Area Programme Manager Ecuador At Norwegian Refugee Council

All NRC employees are expected to work in accordance with the organization’s core values: dedication, innovation, inclusivity, and accountability. These attitudes and beliefs shall guide our actions and relationships.

What we are looking for

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is seeking a highly qualified, resilient and dynamic Area Manager that will be responsible for implementing integrated programmes and represent NRC at coordination forums, as delegated from Area Manager.

What you will do

1. Line management for CC project managers, Coordinators, and Team Leaders that leadership the implementation of NRC in Ecuador

2. Compliance and adherence to NRC policies, guidance, and procedures

3. Responsible for ensuring programme support to integrated programme, coordination, and technical quality in Area office

4. Provide area specific input relevant for CC strategies

5. Compliance to donor standards, and grant management and regular reporting to donor in Area

6. Identify funding opportunities and develop funding strategy and forecasts

Please download the detailed job description to learn more about the position.

What you will bring

• Minimum 4 years’ experience from a management in a humanitarian/ recovery context
• Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts
• Core competency expertise
• Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities
• Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile
• Fluency in English and Spanish, both written and verbal
• Valid driver’s license
• Knowledge of the context in Ecuador.
• Experience with managing programs in insecure environments
• University degree in relevant university field of Project Development and Management with Master
• degree as an added advantage,
• Expertise or knowledge in more than one NRC Core Competencies (CC) and experience of engagement in sectors relevant to NRC CCs
• Experience with grant start-up, exit or similar
• Knowledge of the global and national normative framework for PNPI and migrants, and Refugees. Also, knowledge of the internal situation of violence in Ecuador and de possibility of work with people in risk and possibly IDPs.

What we offer

• Duty station: Quito, Ecuador
• Contract: national contract, contrato por obra o labor
• Travel: up to 40%
• Salary/benefits: grade 9 on NRC’s salary scale, with accompanying terms and conditions
• NRC is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to diversity without distinction to age, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and physical ability.
• We think outside the box, encourage ideas, and give responsibility to all employees at all levels. You will have many opportunities to be heard and take the initiative.

Find out more about the benefits of working for NRC

Important information about the application process

• Internal candidates only: please click on the suitcase icon labelled “I am an employee” to be redirected to NRC’s internal careers site.
• When creating your profile, include your full name as given on your passport. Complete all the system-required fields for experience, employment history and education.
• Submit your application and CV in English, taking care to attach your latest CV.
• Applications that do not meet the minimum standards in terms of experience or qualifications will generally not be considered. Unsolicited applications not related to this specific job advertisement will not be considered.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We receive many applicants for each vacant position.
• If you have any questions about this role, please email aela.recruitment@nrc.no with the job title as the subject line.

Why NRC?

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. Our 15,000 staff work in crises across 40 countries, providing life-saving and long-term assistance to millions of people every year.

Watch this short video to see NRC in action.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) began its work in Ecuador in 2009 and has since been working in coordination with the Government of Ecuador, other non-governmental/civil society organisations and United Nations agencies to support people in need of international protection, refugees, and vulnerable migrants in the country, as well as the host communities. The organisation’s projects and areas of work focus on education; protection from violence; livelihoods and food security (LFS); information, orientation and legal assistance (ICLA); water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); and shelter and infrastructure (S&S). NRC always ensures its work is based on safe and inclusive programming (SIP) principles, which involves responding dynamically to the needs of the people involved in our projects. ensuring the centrality of protection and identifying and responding to potential risks.

NRC in Ecuador is present in 12 provinces of the country and has reached at least 19 provinces through specific missions. we work with a programmatic team for each of the intervention sectors and a complete support team that allows the implementation of all programs at the national level.

NRC’s strategic action plan for 2024-2025 focuses on the following programmatic modalities:

Prevention and protection: monitoring the humanitarian needs of people in transit, managing cases of people at risk or vulnerable due to the same situation. In the current context of Ecuador, identifying and providing tools to the community to strengthen their resilience capacities through civilian self-protection mechanisms in order to limit forced internal displacement. NRC is undertaking efforts to document this situation with partners such as IDMC and other organisations interested in making visible the risks faced by people living in this country. We are also working hand in hand with the Ministry of Education in Ecuador to (i) develop risk management plans in the school environment; (ii) develop self-protection strategies related to the gap in access and permanence in the education sector due to violence; and (iii) develop educational strategies with children and adolescents to promote resilience and mitigate the psychosocial effects of violence through our Better Learning Programme (BLP) methodology, which contributes to improving the learning conditions of children and adolescents exposed to war and conflict.

