Congo: Operations Manager - Emergency Appeal Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) operation

Background

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 191 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. Ebola is endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In May 2018, the DRC Ministry of Health (MoH) officially declared the 9th epidemic of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Equateur province. This was the ninth Ebola outbreak in the country, and the first in the province. The humanitarian community, including the Red Cross and Red Cross Crescent partners, quickly mobilized resources to face this new EVD outbreak and on 25 July the outbreak was officially declared over. This epidemic caused a total of 33 deaths for 54 cases reported (38 confirmed and 16 probable) in three affected health zones of Wangata (Mbandaka), Bikoro and Itipo. One of the key Red Cross response during the active outbreak phase was SDBs. Over 100 RC volunteers were trained in SDB and teams responded to over 80 SDB alerts. On the 1st August the MoH officially declared a new EVD outbreak in Mabalako Health Zone, Beni territory. Following an alert from the North Kivu Provincial Health authority about a cluster of cases in Mangina end of July 2018, four samples out of six tested positive for EVD. On 6 August 2018, the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) confirmed by genetic sequencing that this latest outbreak is caused by the Zaire ebolavirus species and is not connected to the recent outbreak in Equateur Province. As of 21 August, a total of 103 EVD cases have been reported in the region, 76 of which have been confirmed and 27 which are probable. Confirmed or probable cases are localized to five health zones in North Kivu, and one neighboring health zone in Ituri Province.

Job Purpose

Reporting to the Regional Director and Head of Country, the Operations Manager will:

• Provide coordination and support to the National Society in the management of the ongoing One International Appeal emergency appeal
• Work closely with the team in place, EVD Emergency Appeal operation and fill in gap for technical role to maintain business continuity
• Ensure close coordination with Movement actors in country, including ICRC
• Contribute to building capacity and coordination of response preparedness to strengthen the National Society’s capacity to respond and effectively reduce and mitigate the impact of the disaster in the longer run.

Job duties and responsibilities

The Operations Manager will be responsible for the following aspects of the operations:

• Ensure the application of the strategic direction of operations and focus on achievement of the planned objectives;
• Manage the processes related to the EVD One International Appeal, including potential plan of action revisions, and make recommendations on the scope and content of plans of action (EPoA) in line with standard operating procedures;
• Implement a transition strategy to a more sustainable approach based on Preparedness and capacity Building in EVD
• Ensure a constant and strong operational coordination is maintained with the in-country Movement partners, including ICRC and with external humanitarian stakeholders and the DRC MoH
• Supervise the implementation and monitoring of quality activities, with attention to context monitoring and achievement of results, ensuring that rigorous monitoring and evaluation framework is being applied to measure the progress against set objectives;
• Ensure the identification of vulnerable populations and assessment of needs are being performed in an ongoing basis, and give direction to operational priorities;
• Ensure constant monitoring and analysis of the operating environment, timely readjustment of the operational priorities, and lead any revision of the plan of action (EPoA) and budget, with support from the Yaoundé CCST and Africa Regional Office counterparts;
• Maintain a constant knowledge of the evolution of the security situation/context in the country, in close collaboration with the security Delegate, the DRC RC and the ICRC;
• Supervise members of the operational team, delegate and staff;
• Ensure and support the existing DRC RC/IFRC counterpart system established for the purpose of the smooth implementation of the One international appeal.
• Ensure technical guidance for operations in health, WATSAN, and Community Engagement and Accountability (Infection Prevention and Control, Safe and Dignified Burial and Psychosocial support), communication, logistics, Information Management, as required;
• Manage the effective and proper use of assets, financial resources and facilities according to Red Cross Red Crescent and IFRC standard procedures in order to comply with accountability requirements;
• Ensure full compliance of operations with Red Cross Red Crescent principles, IFRC rules, regulations and policies and operational strategies of the DRC RC and relevant reference documents and policies;
• Support the consultation, collaboration and coordination of IFRC and DRC RC with key external partners including Government agencies, UN partners such as WHO, UNICEF, and INGOs such as Oxfam and donors such as USAID, ECHO and DFID;
• Attend relevant coordination meetings with the DRC RC representatives and encourage/support their ongoing participation in such meetings and promotion of DRC RC lead role and activities;
• Ensure that timely and accurate financial and narrative reports are prepared and are in line with requirements specified in the project agreement or standard Federation reporting guidelines;
• Ensure timely deployment of RDRTs, FACT, ERU as appropriate in coordination with IFRC regional office and secretariat;
• Reviews HR needs and advice Head of Country office for timely recruitment/deployment of staff to maintain flow and currency of operation performance;
• Support capacity building initiatives and ensure these provide the level of long-term preparedness capability required for other similar disaster response needs;

Education

• Relevant university degree or extensive professional experience in related field or professional qualification in operations management

• Relevant degree in project management or DM

• IMPACT, Basic Delegates Training Course

• Medical background (public health preferred)

Experience

• A of Minimum of 5 years’ experience in leading and managing complex operations programs in a humanitarian organization in developing countries and in complex emergencies or similar contexts

• A minimum of 2 years’ experience in leading and managing Health programs or projects

• Previous experience in Ebola response

• Good understanding of the humanitarian environment, strong analytical skills and capacity to translate analysis into strategy and planning

• A very good track record of managing people, networking, influencing and negotiating and building relationships effectively.

• Experience in proposal development, report writing, and developing budgets

• Experience of field based implementation is essential.

• Experience of setting up, managing and coordinating disaster response, including leading multi-national response teams, managing staff

• Experience of financial management to ensure compliance

• Experience of report writing (narrative and financial)

• Experience of working for the Red Cross/Red Crescent in particular working with National Societies

Knowledge, skills and languages

• Coordination and partner relationship building/ Excellent skills in networking with other agencies and organisations
• Demonstrated technical expertise in strategic management, project planning and budgeting, resource management, implementation ability as well as programme monitoring and evaluation
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills with the ability to represent the International Federation and to coach, mentor and influence people
• Knowledge of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement financial and project management tools
• Skills in training and developing staff capacity
• Good Knowledge of the region and the Country targeted
• Self-supporting in computers
• Fluent in written and spoken English and French

Competencies and values

• National Society relations

• Strategic orientation - Communication – Teamwork

• Professionalism – Integrity – Diversity

• Judgement-Decision-making

• Results focus and accountability

• Managing performance**Comments**

The Federation is an equal opportunity employer.

Interested applicants are invited to submit their application on the following website:

http://www.ifrc.org/en/who-we-are/working-with-us/current-vacancies/job-description/?id=16015