Deputy Head of Mission for Programs at Première Urgence Internationale

Starting date : 19th July 2021

Duration of Mission: 6 months

Location: Erbil, Iraq

Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilian victims of marginalization and exclusion, or those hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapse by answering their fundamental needs. Our aim is to provide emergency relief to uprooted people in order to help them recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency. The association leads on average 200 projects a year in the following sectors of intervention: Food Security, Health, Nutrition, Construction and Rehabilitation of infrastructures, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Economic Recovery. PUI is providing assistance to around 6 million people in 22 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and France.

Find out about our history and values.

General Context

Wide-scale violence and armed conflict erupted in Iraq in January 2014. In Anbar governorate, the cities of Ramadi and Falluja were particularly affected, the violence and its impact quickly grew. Also in June 2014, ISg, together with other armed groups, attacked and seized control of Mosul and large portions of northern Iraq, including areas of Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninewa, and Salah al-Din governorates. The Government of Iraq (GoI) has conducted multiple military operations since 2016 to regain control of territories held by ISg and announced in November 2017 that military operations had successfully concluded in their retaking of all Iraqi territory. Military operations in Mosul, Anbar and Salah Al-Din have led to ongoing massive internal displacements, serious and systematic violations of civilian protection and basic human rights, interrupted access to basic services, and put a severe strain on host communities. The country is now gradually moving from an emergency situation which required lifesaving operations to a post-conflict transition towards durable solutions. As per the HNO published by OCHA on November 2019, 5.67 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, with 1.77 million in acute need. Half of them are concentrated in Ninewa and Anbar governorates. Furthermore, an estimated 2.8 million returnees continue to form a complex caseload for humanitarians, development actors, relevant government agencies and donors, with 1.2 million in acute resilience and recovery needs.

PUI in Iraq

Present in Iraq since 1983 through Aide Médicale Internationale (AMI), and since 1997 through Première Urgence (PU), PUI (Première Urgence Internationale) brings help to vulnerable refugees, displaced persons as well as host communities (to avoid marginalization when the pressure on available resources becomes unbearable), in order to improve their living conditions and reinforce their resilience to enable them to regain dignity and autonomy. PUI’s objective in Iraq is to provide a humanitarian response to needs arising from movements of population through actions aimed at reinforcing the existing Health system, and providing Mental Health Psychosocial Support to the people in need, but also at providing access to Shelter, to drinking Water, Hygiene and Sanitation. Given the scale of the crisis and the needs observed, PUI emphasizes multiple sectoral interventions and develops as much as possible an integrated approach, keeping health the core sector of its intervention.

Click here for more information about our response to the crisis.

As part of our activities in Iraq, we are looking for a Deputy Head of Mission for Programs in Ebril.

Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Head of Mission, the Deputy HOM for Programs will lead the Program Department (Technical Coordinators, Monitoring and Evaluation Teams, Grants Officer) in order to coordinate the tactical and strategic programming aspects of the mission for ensuring the implementation of high quality Programs and helping in strengthening the PUI Mission development. S/He will operate these duties in line with the global PUI’ Strategic framework and the agreed Country Strategy for Iraq.

The Deputy HOM for Programs plays a key role in coordinating implementation strategy and supports operational management and integration of all technical areas. This includes the primary responsibilities of projects planning/design, programs quality assurance, donor compliance on reporting/documentation, but also to ensure timely, effective and compliant programming in accordance with internal and external principles/requirements. As an implementing organization, PUI places great importance on operational results and impact evaluation. Thus, the Deputy HOM for Programs plays a key role in overseeing monitoring and evaluation, usually in collaboration with the Area and Field Coordinators, and in association with the Clusters and Working Groups.

Specific Goals and Activities

PROGRAM OVERSIGHT AND DEVELOPMENT

• Co-animate (with the HoM and technical team) the country strategy development, design and eventual implementation process.
• Ensure that all programmes are contextually appropriate and adaptable.
• Ensure that PUI is informed of funding opportunities and strategies of major stakeholders.
• Ensure that project implementation is in accordance with PUI’s established plans, policies, procedures and core values.
• Ensure appropriate program technical implementation framework/advisory support is available to field teams, and in line with organizational priorities.
• Work closely with the HoM, Technical Coordinators, Area and Field Coordinators and the Project Managers to supervise program implementation.
• Facilitate new project activities integration within existing projects as well as with other partners and government entities.
• Ensure M&E systems are in place for the ongoing projects.
• Contribute and oversee the designing of programs and field-level monitoring for quality assurance.
• Work with the Finance Coordinator, on a monthly basis, to analyse grant budget spending and identify spending trends, in order to anticipate appropriate actions if significant risks are noted.
• S/he is the main programmatic link between the Headquarters and the mission, along with the HoM.
• S/he keeps the mission informed of the humanitarian context of the country and the region and participates in relevant clusters and stakeholder meetings
• S/he maintains close contacts with humanitarian and political stakeholders.

