IMPACT Deputy Country Coordinator (Operations) for South Sudan At IMPACT Initiatives

BACKGROUND ON IMPACT AND REACH

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts, supporting and working within the framework of the humanitarian reform process. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis, GIS and remote-sensing. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, which allows particularly IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

ACTED is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1993, which supports vulnerable populations, affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. ACTED provides continued support to vulnerable communities by ensuring the sustainability of post-crisis interventions and engaging long-term challenges facing our target populations, in order to break the poverty cycle, foster development and reduce vulnerability to disasters. Their interventions seek to cover the multiple aspects of humanitarian and development crises through a multidisciplinary approach which is both global and local, and adapted to each context. Their 3,300 staff is committed in to responding to emergencies worldwide, to supporting recovery and rehabilitation, towards sustainable development.

We are currently looking for a IMPACT Deputy Country Coordinator to oversee Operations for the IMPACT South Sudan mission. The position is based in Juba with frequent travel to all 16 REACH field bases across South Sudan.

Supervisor: IMPACT Country Coordinator

Title: IMPACT Deputy Country Coordinator – Operations

Location: Juba, South Sudan

Contract duration: 1 year

Start date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

IMPACT, through REACH, has been implementing programming in South Sudan since 2012 supporting humanitarian decision-making with assessments and information management activities focusing on the needs of displaced, returnees, and conflict-affected populations. Today, data collected and disseminated by REACH aims to provide a baseline for ongoing response planning efforts across South Sudan as well as highlight areas of highest need and concern as crises emerge. Broadly, REACH South Sudan implements assessments across three core units:

· Monitoring of the humanitarian situation in South Sudan, through monthly assessments covering over 2,000 settlements in South Sudan, conducting an annual representative Multi Sector Needs Assessment to provide a snapshot of needs, ad hoc rapid assessments in times of sudden escalations in conflict or natural disasters, and an emergency response mechanism to identify areas of highest vulnerability for immediate assessment and advocacy.

· Monitoring population movement trends in South Sudan, including tracking and analyzing large-scale displacement, returns and seasonal movements, through port and road monitoring, ad-hoc assessments, and a population movement baseline; assessing the perceptions of affected populations of the humanitarian response; engaging with the protection cluster in identifying and filling major information gaps; and mainstreaming a context sensitive approach within REACH South Sudan.

· Providing direct technical support to humanitarian clusters through active engagement with coordination bodies, dedicated assessments and information products, and strategic engagement to promote innovative methods towards understanding sector-related needs in South Sudan.

The REACH Deputy Country Coordinator supports the Country Coordinator in overseeing and operations internally, as well as external representation of REACH in key for a in South Sudan. More information on REACH’s work in South Sudan can be found here: https://www.reach-initiative.org/where-we-work/south-sudan/.

POSITION PROFILE

REACH is currently recruiting for a Deputy Country Coordinator to, under the close supervision of the REACH South Sudan Country Coordinator, oversee the operational management of all REACH South Sudan. The role will involve oversight of the operations for all REACH South Sudan Research Cycles, line management of the finance and logistics team, project and grants development and management, including liaison with and reporting to donors, operational oversight (financial, logistical, team capacity and team structure), Human Resource management (recruitment and staff welfare), external engagement (external representation, partnership development, and maintenance), strategy development, through contextual understanding both of the crisis and the coordination structure, as well as striving for team cohesion. This person will be a key member of the REACH South Sudan Senior Management Team (SMT) and will as such be working alongside the REACH South Sudan Research Managers. The position will also at times serve as the Acting Country Coordinator in the absence of the CC. The position will be based in Juba with regular travel to all REACH South Sudan bases.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Programmes Oversight and Quality Control

· Monitor the progress and delays of all operations across each units and ensure that delays or identified challenges for specific assessments are reported in writing and orally in a timely manner.

· Ensuring that Project Managers are provided the programme management training, support, and resources required to effectively and independently manage their Research Cycles. This includes:

o regular follow-up and check-ins to project plan and identify any challenges or bottlenecks;

o supporting project focal points as line-managers in developing strong and healthy teams, and maintaining staff welfare.

· Provide Operations Support Manager, Field Coordinators and Field Officers with support to oversee Field Teams across each of the 16 REACH bases in South Sudan as well as:

o Identifying capacity together with Operations Support Manager, Field Coordinators and field-based Assessment Officers and delegating data collection tasks accordingly to Field Teams (Field Officers/Assistants and Enumerators);

o Ensuring the welfare of Field Teams, particularly with regard to the security of field-based staff across South Sudan, in line with our internal Duty of Care policies;

o Ensuring capacity building and skill identification within Field Teams.

· Together with the Country Coordinator, ensure that all team members and hubs are kept up-to-date on key activities, plans, and achievements;

· Oversee Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) processes and support the Communication/M&E Manager and the Research Managers in following these, including providing training on M&E, ensuring that M&E matrices are being accurately filled out in a timely manner, and that M&E is used to inform future project priorities.

Together with the rest of the SMT, ensuring a good work environment and taking active steps to ensure staff welfare and ensure that all teams are working towards common goals. This will include building strong professional relationship, having good visibility of issues in teams through regular check-ins, as well as maintaining a professional, respectful, and supportive tone in the office.

2. Grants development, management, and oversight

· Under the supervision of the Country Coordinator and with support from Research Managers and project focal points, oversee and manage the development of proposals.

