Project Administrator– South West Project Cameroon – M/F At ALIMA

ALIMA, the international medical NGO with a human face, which places the co-construction of projects and career paths at the heart of its model

THE ALIMA ASSOCIATION

ALIMA’S ETHOS: ALIMA’s purpose is to save lives and provide care for the most vulnerable populations, without any discrimination based on identity, religion or politics, through actions based on proximity, innovation, and the alliance of organizations and individuals. We act with humanity and impartiality in accordance with universal medical ethics. To gain access to patients, we undertake to act in a neutral and independent manner.

Our CHARTER defines the VALUES and PRINCIPLES of our action:

1. Putting the Patient First
2. Revolutionizing humanitarian medicine
3. Responsibility and freedom
4. Improving the quality of our Actions
5. Placing Trust
6. Collective Intelligence
7. Environmental Responsibility

ALIMA promotes and defends the principles of fundamental human rights. ALIMA has a zero-tolerance approach to those guilty of acts of gender-based and sexual violence as well as to inaction in the face of alleged or proven acts of violence. Protecting the people who benefit and are impacted by our intervention is our top priority in everything we do. Anyone working with ALIMA is committed to :

• Respect the charter, the code of conduct, institutional policies including the policy of protection against abuses of power and gender-based and sexual violence, the policy of preventing corruption and fraud ;
• Report any violations to policies, framework documents and proceedings to a superior, referral

CARING – INNOVATING – TOGETHER:

Since its creation in 2009, ALIMA has treated more than 6 million patients. Today ALIMA works in 12 countries in Western and Central Africa. In 2020, we developed 41 humanitarian medical response projects to meet the needs of populations affected by conflict, epidemics and extreme poverty. All of these projects support national health authorities through nearly 330 health structures (including 28 hospitals and 300 health centers). We work in partnership, especially with local NGOs, whenever possible to ensure that our patients benefit from the expertise wherever it is, whether in their country or the rest of the world. In addition, to improve the humanitarian response, we are carrying out operational and clinical research projects, particularly in the field of the fight against malnutrition and hemorrhagic viral fevers. ALIMA is also leading operations in response to the covid-19 pandemic across all of our missions.

ALIMA’S TEAM: More than 2000 people currently work for ALIMA. The field teams, as close as possible to the patients, receive their support from the coordination teams generally based in the capitals of the countries of intervention. These receive support from the 4 desk teams and the emergency and opening service team based at the operational headquarters in Dakar, Senegal. The Paris and New York teams are actively working on fundraising as well as representing ALIMA. The rest of the ALIMA Galaxy includes individuals and partner teams who work on behalf of other organizations such as medical NGOs BEFEN, ALERTE Santé, SOS Médecins / KEOOGO, AMCP, research organizations PACCI, INSERM, Universities of Bordeaux or Copenhagen, the NGO Solidarités International and many others.

COUNTRIES WHERE WE WORK IN 2020: Mali, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Guinea, South Sudan, Mauritania & Senegal.

THE WORK WE DO covers: Primary and Secondary Health Care, with a main focus on children and women – including treatment and prevention of acute malnutrition, maternal health, mental health, response to epidemics (Ebola, Cholera, Measles, Dengue, Lassa Fever), surgery, displaced populations, and gender-based violence, Covid 19.

GOVERNANCE: ALIMA is governed by a Board of Directors of 10 elected positions and 4 co-opted positions from representatives of West African partner NGOs.

POST LOCATION

Cameroon is facing a complex emergency situation in the North West and the South West Regions of the country. The crisis has led to significant displacement of the population. It is estimated that the majority of the displaced are from the North West region. The affected population have a challenge in accessing humanitarian intervention notably health and nutrition amongst other needs.

PROTECTION OF BENEFICIARIES AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS

Level 3: As part of his/her duties, the incumbent will visit programs and come into contact with children and/or vulnerable adults. Therefore, a criminal record check or a certificate of good character will be required. In situations where a criminal record or character reference is not available, a statement of good character will be required.

CONTEXT

SECURITY & HUMANITARIAN CONTEXT

Four years after the unilateral declaration of independence pronounced by Cameroonian separatists, the anglophone crisis in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions (NWSW) is experiencing volatile and unpredictable dynamics.

Since the outbreak of the conflict in October 2017, the attacks against the governmental forces have multiplied and have become also more and more complex. This has been highlighted by the strategies and means used by the belligerents (more elaborated IED, RPG, among others). Furthermore, there has been a gradual fragmentation of the security landscape, leading to more and more clashes between the different factions of the separatist groups.

As for the Lebialem Division, which is located in the Southwest region, it is controlled by a single group, the Red Dragons of Lebialem. If we look at the security incidents reported by INSO from January 14 to March 24, 2022, out of 275 incidents reported in the two English-speaking regions, there were 78 reported in the Southwest (28.4%), of which only one was in the Lebialem Division (0.4%). ALIMA and DEMTOU Humanitaire believe that the NSAG’s control of the area, which led to the exodus of a large number of State representatives, could justify this relatively low number of security incidents.

Since 2017, the crisis affecting the NWSW regions of Cameroon has significantly disrupted the health system in these regions. The crisis has impacted basic social services including health and education

Overall, access to beneficiaries remains very limited in the Southwest region, and in the Lebialem Division more particularly, due to high insecurity, recurrent lockdowns, ghost towns and to the closure of certain roads for both short and long periods of time. Besides, humanitarian workers and humanitarian activities as well as basic infrastructure (such as schools and health centers) have become targets for the NSAG’s attacks. Nonetheless, given the fact that the Lebialem Division is currently under the control of only the Red Dragons of Lebialem, negotiations for humanitarian access might be easier to maintain than in other divisions of the SW, where several armed groups are operating.

