Head of Livelihoods Projects for Northeast Syria at People in Need

Country Programme: Syria

Base: Derik, North East Syria, with travels within the region

Length: 12 months with possible extension

Type of position: Paid job

Start date: ideally February 2022 or based on agreement

Line Manager: Area Programs Director (APD) for Northeast Syria

About the PIN:

People in Need delivers assistance in Northern Syria addressing the needs of IDPs and hosting communities in several sectors such as food security, livelihoods, shelter, protection, education and WASH. PIN is well-established organization with several field offices, direct implementation and more than 400 employees. Main office sits in Erbil and provides support services to field teams inside Syria. PIN’s contribution to the Syria humanitarian response is amongst the largest, with an annual turnover of over $50 million across Syria and funding from humanitarian donors including ECHO, OFDA, FFP, SDC and the European Union.

PIN’s key programming sectors in NES include a combination of early recovery and immediate humanitarian response programs in order to:

• Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas;
• Improve food security;
• Improve access to shelter;
• Improve economic recovery and livelihoods recovery;
• Improve children psychosocial wellbeing.

General Position summary:

With supervision from the APD and technical guidance from the Program Quality Director, as well as PIN´s Knowledge & Learning department, the Head of Livelihoods Projects will be responsible for:

1) The development of new livelihoods projects across NES and

2) Ensuring existing livelihoods activities are implemented to a high technical and quality standard.

Duties and responsibilities:

Project management:

• Leading regular monthly project review meetings (project kick off meeting inclusive) & coordination between programs and support departments to ensure program implementation links well to financial, procurement, HR, MEAL planning;
• Control over overall project spending, financial forecasting and updated work plans against project timeframe;
• Following up on project progress: indicators and project targets (to be) achieved;
• Internal project approval processes, oversight of archiving being done & project records being in place;
• Ensuring protection/accountability and gender is mainstreamed throughout the projects.

Cooperation with grants department:

• Consolidating/reviewing program reports per project to ensure accuracy of the inputs;
• Preparing the technical design for new project proposals within the areas of expertise and relevant donors’ portfolio.

Programme Development:

• Further development of the Livelihoods sectoral strategy, identifying potentially new geographical areas, ways of implementation, sub-sectors and potential partnerships;
• Program technical guidance and focus on quality aspects within the programme implementation;
• Coordination with Program Managers to contribute to development of relevant tools, SOPs and technical standards;
• Identifying lessons learnt for further incorporation into programming, proposing relevant changes and ensuring PDM and evaluation findings are used to improve implementation;
• Updating feedback tracker and managing its use as program/project memory tool, facilitating the flow of information between the tracker and implementation (inclusive the follow up on the necessary actions identified through the feedback and relevant for the respective project/program and area of operations);
• Identify potential areas for studies and research to help develop further proposals based on evidence of impact.

Team Management:

• Management of the senior program staff within designated technical expertise and coordination with other senior program staff relevant for the projects;
• Assess training and development needs required for the programme team to meet the project and individual objectives and ensure quality programming.

External representation:

• Coordination with relevant NES WGs, supporting Area Director/Area Programme Director on project specific activities and updates to donors.

Suitable candidates for this position should possess:

• At least 3 years of professional experience within a humanitarian and/or development organization;
• Proven field experience in Livelihoods and/or Early Recovery & Market Systems programming;
• Experience in building the capacity of national teams;
• Experience in representing an organization in strategic meetings and coordination fora;
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills;
• Excellent command of English, knowledge of Arabic would be an asset;
• Strong grasp of all stages of programme cycle management and quality standards in humanitarian programming including safeguarding and accountability mechanisms;
• Strong organizational, critical analysis and problem-solving skills;
• Experience of working in complex and volatile contexts, including familiarity with the humanitarian context of Syria or the Middle East, would be an advantage.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

• This position is an unaccompanied position. The position is based in Derik. This location is perceived as less conservative, offering opportunities for a social life outside work hours. Location of the position may change, as the security situation in Syria is fluid.
• PIN has a new guesthouse to accommodate all the international staff with individual rooms being available.
• The position is expected to be able to travel to other PIN locations;
• Mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. Internet is available in all PIN’s offices and guesthouses. There are a number of health services available with medevac mechanism for INGO’s members. There is reasonable access to most consumer goods.
• Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and PIN’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
• Head of Livelihoods Projects is expected to occasionally travel to Erbil for meetings.

People in Need offers:

• Salary as per PIN salary scale (subsistence allowance of 1 200 EUR is already included): 3 200-3 300 EUR;
• Accommodation in PIN’s guesthouse on PIN’s expenses;
• 25 days of paid leave annually;
• Reimbursement of travel expenses with travel to the country of residence once per every 6 months of completed work;
• R&R benefits according to PIN’s policy including extra paid days off, allowance and regional flights
• Reimbursement of the costs of visas and vaccinations; assistance with visa application procedure;
• Free 24/7 medical helpdesk and psychological consultation available online;
• Reimbursement of the medical check-up before and after the deployment;
• Travel health insurance;
• In addition, team of dedicated colleagues who foster friendly and fair work atmosphere.