· In coordination with the Country Coordinator, maintain REACH South Sudan’s strong relationships with its existing donors through regular meetings to brief on project progress, key developments in the South Sudanese context and coordination structure, findings from assessments, concerns with regards to information gaps, as well as development of new grants as needed.

· Together with the Country Coordinator, develop REACH South Sudan’s project development strategy, including exploring partnerships with new donors, mapping potential donors, and conducting prospect research.

· Lead on all donor reporting in coordination with the Research Managers, including tracking of deadlines, delegation and follow-up of tasks to Research Managers, review, and in some cases drafting of reports.

· In coordination with the Research Managers, ensure that IMPACT M&E processes are followed and that findings are reported accurately.

· In coordination with the PDIO, develop systematic procedures for tracking lessons-learned, win/lose rate etc., to professionalize REACH’s engagement with donors, particularly in relation to development actors;

· Lead on building systems to externalise institutional knowledge, to ensure lessons-learned are not lost with staff turnover.

3. Operational oversight (financial, logistical, staff capacity, team structure)

· With guidance from the Country Coordinator, support the REACH Finance/Admin Manager with budget follow-up, including through forecasting expenses, tracking expenditure, and adjusting allocations together with project focal points and Research Managers.

· Follow established processes to manage operational spending, particularly international and national staff allocation tables. This will include reviewing and improvising existing processes and also identifying opportunities for strategic expansion of coverage.

· Support with training project focal points how to conduct expense forecasting and to engage in budget follow up.

· Together with the Operations Support Manager, regularly liaise on FLATS issues with each of REACH’s 16 field bases across South Sudan to ensure that finance, logistics, administrative, and HR processes are in place, particularly in line with security protocols.

· Together with the FLATs team, ensure logistics, financial, administration, security, and HR processes have been appropriately implemented and coordinated with the relevant ACTED departments.

4. Human Resource Management (recruitment and staff welfare)

· Together with the Country Coordinator, identify needs for staff recruitment, including capacity or skills gaps within the units.

· Drafting of ToRs together with the SMT, liaison with HR at IMPACT Headquarters, conducting interviews, or supporting Research Managers to conduct strong interviews.

· Together with the Country Coordinator, ensure that appraisals, contract renewals, and recruitments are done in timely manner to minimise gaps on the team.

· Together with the Country Coordinator, maintain team morale, a strong team spirit, and monitor staff welfare, as well as help ensure team cohesion between Juba, field bases, and within and across units.

5. External engagement (donor engagement, external representation, advocacy, partnership development and maintenance)

· Under the supervision of the Country Coordinator, ensure that REACH South Sudan maintains its strong relationships and position as a key information actor in the response through regular engagement with representatives within the humanitarian coordination structure, UN agencies, key NGO forums, and other IM actors.

· Together with the Country Coordinator and project focal points when relevant, identify, develop and maintain partnerships with relevant actors, such as other IM actors, clusters/working groups, NGOs, and representatives of relevant NGO forums.

· Support the Country Coordinator in REACH South Sudan advocacy work; largely revolving around raising awareness of key findings with regards to the humanitarian situation in South Sudan and situating these within wider conversations in the response, in order to ensure that key findings are heard and used to inform response strategies and implementation, and that the response is based on reliable information.

· Represent REACH and present findings at relevant key platforms/meetings.

6. Support in the development and implementation of the REACH South Sudan Strategy

· Closely follow the social, economic, and political situation in South Sudan as well as humanitarian coordination developments and key issues in the humanitarian response.

· Together with the rest of the SMT, support the Country Coordinator through regularly review of REACH information products for relevance, user-friendliness, effectiveness, timeliness and to ensure that they sufficiently inform the target audience.

· Together with the rest of the SMT, support the Country Coordinator in strategy development and implementation through conversations with external actors, context monitoring, and conversations with project focal points.

· Together with the Country Coordinator, ensure that project focal points are trained and able to situate their projects within the wider context and support them in thinking strategically about their project.

REQUIREMENTS

· Excellent academic qualifications, including a Master’s degree in relevant discipline required;

· At least 4 years of relevant working experience in humanitarian, development or related settings, including at least 2 years in a programme management role;

· Excellent team management, coordination, organisational and planning skills required, including ability to manage large workloads, oversee multiple teams and effectively meet deadlines, through an excellent ability to multi-task and prioritise;

· Experience with external engagement (donors, partners and other key stakeholders) required;

· Familiarity with the humanitarian coordination system required;

· Understanding of processes involved in conducting assessments required;

· Excellent communication and drafting skills required for effective reporting;

· Excellent analytical skills required;

· Experience managing multiple budgets an asset;

· Ability to work independently and manage people remotely required;

· Demonstrable ability to work under pressure and meet competing deadlines required;

· Solution-oriented, flexible, and open-minded, including ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment required;

· Good understanding of the South Sudanese context – past experience in the region is desirable;

· Fluency in English required;

· Ability to operate Microsoft Word and Excel required;

· A sense of curiosity, the drive to improve the humanitarian sector, and ability to see the big picture

· A sense of humour with bugs and bucket showers required!

CONDITIONS

• Salary defined by the IMPACT salary grid; educational level, expertise, hardship, security, and performance are considered for pay bonus
• Additional monthly living allowance
• Lodging provided at the organisation’s guesthouse/or housing allowance (depending on contract length and country of assignment)
• Transportation costs covered, including additional return ticket + luggage allowance
• Provision of medical, life, and repatriation insurance + retirement package