In the North West (NW), ALIMA intends to implement a project with two interventions:

• a short-term emergency intervention and a COVID 19 response and mitigation. Whereas the exploratory mission will help the organization understand the exact medical needs of the population on the ground,
• the second one will aim at strengthening strategies in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The activities in the NW shall include training of health care workers as well as mitigating the affected population’s access to primary health care, obstetric & gynaecological, paediatrics and nutritional interventions. The project targets Internally Displaced Persons, the host community and other population at risk.

POST TYPOLOGY

Mission Location:

• Project Administrator – Mission Location: Cameroon, South West
• Project: South West

Management lines:

• Line Manager:
  • • Project Coordinator
• Line Management
  • • Finance and HR Coordinator

MISSION AND MAIN ACTIVITIES

The main function of the Project Administrator is to put in place the component parts of the resource management system.

He/she is responsible for managing the staff administration (contracts, employees’ files, work attendance, payroll), controlling spending commitments against the procedures of the association, monitoring the financial means raised for the project (expenditure monitoring, accounting, budget monitoring and review, follow-up of tables of allocations per donor), as well as implementing financial and HR management tools.

The project Administrator reports directly to the Project Coordinator, and to the administrative team in the Coordination (technical referents: HRCO and FINCO).

He/She supervises an administrative assistant.

Under his/her various areas of responsibility, the Project Administrator will be in charge of ensuring:

• Compliance with the ALIMA rules and procedures applicable to the country,
• Smooth functional organization of the project resources,
• Monitoring of the use of the resources (expenditure and spending commitments),
• Adequacy in terms of number, skills and allocation of human and administrative resources.

Major Responsibilities:

• Advise the Project Coordinator on set up (org chart) and together with the HRCO, update the project’s organizational chart and job descriptions
• In close coordination with the Project Coordinator, the HRCO and the FINCO, calculate the HR operational needs and the associated budget in order to efficiently ensure the required sizing and capabilities of the mission and to facilitate budget following-up.
• Ensure hiring, carry out amendments and contract termination formalities for employees at project level, according to labour local laws, archiving and updating individual employee files, informing them on their rights and preparing all mandatory tax declarations, in order to ensure legal compliance;
• Assist the Project Coordinator, and/or team leaders and supervisors to draw up annual holiday planning and staff shifts in order to forecast HR needs and to ensure HR availability for the project activities;
• Supervise/perform payroll procedures, ensuring that all data related to monthly salary calculation of national employees of the project are correctly entered in Homere (days off, unpaid leaves, sick leaves, overtime, salary advance, etc.), in order to ensure on time and accurate salary payments;
• Under supervision of the HRCO, ensure indexation process of national staff salary grids in order to ensure internal equity, cost-of-living adjustments and the correct application of employment conditions in the project sites;
• Support, in close coordination with the HRCO an PC, the project line managers in detecting training needs, in properly evaluating people performance and in potential identification, in order to improve people capabilities, and their end results contribution to mission goals;
• Plan and supervise, in close coordination with the HRCO, the associated processes (recruitment, training/induction, evaluation, potential detection, development and communication) of the staff under his/her responsibility in order to ensure both the sizing and the amount of knowledge required;
• Together with the Project Coordinator, support the line managers in implementing the internal communication policies in order to boost staff active participation and ALIMA commitment;
• In close collaboration with the Project Coordinator and the HRCO, applies the administrative procedures part of any Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in force between local partners (e.g. Ministry of Health, etc.) and ALIMA;
• In close collaboration with the Project Coordinator and HRCO, looks for the best options to avoid and/or solve possible labor conflicts in the project;
• Follow up all movements and/or accommodation of staff in the Project;
• Implement circuits and workflows (management of cash boxes, transfers, advances, purchase procedures, payment validations, follow up of regular payments, bank conciliation) in order to anticipate expenses at project level and to optimize cash needs and its security;
• Implement and supervise transactional procedures and systems in order to ensure transparent accounting practices and full documentary traceability (invoices, receipts, bank statements, etc.), following ALIMA guidelines and rules, and using the respective software in place;
• Ensure that monthly accountancy closure is taking place and controlled, with due quality and on due time;
• In close collaboration with the Project Coordinator and the FINCO, analyze and follow up the project budget, in order to ensure that funds are used according to funding contracts and to proposing corrective action;
• Ensure all HR, Administrative and Financial reporting of the Project (Homère and SAGA monthly closure, sitreps, etc.
• Implementation of preventive measures against abuse of power, gender-based and sexual violence:
• Participate in training and awareness sessions
• Apply standards relating to the prevention of abuse
• Ensure that his team members follow training and awareness sessions and apply standards relating to the prevention of abuse
• Contribute to create and maintain a fulfilling and protective environment.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Experience

• University degree in finance, administration, and human resources
• Minimum 2-year experience in Finance & HR management (project with about 250 staff)
• Experience with medical international NGO, an asset
• Perfect knowledge of MS Office package, especially Excel & Word
• Knowledge of Saga (Finance software) & Homère (HR software) is an asset

Behavioral Skills

• Strong interpersonal skills, team work.
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to work on own initiative and adaptable to changing needs and situations
• Flexible, patient and adaptable to a changing environment.
• Ability to work under pressure with numerous deadlines, etc.

Language Skills

• Fluency in English. Speaking French is an asset.

TERMS

• Duration and type of contract: Short term contract, 6 month

• Starting position: ASAP

• Salary: According to ALIMA salary grid + valuation of experience + Per diem

ALIMA supports:

• Travel costs between the country of origin of the expatriate and the place of mission

• Accommodation costs

• Medical coverage from the first day of contract to one month after the date of departure from the country of Mission for the employee and their dependents

• Evacuation for the employee and their dependents