Emergency response: in this approach to the population in transit, NRC focuses its efforts on providing humanitarian assistance from our sectors of intervention to the population in transit and to people entering the country for the first time, especially victims of the Colombian armed conflict and Venezuelan migrants and refugees who have been forced to migrate because of the crisis in their country.

Promote recovery and resilience through community action and with the aim of facilitating the integration of migrant and refugee populations, so that they can regularize their migratory or refugee status, integrate into host communities and have access to decent work and housing.

Ecuador is a transit and destination country for people in need of international protection, being the fourth country with the largest Venezuelan population. According to the UNHCR, there are currently 474,945 refugees and migrants in Ecuador[1], moving along the north-south and south-north routes (mainly to the United States of America). Among the main reasons why they are forced to leave Venezuela are cases of massive human rights violations linked to an increase in multidimensional poverty (69.6%), lack of access to food (69.7%), lack of access to the public health system (69.9%)[2]. In addition, there is persecution for political opinions[3] or any action that could be considered critical of the central government[4], as well as the actions of armed groups on the border with Colombia[5].

On the other hand, there is an increase in the number of Colombians victims of violence arriving in Ecuador in need of international protection, mainly from the departments of Putumayo, Nariño, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Huila, due to an increase in the situation of violence in their country of origin (confrontations between non-state actors, threats, confinement, attacks against the civilian population, attempts of forced recruitment by armed groups or illegal armed groups), according to OCHA[6] and the European Union Agency for Asylum[7]. The total number of refugee applications from Venezuelans[8] and Colombians[9] between January and March 2024 (4,512) represents 47% of the total number of applications from the same nationalities for the whole year 2023 (9,438)[10] . Between 2022 and April 2024 an extraordinary process of registration and migratory regularization was carried out through the Temporary Residence Visa of Exception (VIRTE, in Spanish), which has a duration of 2 years and with a single renewal. According to the UNHCR, approximately 95,672 people have received this visa.[11].

In the Ecuadorian territory in 2023, there was an exponential increase in the violence indicators due to the territorial expansion of organized crime groups in the country, international armed conflicts, and the growing economic crisis. These elements were exacerbated by a scenario of political polarization in the country, which generated protection risks in the territories where there are threats due to the presence of illegal armed groups.

NRC Response: The lack of information and resources to access to education, learning losses, and educational delays among vulnerable refugee and migrant children and adolescents (C&A) limit their right to quality education. Given the uncertainty, fear, and stress that school-aged C&A are currently experiencing, which may worsen, the implementation of a program that addresses education in emergency contexts and develops socio-emotional tools with students in public education, especially in high-risk areas prone to violence, is an initiative that will contribute to learning, retention and promotion. Teachers working in emergency and crisis contexts have a fundamental role to play in supporting the learning and well-being of students affected by conflict; however, teachers need support to achieve their goals. To this end, NRC has developed methodologies to build and strengthen this capacity within the education community and to create a safe environment for C&A, not only within schools but throughout the entire school environment.

People in human mobility need tools that empower them personally and professionally to become independent and capable of generating their own dignified and sustainable income within the host community. Therefore, within the Livelihoods sector, NRC implements projects that facilitate the process of socio-economic integration, independence, and the ability to generate dignified and sustainable income, ensuring food security and livelihood protection for the individuals. To this end, NRC provides resilience and empowerment tools on the path to self-sufficiency and supports the development of their life plans, matching their profiles and aspirations with the needs and gaps of the local context.

In addition, NRC conducts regular border Protection monitoring and community diagnostics, which provide continuously updated information on the needs of populations in transit, the profiles of individuals requiring our services, and the expectations of our response. In the current context, NRC has Protection from Violence programs aimed at mitigating protection risks from both an individual and community perspective. This includes supporting individuals to access protection pathways and providing self-protection tools to address the vulnerabilities they face. NRC also develops community self-protection strategies that promote the participation and integration of migrant populations, PNPIs, and host communities, identifying protection risks and needs.

