Head of Mission – IRAQ – H/F at La Chaîne de l’Espoir

ABOUT LA CHAÎNE DE L’ESPOIR

La Chaîne de l’Espoir is an international NGO founded in 1994. Its mission is to strengthen healthcare systems to give everyone, especially children, the same chances of survival and development.

Helping the most marginalized children is more than an ethical duty, it is a vital requirement for achieving the United Nations 2030 goals for children’s health and well-being.

We work in 27 countries with a global approach, focusing on children, mothers and disadvantaged communities:

· Prevention and screening from an early age, particularly through school health programs.

· Care and surgery to meet the most urgent needs of children and their mothers.

· Training and transfer of skills to local teams thanks to our international network of experts in all areas of surgery.

· Construction and equipment of hospital facilities adapted to local needs.

POSITION ET MISSION

La Chaîne de l’Espoir is implementing programmes in Sinjar that aim at rebuilding the healthcare system that was previously destroyed, contributing to the early recovery and stabilization of Sinjar District.

The fisrt programme aimed at supporting the primary health care centre of Sinjar by building and equipping an operating room. This phase was completed in January 2021.

A second phase, started in December 2021, consists in training and supporting the medical, paramedical and biomedical teams working around the operating room.

The second programme aims at building the Sinjar French Medical Center. The SFMC will provide health care to men, women and children of all ages. It includes a mother and child unit, and will also be designed to include outpatient consultations, medical imaging, a laboratory, a pharmacy as well as the hospital’s first logistics and energy premises. The program started in December 2020.

All programmes are supported by the Iraqi Ministry of Health (MOH) and the French Government through its Centre of Crisis and Support (CDCS). The SFMC programme is also supported by the Madad Fund of the European Union for the equipment.

The Head of Mission manages the country office.

They have the overall responsibility for strategic planning, operations’ implementation and fundraising. They ensure that La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s operations in Iraq contribute effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of project beneficiaries and that set objectives for the office and projects are achieved in time.

They represent La Chaîne de l’Espoir in the country, they create and maintain strong relationships with partners in order to ensure La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s visibility in Iraq.

They are ultimately responsible for the security and safety management of the mission and its employees.

They manage an Infrastructure Coordinator, an Admin/Finance/HR Coordinator, a Logistics and Security Coordinator and a Medical Coordinator, as well as a representative in Bagdad. They report directly to the programmes coordinator based in the headquarter and liaises with other headquarter departments where and when needs be. They supervise all operations in Iraq.

Essential duties and responsibilities:

The Head of Mission handles the following activities.

1. Country operational strategy

• Ensures monitoring of humanitarian context, health sector development and geopolitical challenges in Iraq in general and in La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s areas of intervention in particular;
• Ensures compliance with the set strategic orientation and country action plan;
• Oversees the preparation of strategic and operational plans (analysis of national context, strategy to support partners, budget forecasts, annual action plans), consistent with La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s overall strategy;
• Supervises monitoring and evaluation of the operational strategy within the country;
• Ensures the relevance, quality, and consistency of projects within the country, and propose strategic reorientations when necessary;
• Ensures that La Chaîne de l’Espoir fulfils the contractual commitments with donors;
• Participates in the development of a fundraising strategy, in collaboration with the HQ Program Coordinator and support, for the country, as per the in-country legal framework, and monitor and analyse local donor strategies in the country/area;
• Coordinates the development of proposals for institutional donors in collaboration with Headquarter.

2. Representation and external relations

• Acts, along with the Bagdad representative, as representative for registration with the local authorities and registration renewal;
• Ensures regular liaisons with all external stakeholders in KRI and Iraq, including but not limited to NGOs, UN agencies, current and potential donors, and authorities at Governorate, Regional (KRI) or country-level if necessary;
• Ensures positive working relationship with all partners and stakeholders;
• Represents La Chaîne de l’Espoir at relevant high-level meetings, such as the NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq (NCCI), donor briefings, and participates in clusters and sector working groups in coordination with the country team;
• Ensures regular liaisons with the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) to raise issues linked to policy and strategy;
• Creates opportunities to promote La Chaîne de l’Espoir in Iraq and KRI in order to ensure a sustainable presence in the country;
• Represents La Chaîne de l’Espoir in strategic meetings, conferences, forums and other local, regional and national events and contribute to consolidating and raising the profile of La Chaîne de l’Espoir in Iraq;
• Ensures the promotion of humanitarian and La Chaîne de l’Espoir’ principles towards all stakeholders within representation activities.

