Health and Protection Program Manager Iraq

The “Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland (ASB)” is a German aid and welfare organisation with more than 300 branches at national, regional, district and municipal level all over Germany.

More than 1.4 million members provide a broad social basis for our organization and more than 40,000 employees as well as over 20,000 volunteers form part of the ASB ensuring a high level of quality in areas such as rescue services, civil protection and social services. Since its foundation in 1888, the ASB has acted as a politically and denominationally independent association ensuring a high level of continuity and reliability. ASB Foreign Aid Department provides both direct emergency relief to people hit by man-made or natural disasters and longer-term rehabilitation measures designed to promote recovery and to rapidly help restore the livelihood of refugees, internally displaced persons and other vulnerable people. ASB currently has a portfolio of more than 100 relief, rehabilitation, development and inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction projects and runs offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Kosovo, Nicaragua, Niger, Serbia and Ukraine.

Operational in Iraq since 2012, and with its own office structures since 2014, ASB has been committed to support refugees, IDPs and host communities in the sectors Health, WASH, Livelihoods, Education and Protection. ASB in Iraq is currently seeking expressions of interest from qualified and committed, dynamic and self-motivated individuals for the position of Health and Protection Program Manager, Iraq.

1. Purpose:

The Health and Protection Program Manager will be in charge of the overall leadership and strategic development of the ASB Health and Protection Programs in Iraq in coordination with the Country Representative. This includes the oversight, overall management and budget monitoring of the health, protection and related operations as well as hands-on implementation of program activities. Furthermore liaison with the relevant stakeholders including DoHs, NGOs, MoH and representation of ASB at relevant meetings, taking the lead in defining ASB’s health sector strategy in Iraq in the coming years and searching for funding to drive the strategy. He/she will report to the ASB Iraq’s Country Representative and work closely with the Finance/ Admin Manager and M+E Manager.

2. Responsibilities:

• Manage the implementation of the health, protection and other related projects, including supervising and monitoring the projects and programs implemented through partners;
• Ensure, in close consultation with the Project Support Team, the effective application of PCM tools, elaboration of coherent work plans and budgets, project and program documents, preparation of compelling proposals, to monitor the project work plans, project effectiveness and achievement of results;
• Ensure adequate and timely reporting against plans in consultation with CR providing timely and articulate progress reports and inputs to the Strategic Results Framework and Results Oriented Annual Report;
• Establish and/or foster communication and coordination mechanisms and procedures amongst the various stakeholders and implementing partners;
• Ensure that MEAL tools are systematically implemented and used by project staff and partners;
• Support baseline surveys, regular monitoring, review and evaluation, in cooperation with the partners and CR;
• Ensure the achievement of outputs are in line with the approved work plan through the day-to-day planning, management coordination and implementation of activities;
• Financial Oversight: supervision and control of financial expenditures and oversight of financial management systems related to the programmatic aspects of the health portfolio to ensure full-compliance with both ASB and donor financial policies, procedures and practices in close cooperation with Admin/Finance;
• Ensure that cross-cutting themes such as WASH, child protection, gender, inclusion and DRR are effectively integrated throughout implementation;
• Timely development and submission of required project documentation according to ASB and donor regulations including project case studies, proposals, assessments and evaluations, inception reports, work plans, regular donor progress and impact reports, interim and final project reporting;
• Manage and monitor identified project risks and update the status of these risks and keep the CR abreast of emerging project issues;
• Foster an integrated approach by coordinating and cooperating with all other thematic areas during program implementation and for future program design and development;
• Liaise continually with and establish close linkages with other programs, agencies and entities, and other international and national stakeholders concerned with or providing assistance in the fields of health and protection to Iraq;
• Maintaining existing, as well as building new health partnerships and alliances;
• Strict and consistent application of ASB rules and regulations and ensuring the implementation of clear accountability mechanisms throughout the program portfolio;
• Support capacity-building of national counterparts and partner organizations, ensuring partner organizations are active members/ participants in the project cycle and support their operations and implementation of the grant;
• Taking the lead in recruitment, contracting and management of national staff as well as contractors involved in the implementation of the program in accordance with standing criteria and procedures in close coordination with the CR.

3. Required Qualifications:

• Degree in health (medical or nursing) and/or advanced degree in public health, health administration, international health or a related field.
• Minimum 3 years’ experience successfully supporting the implementation of large, multi-year emergency and developmental health sector projects. Programmatic experience in primary health care.
• Demonstrated evidence of experience and knowledge in establishing systems, implementing project start-up and using project management tools.
• Excellent diplomacy skills and a proven ability to establish and sustain interpersonal and professional relationships with host-country counterparts and representatives from other key stakeholders such as NGOs, the private sector and international donors.
• Have excellent written and verbal skills in English as well as Arabic skills, with proven ability to adjust to different contexts from a local, rural level to higher-level political stakeholder discussions.
• In-depth knowledge of donor regulations, compliance and reporting (preferably WHO, UNICEF, AA, BMZ, IHPF, EU etc).
• Experience developing sectoral strategic plans.
• Proven understanding of key monitoring and evaluation principles and the ability to analyse and utilize data to direct project activities and track project progress.
• Experience managing a budget.

4. Desired:

• Understanding of the social and political context within the Republic of Iraq including previous experience working in the country. Established relationships with government agencies, key health personnel, and health partners.
• Appreciation for socio-cultural differences in countries, preferably having lived and worked in one or more low resource settings.
• Awareness of, sensitivity to, and experience working in multiple socio-economic settings and with multi-cultural staff and groups.
• Impartial and objective approach towards working in a sensitive environment with many conflicts of interests between different identity groups and the capacity to intervene as an independent stakeholder.
• Team player, willingness to coordinate and collaborate with all members of the ASB team and the overall project teams including partners, horizontally (between colleagues of the same level) as well as vertically.
• High motivation to contribute to ASB programing and to achieve high quality impacts under tight timelines
• Being able to innovate and conceptualize new project activities in a creative way.
• Willingness to contribute to a fast-paced team and being flexible to ever-changing contextual implementation context and the associated challenges.
• Willingness to travel and readiness to work and live under challenging circumstances.

5. Conditions:

Start date: February 2023

Duration of contract: 12 months

Duty Station: Dohuk with extensive travel to project sites and offices in Iraq (Baghdad, Salah ad-Din, Krikuk, Ninewa, Anbar, and any new project area)

Salary: ASB offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience