Country Director At Danish Refugee Council

Are you ready to pursue an exciting opportunity with a progressive humanitarian organization in a senior management role? Would you thrive working in one of the world’s most challenging humanitarian regions, the Middle East?

Who are we?

Danish Refugee Council is a leading protection agency pursuing our mandate to protect and promote durable solutions to displacement-affected populations based on humanitarian principles. The Lebanon Country Office is part of the Middle East Region, which also comprises Turkiye, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Jordan.

Lebanon is experiencing a multi-layered crisis with acute and increasingly visible humanitarian consequences. Since 2019, the country has been going through a disastrous and complex economic and financial crisis, and political deadlock, which resulted in a severe economic depression that has offset some of the development gains of the past years and has generated widespread humanitarian needs not seen in the country of approximately 5.8 million resident population since the civil war. Indeed, the World Bank has ranked Lebanon within the world’s top three most severe economic crises since the mid-19th century. The financial and economic crisis are now considered major drivers of humanitarian needs. In addition to the above, Lebanon continues to host the highest number of displaced per capita and per square kilometer in the world. The current conflict dynamics in the region have also seriously impacted the safety and economic situation in Lebanon.

DRC is well established in Lebanon and has responded to various humanitarian crisis since 2004. Since 2019, DRC’s aim has been to define a set of technical niches that would provide it with a comparative advantage predominantly within two focused sectors – economic recovery and protection.

About the job

The Country Director plays a strong leadership role in DRC’s comprehensive and solutions-based approach to displacement through a high level of strategic leadership, innovation and effective advocacy. He/she is ultimately accountable in country for all aspects of DRC’s work, leading the consolidation and at the same time development of the programme, continuing the process of developing solid impact measurement mechanisms, strengthening accountability initiatives and ensuring that the financial management and organizational setup is adapted to the operational context. The Country Director sets direction, leads, maintains team morale, safety and welfare, and manages resources. He/she delegates specific duties as necessary, while maintaining oversight and accountability.

Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities:

Representation:

• Represent the programme to authorities, donors, partners, and in various co-ordination fora;
• Strengthen DRC’s position nationally and regionally;
• Ensure that DRC maintains excellent and productive relations with all key stakeholders, especially beneficiaries, local authorities, the humanitarian community and donors.

Direct managerial oversight and support:

• Conduct overall management of the country operation and provide direct line management to senior staff members.
• Ensure that the senior management team is effective, mutually supporting and sufficiently involved in decision making.
• Conduct frequent travel to the field offices for direct operational support and representation;
• Ensure compliance with internal and external reporting requirements

Fundraising and Advocacy

• Be responsible for all donor engagement and fundraising efforts to ensure solid growth of the country portfolio in size and reputation
• Lead on implementation of DRC’s advocacy strategy and lead on advocacy efforts at all relevant coordination fora

Safety

• Provide overall accountability for security, including development of and ensuring adherence to security procedures, monitoring of the security situation, analyzing and provision of recommendations.

Support Services

• Be responsible for the financial health of the organization, working with the Head of Support Services to ensure that requisite systems are implemented to provide overall budget monitoring and financial management, ensuring compliance with minimum DRC and donor requirements
• Manage the resources allocated effectively and transparently by respecting and meeting all legal requirements in country
• Ensure coaching and counselling advice to staff when necessary and lead initiatives to develop staff capacity.

Programme Development

• Be responsible for ensuring an enabling environment for development and implementation of a robust programme strategy that is within DRC’s overall regional and global strategic frameworks.

Accountability and Quality

• Ensure that DRC standard regulations and operational procedures (Code of Conduct, DRC Management handbooks, CHS standards, etc) are followed.
• Utilize the Program Cycle Management tool to ensure sound, quality, accountable programming

About you

Experience and technical competencies: (include years of experience)

To be successful in this role we expect you to have minimum five years’ management experience in emergency/development contexts as country director/senior manager of a humanitarian or development organization or similar, moreover, we also expect the following:

• Experience as a people manager;
• Experience representing a large and leading organization to donors, external partners and authorities;
• Experience with networking, advocacy and coordination;
• Experience in managing staff in insecure/stressful locations;
• Experience with conflict related displacement issues;
• Experience of managing budgets and multiple donor contracts;
• Experience in donor contact, fundraising and networking;
• Experience of Humanitarian Mine Action (preferred);
• Experience working in the Middle East region and Syria (preferred);
• Proven leadership skills and a competence in people management;
• Proven communicator with all types of stakeholders; and
• Proven commitment to accountable practices and knowledge of quality assurance systems.

Languages

• Full professional proficiency in English (verbal and written)
• Arabic – preferred

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’s five core competencies:

• Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.
• Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.
• Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.
• Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.
• Demonstrating integrity: Upholding and promoting the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to DRC’s values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer

Contract length: (24) months

Start date: As soon as possible

Duty station: Beirut

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates or Nationals. This position will be placed at Management (D) band.