PROGRAM QUALITY AND MONITORING

• S/he develops and implements a Quality Management Policy providing an essential means of achieving high programme quality standards with great impact to PUI’s program in Iraq.
• Ensure appropriate program technical framework is implemented and advisory support is available to field teams, and in line with organizational priorities.
• S/he ensures that project teams are knowledgeable about PUI’s technical project implementation procedures (SoPs) as well as donor compliance requirements.
• S/he ensures that technical teams have the necessary information and tools to establish partnership development.
• S/he oversees the design and implementation of effective work plans and individual action plans which allow ongoing progress review of all key outputs of the programs.
• S/he oversees that M&E systems are in place for the ongoing projects.
• S/he oversees design of programs and field-level monitoring for quality assurance.
• S/he ensures the respect of technical practices, in conformity with the mandate and operation policy of the association by guaranteeing a permanent connection between the different medical coordinator/officers and technical coordinator/officers with their counterparts at the Headquarters.
• S/he ensures that the strategy of the mission and the programmes respects technical regulation of the association.
• S/he is responsible for the development of the mission. Thus she ensures the humanitarian supervision relevance of needs is closely monitored with HRP/HNO and other stakeholder assessments, studies and findings including governmental strategies and action plans.
• S/he proposes the mobilization the potential resources from other missions for ad-hoc support.

INTERNAL/EXTERNAL COMPLIANCE, REPORTING AND DOCUMENTATION

• S/he ensures all narrative and financial reports related to the programs are submitted in a timely and compliant manner.
• S/he ensures dissemination of information with a particular focus on publications of major findings.
• S/he supervises the proper maintenance of all files, records and documents related to PUI program activities
• S/he collaborates with the Grants Officer, Technical Coordinators, Area and Field Coordinators in order to ensure the quality of projects proposals/reports against internal and donors standards of operations.

COORDINATION WITH PARTNERS AND EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION

• S/he supports the HoM for all routine donor communication.
• S/he coordinates the PUI attendance in coordination/technical meetings with donors, NGO, UN agencies or Governmental bodies.
• S/he links regularly with other humanitarian stakeholders and follows up any potential collaboration
• S/he collaborates with respective line ministries and other organizations’ technical staff working in sectors of interest to PUI to build partnerships.
• S/he ensures that PUI programs are recognized/promoted and implemented in accordance with relatives agendas (Government, Clusters, etc.).
• S/he participates in meetings and seminars within PUI, nationally, and internationally as requested by the situation

FIELD IMPLEMENTATION team Performance ANALYSIS

• Supervise technical coordinators to conduct the Program growth and development.
• Cultivate an atmosphere conducive to sharing of lessons-learned and to mutual learning among PUI’ Sectors.
• Provide guidance to technical coordinators to achieve goals and ensure accountability to beneficiaries, partners, and donors.
• Provide support to Area and field coordinators in supervising their project teams to ensure sound planning, implementation or timely reporting.

ENSURING THE REPRESENTATION OF PUI

• S/he supports upon request of HoM the association locally amongst donors, NGOs, International Organizations and local authorities and reports representation action to the Desk Officer in his/her periodical report, or ad-hoc when necessary.
• S/he participates in important external coordination meetings and is an active attendee of these meetings.
• S/he supports upon request of HoM external communication in general and for contacts with the media.
• S/he may be called to travel within the region to meet PUI’s partners.

Profile

Training:

• Bachelor in International relations, Political sciences, international development, social sciences or any other relevant field

Experience:

• Minimum of 2 years in programme coordination experience
• Experience in Multi sectorial assessment
• Experience in MEAL
• Successful experience in expatriate team management and multi-sectorial programs

Knowledge and skills:

• Detailed knowledge of donors (BPRM, ECHO, OFDA, AFD, CDC, UN agencies, etc)
• Good knowledge on Middle East context
• Knowledge of medical and WASH programs
• Good knowledge on Pack Office

Languages:

• Excellent writing skills in English

Required Personal Characteristics :

• A strong commitment to humanitarian principles and the will to make sure beneficiaries’ needs are covered as best as the resources available allow.
• Capacity to delegate and to supervise the work of a multidisciplinary team.
• Capacity to manage multi-donor, multi-sector and multi-location (governorates) projects.
• Strong commitment to support/develop capacity of national staff and developing second layer of leadership.
• Problem solving and leadership skills.
• Proven management ability and inter-personal skills – team player.
• Ability to work on own initiative and collaboratively as part of a diverse team and manage a varied workload.
• Proven capacity for analysing and synthesizing comprehensive information and technical data.
• Ability to write and edit reports under deadline pressure.
• Ability to guarantee effective and timely outputs.
• Self-motivated, flexible and adaptable to the needs of the team and organization.
• General ability to resist stress.
• Important organization and rigor skills.

Conditions

• Employed with a Fixed-Term Contract
• Starting Date : July 2021
• Monthly gross income: from 2 420 Euros up to 2 750 Euros depending on the experience in International Solidarity + 50 Euros per semester seniority with PUI
• Cost Covered: Round-trip transportation to and from home / mission, visas, vaccines…
• Insurance : including medical coverage and complementary healthcare, 24/24 assistance and repatriation
• Individual Accomodation
• Couple-Status Available – to be validated and discussed during recruitment process
• Daily living Expenses (« Per diem »)
• Break Policy: 5 working days at 3 and 9 months
• Paid Leaves Policy: 5 weeks of paid leaves per year + return ticket every 6 months