, managing resources to achieve operational delivery.
Diverse experience within humanitarian industry including knowledge foundation, contexts, coordination and implementation mechanisms and application of humanitarian standards.
Experience working with international partner organizations and individual counterparts with an ability to work in a complex environment of diverse languages and cultures.
Demonstrated ability to prioritize multiple tasks while setting strategic direction, analysis, and implementation in a high-stress environment.
Exceptional verbal and written communication, organizational and information management.
Excels in collaborative, collegial team environment with very strong interpersonal skills.
Previous experience within the RC/RC movement is strongly preferred.
Fluency in a foreign language (Spanish or French) strongly preferred.
Position requires operational flexibility to meet sudden and unpredictable business and disaster related needs including variety of work hours and international travel of approximately 75%.
Ability to secure visas and work permits in base country.
The American Red Cross is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.
How to apply:
A letter of motivation must be submitted along with the application no later than February 25, 2018. In order to ensure a proper comparative evaluation of your application for this vacancy and to enable us to consider your profile against other similar current and future vacancies, we ask that you submit your application thru the following email address hr.americas@ifrc.org.