NRC also provides Information, Counselling, and Legal Assistance services to people in need of international protection, refugees, and vulnerable migrants in Ecuador to facilitate the effective exercise of their rights. These services focus on access to regular migration status, essential services, justice, labour rights, support for community social integration processes, and capacity building of government institutions and civil society to strengthen the response to human mobility populations with a focus on durable solutions.

NRC also works on Infrastructure and Shelter interventions, which become the cornerstone of community socio-economic integration processes of refugee and migrant populations with host communities. In addition, NRC supports people in transit with dignified and adequate temporary shelter and those with a permanence vocation with interventions that ensure access to dignified housing, strengthen tenure security, and mitigate protection risks.

Finally, NRC implements projects to ensure access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) for the most vulnerable populations, supporting the state in the development of sanitary and safe water infrastructure in schools, hospitals, and community centres. For people in transit, NRC provides specialized on-route services, that dignify their journey and help mitigate health risks, especially for the most vulnerable groups.

We are looking for people who are passionate about helping refugees and people forced to flee. Are you one of those people? If you are, NRC offers you the opportunity to:

• do demanding and professional work, often in challenging contexts
• join a work culture that empowers every employee to share ideas and take responsibility
• be part of a welcoming and supportive community committed to human dignity

Learn more about NRC

[1] “ACNUR Ecuador: Informe Operacional No.4”, Reliefweb, marzo 2024, https://reliefweb.int/report/ecuador/acnur-ecuador-informe-operacional-n4-marzo-2024

[2] Informe de Seguimiento a la Emergencia Humanitaria Compleja en Venezuela, Hum Venezuela, Noviembre 2023 https://humvenezuela.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Informe-de-Seguimiento-de-la-EHC-HumVenezuela-Noviembre-2023-2.pdf

[3] Comisión Interamerica de Derechos Humanos, febrero 2024, https://www.oas.org/es/CIDH/jsForm/?File=/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2024/028.asp

[4] Venezuela situation, U.S. Department of State, https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/venezuela/

[5] Venezuela eventos de 2023, Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/es/world-report/2024/country-chapters/venezuela

[6] Informe Tendencias e Impacto Humanitario en Colombia 2023, OCHA, https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/colombia/informe-tendencias-e-impacto-humanitario-en-colombia-2023-fecha-de-corte-enero-diciembre-de-2023-fecha-de-publicacion-13-de-febrero-de-2024

[7] Colombia: Enfoque de País, European Union Agency for Asylum, https://euaa.europa.eu/es/publications/colombia-enfoque-de-pais

[8] Movilidad Humana Solicitudes de Refugio, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana, https://datosabiertos.gob.ec/dataset/registro-movilidad-humana-solicitantes-de-refugio/resource/7fb4a35b-d004-4f0e-bba1-ff91bc15afd3

[9] “ACNUR Ecuador: Informe Operacional No.4”, Reliefweb, marzo 2024, https://reliefweb.int/report/ecuador/acnur-ecuador-informe-operacional-n4-marzo-2024.

[10] Fuente: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana. “Solicitantes por país de origen y género. Año 2023”.

[11] “ACNUR Ecuador: Informe Operacional No.4”, Reliefweb, marzo 2024, https://reliefweb.int/report/ecuador/acnur-ecuador-informe-operacional-n4-marzo-2024.

ABOUT US

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. We work in crises across more than 31 countries, providing emergencies and long-term assistance to millions of people every year. We stand up for people forced to flee, advocating their rights. NORCAP, our global provider of expertise, helps improve international and local ability to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from crises. NRC also runs the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva, a global leader in reporting on and advocating for people displaced within their own country.

Employment with NRC may lead to employment in or deployment to Regions, Countries, Areas or Offices that may be host to considerable health, safety and security risks. NRC takes this very seriously and we have procedures in place to reduce known risks, but will never be able to take away all risks.

NRC is an equal opportunities employer and aims to have staffing diversity in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, nationality and physical ability.