Regional Emergency Manager – East and Southern Africa

Team / Programme: East and Southern Africa Regional Team

Location: Nairobi, with frequent regional travel (40%)

Grade: International 2.1 or equivalent national post under Kenya programme pay scale
Child Safeguarding Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people

Role Purpose:

As a key member of the Regional Team, you will provide leadership around emergency preparedness and response across the region.

Working with country management teams and regional managers you will build capacity and provide support to ensure appropriate response by Save the Children to chronic, complex and rapid onset emergencies across the region.

You will ensure and enable that Country Offices in the East and Southern Africa Region:

• Meet minimum operating standards for emergency preparedness
• Build emergency capacity within their country teams around emergency preparedness and response
• Respond effectively and efficiently to emergencies
• Access emergency surge capacity and management expertise from Members and other Country Offices

You will support and enable the East and Southern Africa Regional Office to:

• Meet back office requirements for all emergencies
• Maintain appropriate regional emergency preparedness
• Engage with regional emergency partners

Scope of Role:

Reports to: Regional Programme Manager.

Dimensions: Supporting Save the Children members across 15 country programmes in the East and Southern Africa Region, with a current staff complement of approximately 4,500 staff and current expenditure of approximately $350 million each year.

Staff directly reporting to this post: Direct or indirect management of Humanitarian Leadership Development Programme (HLDP/CBHA) – Programme Manager and Programme Assistant (TBA).

Key Areas Of Accountability:

Emergency Preparedness institutionalised across the ESA region and capacity of the regional management team and other Alliance members to respond effectively to emergencies enhanced

• Ensuring COs meet emergency preparedness MOS, including coordinating emergency preparedness planning.
• Training, coaching and supporting country programme and regional managers regarding their roles in emergency preparedness and response.

Support the Regional Director and Country Management Teams in maintaining an overview of humanitarian response within the region,

• Managing the SC early warning system in the region, monitoring triggers and trends and enabling appropriate decision-making and response at CO and RO level
• Assessing progress and results of work in the region regarding ongoing response to complex, chronic emergencies, any new rapid onset emergencies.
• Support emergency response through advisory capacity, programme visits and secondment.
• Support proposal and funding applications in ESA emergencies (including cost recovery of REM role)
• Participate in development and review of emergency response strategies – with links to the emergency preparedness plans.
• Promoting the sharing of programme best practice and use of evidence amongst country programmes within the region, with other Alliance members in the region, and the region’s contribution to global sharing of best practice.
• Maintain active contact with the appropriate people from other Save the Children members who are responsible for emergency response in the region, ensuring a coordinated response to any emergency.
• Representing our work to relevant humanitarian regional bodies and forums (including RHPT and IAWG), including donors, and identifying changes to their policies and priorities that may create opportunities and threats to our funding.

Supporting Fragile States Initiative (particularly South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Zimbabwe)

• Working with the Fragile States team to lead or facilitate humanitarian profiling missions, operational reviews and lessons learnt exercises, contributing to the incorporation of recommendations

Enhance regional communications and information on Emergencies

• Coordinate the publication of quarterly ESA Regional Emergencies Updates and attend internal and external regional meetings

Provide support to the Regional Humanitarian Leadership Development Programme (HLDP) and other emergency capacity building initiative (e.g. ECB Project)

• Direct or indirect management of the HLDP team

Supporting the Education Cluster leadership in the ESA region.

• Work with Global Education Cluster Unit, Save the Children Head Office, Country Programmes and UNICEF to ensure cluster leadership is in place across the regional and capacity is built within country programme and partners around education in emergencies.

Disaster Risk Reduction mainstreamed throughout country programmes

• Work with Save the Children DRR Global Working Group to support Country Programmes to grow, streamline and integrate disaster risk reduction programmes into country office programme portfolio.

Provide inputs to country, regional and global advocacy initiatives relating to children affected by emergencies from across the region.

• Play active role as a member of the Africa Advocacy Initiative – Technical Advisory Team

Human Resources

• Work with regional resourcing team to provide support to country programmes in recruitment, retention and succession planning
• Liaise with head office emergency advisors from across Save the Children members and ACE Initiative

Other support to the regional team

• Stay abreast of developments within Save the Children International and roll-out of international programming unit, with regard to emergency preparedness and response.
• Develop closer links between EPP, DRR, Emergency Response and operational capacity building initiatives across Save the Children International and Save the Children members.
• Engage in regional planning meetings

Promote and monitor understanding and compliance with key standards within the country programmes in the region, including:

• Save the Children child protection policies and standards during humanitarian response
• Save the Children staff security policies and standards
• Minimum standards for logistics, procurement and asset management.
• Minimum standards for emergency preparedness.
• Minimum standards in emergency response.

Skills and Behaviours (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale

Collaboration:

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to;
• Builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence
• displays consistent excellent judgement

Qualifications and Experience

• Significant emergency management track record including field operations experience in a senior position in both complex and rapid onset emergencies
• Substantial knowledge of international humanitarian systems, institutions and donors, and of procedures, accountability frameworks and best practices in emergency management
• Robust experience of NGO emergency programme cycle management, and with experience of working within a complex and matrix organisation structure
• Solid experience of emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction frameworks and approaches
• Solid project management skills related to organisational development projects and international, cross-functional teams with a proven history of delivering results.
• Excellent training, facilitation, and team building skills.
• Cultural sensitivity, with highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching.
• Experience of building, advising and developing colleagues and staff with different backgrounds and expertise.
• Experience of building personal networks at senior levels, resulting in securing significant new opportunities for the organisation.
• Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in.
• Commitment to Save the Children values.
• Ability and willingness to change work practices and hours in the event of major emergencies
• Willingness to travel at short notice and for extended periods of time

Deadline: May 1st 2011

Interested candidates may apply through the international jobs site http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/jobs.htm

Job Reference 6327