3. Project management

• Ensures that all projects are implemented as per plan (including monitoring and evaluation) and reach the set objectives;
• Ensures that all current and future projects are relevant, cost effective, sustainable and in line with La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s strategy;
• Ensures that recommendations of the HQ steering committee or resulting from evaluation findings are implemented, in close collaboration with the Infrastructure coordinator, headquarter, as well as the country office team;
• Works closely with the HQ Programme coordinator to ensure that operations comply with the best practices all along the project cycle;
• Writes reports to donors in collaboration with headquarters and institutional funding management, in time and in line with donor’s requirements;
• Coordinates the development of proposals for institutional donors in cooperation with the Headquarters;
• Contributes to monitoring-reporting-evaluation (internal and external) related to projects funded by institutional or private donors. Ensures that these activities are consistent with La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s operational framework and methodology and that they comply with donor requirements.

4. Human resources management

• Helps establishing and/or implementing HR policies within the country, consistent with the national regulatory framework and ensuring compliance with national regulations;
• Recruits collaborators and makes sure they are integrated into operations;
• Ensures a proper human resources set-up of the mission to reach agreed objectives, including staff recruitment, supervision, appraisal, mentoring and capacity building.
• Ensures the cohesion of the team, establishes an environment based on trust, good communication and regular interactions among all employees;
• Facilitates, mediates and monitors medical, paramedical and coordination team missions: organization and follow-up of missions planning, briefing of volunteers on mission objectives and security, supervision during the mission.

5. Budget, financial, and administrative management

• Prepares the country budget and supervises financial project monitoring, consistent with the operational strategy and internal procedures;
• Ensures the implementation and enforcement of support procedures (accounting, budgets, treasury, purchasing, HR, inventory, etc.) and internal control;
• Supervises administration and finance and ensures the proper and sound financial management of the mission;La Chaîne de l’Espoir
• Contributes to monthly planning, budget monitoring and forecast, as well as treasury forecast in compliance with La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s regulation and programmes implementation;
• Collaborates with La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s headquarter and support the admin/finance/HR coordinator and the logistics coordinator in the preparation and proper conduct of audits, whether internal or external;
• Manages activities regarding La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s agreement / authorisation to operate in the country;
• Oversees the implementation of administrative and legal procedures required by national authorities;
• Ensures the responsible and efficient management of assets and financial resources.
• Supervises logistic activities and ensure proper procurement practices and a sound management of the supply chain, fleet, stocks, etc.
• Ultimately responsible to ensure the compliance with internal and donor’s requirements.

6. Safety and security

• Ensures monitoring and analysis of the security and safety context, and that country office employees are aware of it;
• Ensures that all new staff members receive a security briefing and that all international staff members are briefed upon arrival;
• Ensures the implementation of security and safety procedures and that all employees are compliant;
• Manages security incidents.

QUALIFICATION

• Advanced university degree in business administration, political science, international relations, project management or a related field is required.

WORK EXPERIENCE

· A minimum of 5 years experience within the solidarity sector. A minimum of 3 years in a similar position, preferably with an international NGO.

· Experience in Medical Project is desirable

· Experience in working with health programmes including construction and furbishing of hospitals, would be a strong added value.

· A solid humanitarian background is necessary.

SKILLS ET PERSONAL QUALITIES

· Good verbal and written communication skills in English.

· Knowledge of Arabic and Kurdish are desirable.

· French is an asset.

· Adherence to humanitarian principle and La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s code of ethics;

· Strong analytical skills and ability to develop comprehensive and inclusive country strategies and context analysis;

· Excellent interpersonal and diplomatic skills, with a proven track record in forming effective relationships with a range of traditional, local and international authorities, organisations and donors;

· Excellent knowledge of project cycle management and programming;

· Good reporting skills, with proven ability in financial report writing;

· Demonstrated experience in managing compliance to strategic donors’ requirements;

· Demonstrated team management skills in multicultural environments, ability to motivate and lead a team

· Experience of working in insecure environments or complex emergency contexts;

· Strong financial management skills;

· Strong time management skills;

· Ability to work independently and collaboratively;

· Patience, flexibility and capacity of adaptation;

· Computer proficiency in Microsoft Office Package;

Capacity to travel, especially to Sinjar

CONDITIONS

· Expatriate position, 12 months full time contract. Possibility of renewal.

· Salary range: according to profile and experience

· Position based in Erbil with possible trips to Sinjar