Area Manager, Romania

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading protection agency with a mandate is to promote and protect durable solutions to conflict and displacement affected populations on the basis of humanitarian principles and human rights.DRC is implementing a multi-sector response to support Ukraine refugees, IDPs and host populations both within Ukraine and in the neighboring countries of Poland, Romania and Moldova and wider Europe.

Due to the ongoing conflict that began in Feb 22, Ukraine is experiencing one of the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. Currently, there is an estimated 6.3 million displaced people who have crossed international border, with over a million Ukrainians crossing into Romania to date and with between 70 to 90,000 remaining in Romania.

DRC Romania will respond in three pillars:

Establish partnerships agreements with national NGOs engaged in the response and enhance their coverage

Provide technical support to partners, the wider civil society, and state actors engaged in the response

Implementation of humanitarian interventions in various sectors (Protection, Mine Risk Education and Site Management Support).

About the Job

Overall purpose of the role: The Area Manager’s prime objectives will be to provide leadership and management with a view to position DRC as the leading INGO in Romania on protection of displaced populations and people on the move, as well as the promotion of durable solutions, both directly and through partnership with CSO and national NGOs in Romania. Oversee the strengthening of DRC’s programme development, quality and accountability framework and to be a proactive partner in the wider Europe regional strategic and programme development processes,

Program Management

• Overall responsibility for the design, implementation and effective monitoring of projects and activities with refugees and host communities.
• Liaise with the DRC partners and monitor the implementation of the DRC funded project activities
• Overall responsibility for the financial viability of the operation
• Ensure effective monitoring, evaluation and documentation of all activities and processes, and that the analysis of data collected (at various levels) is proactively used to inform activity changes to improve program quality.
• Ensure the development and implementation of all activities in line with Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) and DRC program policies especially gender, age, ethnic background, and disability.
• Seek funding opportunities to scale up and/or expand activities working closely with the protection, CD, Regional Head of Program and relevant technical specialists. This includes identifying and undertaking assessments as well as writing concept notes and proposals.
• Closely coordinate with the senior management team ensuring regular information flows
• Conduct regular monitoring visits to all field offices.

Technical Program

• Engage strategically with all technical sectors and provide management and strategic input/oversight for all sectors of intervention.
• To facilitate linkages and support with the DRC Country Office in Ukraine, Poland and Romania and the Regional Office in Europe.
• Oversee and provide strategic support to protection and programme teams

Representation and Relations

• Represent DRC with the regional/local governments, state and municipality stakeholders, institutional donors, UN bodies and non-government organizations as required and in relevant for a related to the coordination of the Polish response
• Represent DRC in the coordination of the response and keep the Country team updated
• Ensure appropriate DRC staff members attend the ad hoc and regular coordination meetings, clusters, technical working groups as applicable to DRCs program and work in the country.
• Engage with all relevant stakeholders regularly, including local/refugee leadership, local/regional governmental bodies, donors, and partners.
• Ensure accurate and on time reporting internally and externally, including contributing to external donor reports and required reporting to government of Romania as required.

Team Management

• Manage DRC Romania’s office in Bucharest, as well as all field offices in other areas of Romania
• Lead regular staff and management meetings at Romania level and ensuring inter-department co-ordination
• Manage direct reports to agreed job priorities and identify learning and development needs for program and support staff, under your direct and indirect supervision. Bring human resource/staff management issues to the Country Director for decisions.
• Ensure that DRCs code of conduct, reporting mechanism and complaint response mechanisms are well understood by staff and other stakeholders and are well functioning at the field level.
• With team leaders, coordinators, and officers to manage budgets; ensuring effective,efficient use of resources including financial, human and all assets.
• Ensure that program teams work closely with the support team to apply DRC policies and procedures in finance, procurement and logistics including effective planning weekly, monthly and quarterly.
• Ensure overall dissemination of and adherence to DRC policies, procedures, guidelines, systems and standard practices
• Provide leadership in overseeing supply chain, finance and administration and office services activities and ensure their timely/efficient delivering. Ensure processes are harmonized across all offices in the Country and base/satellite offices receive adequate and timely support.
• Overall responsibility for security in and around Romania including ensuring adherence to agreed security protocols, recommending changes to security protocols and delivering the agreed security action plan.
• Conduct any other activities as requested by the Country Director

Analysis and Reporting

• Update the program progress and ensure timely reporting from managers and senior staff in the Area Office.
• Provide updates to DRC Europe Region on the humanitarian situation and the collective response

About You

To be successful in this role we expect you to possess the following:

• Minimum 5 years’ relevant experience in planning, implementation, and monitoring of activities and projects according to internal and national guidelines, agreements and international standards
• A University level degree in relevant subject or relevant technical qualification
• Demonstrated, strong experience in team management and capacity building and training of staff and target groups
• Proven experience working in complex emergency contexts, including provision of technical advice to field teams and programme development
• Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organise a substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities and to delegate
• Excellent communication skills in English, including ability to present complex technical information in a simple way
• Ability to understand and integrate protection issues
• Detailed knowledge of humanitarian principles, guidelines and standards
• English – Fluent
• Romanian language skill is an advantage

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies:

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

Demonstrating integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We Offer

Contract length: 12 Months

Band: E

Designation of Duty Station: Family – non-accompanied

Start date: 15 December 2022

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s National Staff salary scale. For questions regarding the vacancy please contact Ana Povrzenic at [email protected]