Humanitarian Director – Middle East, North Africa, & Eastern Europe (MENAEE)

Humanitarian Director – Middle East, North Africa, & Eastern Europe (MENAEE)

The Opportunity

In the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe (MENAEE) Region, Save the Children currently operates a significant portfolio of programmes across. It has a workforce of over 2,000 staff and annual expenditure for 2022 is expected to be in excess of $ 330 million. A large portion of these programmes consist of responses to large humanitarian emergencies (Yemen, Ukraine and Syria). We also work in countries with chronic humanitarian situations (Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq) as well as regular, smaller emergencies (Bosnia Herzegovina, Greece, and the refugee and migration influx into Turkey and Europe).

The regional humanitarian team exists to support Country Offices (COs) and humanitarian responses in the MENAEE region; working with CO Senior Management Teams and Response Leads to ensure our work for children is delivered on time, on budget with compliance and to a high level of quality. The team leads a variety of processes and procedures (many mandatory within Save the Children) such as emergency preparedness and planning, first line coordination response to shocks, spikes and major sudden-onset crises, support for risk management in humanitarian responses as needed, and improving ongoing programme delivery. The Humanitarian Team also houses the MENAEE Context Analysis function that works closely with COs to conduct regular external forward looking context analysis as key component of both Emergency Preparedness and broader emerging work on Anticipatory Action. Finally, the Humanitarian Team is serving as the incubator for SCI’s exciting new digital cash and protection initiative – Universal Cash Assistance Network (UCAN).

The MENAEE Humanitarian Team, under the leadership of the Humanitarian Director, exists to serve a designated portfolio of COs and their respective humanitarian responses, through all major phases and aspects of humanitarian response. This includes for rapid onset response and those of a more protracted and chronic nature. From a Humanitarian Response perspective, the underlying purpose of this role is to ensure emergency responses have a single lead ‘focal function’ in the Regional Office, to ensure countries have effective processes in place to monitor their contexts, and that preparedness steps are completed in a timely and meaningful manner.

Across all of this, the purpose of the Humanitarian Team is to enable the MENAEE RO to actively capture learning and best-practice between countries and responses in the MENAEE region and beyond and to share this with country offices. This requires engagement in regional and global fora, as well as external representation with UN agencies and other INGOs.

In order to be successful you will bring/have:

• A postgraduate degree in an appropriate technical field or relevant practical experience.
• Substantial senior-level field experience in the humanitarian aid and development sector working in a senior humanitarian operations role (Director level) in at least 2 different contexts.
• Strong understanding of humanitarian context and application of humanitarian principles.
• Thorough understating of emergency response sector and processes to achieve the result effectively.
• Strong interpersonal skills to develop and maintain collaborative relations at all levels of management / leadership, must be capable of summarising and communicating complex information and data.
• Effective leadership skills to support the Country and Regional senior management teams.
• In depth understanding of how to operate safely and securely in humanitarian response.
• Skills to manage and operate in a pressured and changing environment.
• Excellent English language skills, and Arabic language preferred (but not essential).
• Ability to be flexible and to travel around the region, as and when necessary (up to 50% travel).
• Commitment to Save the Children’s vision, mission, and values.

We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector. This role is offered on the basis of national terms and conditions only.

A copy of the full role profile can be found at Humanitarian Director – MENAEE

The Organisation

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information:

Interested candidates are requested to apply through the following link: Humanitarian Director – MENAEE

Save the Children is a global humanitarian organization committed to diversity and inclusion, working towards empowering and protecting children worldwide and in the countries where it operates. Save the Children highly encourages and welcomes receiving applications from qualified candidates regardless of their diverse gender, orientation, disability, marital status, race, colour, ethnic origins, religion and beliefs. Save the Children has a global policy on anti-harassment as well as zero tolerance for discrimination, bullying, sexual exploitation and abuse. All applications will be looked at and treated with the strictest confidentiality and transparency regardless of the diversity of candidates.

Please note that only applications received through the above link will be accepted and applications received by emails will not be considered.

Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.