Department: Global Impact, Inclusive Humanitarian Action team

Contract: Full-time, fixed term contract for 12 months

Grade: UK Grade E

Work location: Homebased, with travel

Candidate location: Middle East – Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, OPT

HelpAge and Strategy 2030 – delivering real impact for older people

HelpAge International works with partners and a diverse global network of more than 170 organizations across 90 countries, supporting millions of older people to live safe, dignified, and healthy lives. Through our partnership and collaborations, we work to ensure the inclusion of older people across society and strive to deliver a just and fair world for everyone, whatever their age. Our work is driven by our desire to deliver real impact for older people, to be inclusive, to work in partnership and to learn from our shared experience.

Our 2030 strategy Ageing in a Just World sets out how we will work together to shape the future we all share. By ensuring that all our work promotes wellbeing, dignity and voice, we can be a positive influence in the lives of current and future older people.

In line with our strategy and our commitment to the localisation agenda, HelpAge is working towards localising country offices and programmes with support from agile global technical teams. Going forward, our value is framed around supporting, convening, and thought leadership.

In humanitarian crises, older people may be especially vulnerable to the effects of violent conflicts, natural disasters, and mass displacement. HelpAge International works to address their needs and encourage others to include them in tailored life-saving assistance. And while older people may have special needs in humanitarian emergencies, they also often play important roles in their families and communities in crisis situations: in income generation, for instance, and in family care, and with their experience and knowledge of their cultural history, in social and community cohesion. HelpAge, with and through local partners, seeks to ensure that older people are fully included in the delivery of humanitarian assistance – as people with needs, and as people who count, have rights, and who play an important role in times of crisis.

About the Portfolio / Department

HelpAge’s global humanitarian work is led and supported by the Humanitarian Portfolio (team) which sits within HelpAge’s global team. The team works remotely, and currently comprises eight geographically focused Humanitarian Programme Managers (HPMs), 1.5 Portfolio Support Officers and seven Advisers: Advocacy, Health, Protection and MHPSS, Humanitarian Inclusion, Cash and Markets, Capacity Strengthening, and Age-Inclusion. The Humanitarian Lead also directly manages HelpAge’s Ukraine Country Director and oversees HelpAge’s largest humanitarian programme in Ukraine.

The Humanitarian Portfolio works closely with other global departments: Healthy Aging and Care, Society for All Ages, Income Security, Media and Communications, Operations, Business Development, Finance, Human Resources, and Regional Representatives for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, Middle East and Eurasia.

How you can make a difference

At HelpAge International, we offer a unique and exceptional career experience to bring positive and lasting change in the lives of older persons. As countries prepare for and adapt to population ageing, you can make a difference at a critical juncture to how societies, economies and institutions adapt to this change. Guided by our commitment to our values of impact, learning, partnership, and inclusion (see values), you will work with talent like yourself and partner with other agents for change to bring systemic change and impact at scale. By acting as a supporter, convener and thought leader, together, we can make an impact that matters for older persons and their communities before, during and when recovering from a humanitarian crisis. HelpAge International offers you an inclusive, collaborative workplace and innovative environment.

What you will do

Key areas for impact/influence and responsibilities

These outline the broad areas of responsibility in the role, but in collaboration with your humanitarian colleagues you will be able to shape and design specific activities that are relevant at any point in time. We want you to work creatively to deliver impact and respond to relevant opportunities.

As Humanitarian Programme Manager you will be required to provide support to a group of countries in a specific region (Eurasia, Middle East, North Africa) but also be flexible to support humanitarian work in different regions, when needed.

You will:

• Provide support to humanitarian responses, through remote backstopping, and where required, short-term travel.
• Oversee the programme management of humanitarian partner-led programmes in a specific region (Eurasia, Middle East, North Africa)
• Identify and develop new funding opportunities and project partnerships to build a humanitarian portfolio of work and increase the impact for older people in emergencies.
• Work closely with HelpAge’s Supporting Members (UK, US, Germany, Canada) to provide information needed on the humanitarian portfolio for developing new relationships and funding proposals with new and non-traditional donors.
• Provide technical advice and support to Portfolio Leads and Advisers in the development of new humanitarian project proposals including needs assessments, concept notes, project proposals and budgeting.
• Strengthen the capacity of HelpAge staff, partners, and network members through training (including coaching and mentoring) and support on humanitarian programme development and other aspects of the project cycle.
• Monitor the quality of humanitarian programmes, supporting partners, making recommendations for change that is needed to improve the impact on the lives of older people.
• With the other Humanitarian Portfolio Manager focusing on countries in Eurasia, Middle East and North Africa, support Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning for the humanitarian portfolio, tracking progress, sharing and utilising related information, data, learning and evidence across the organisation and the network.
• Strengthen relationships with network members and partners engaged in the humanitarian portfolio, understanding their areas of expertise, and convening regularly to share learning and develop ideas.
• Manage the humanitarian partners within your allocated region, with the support of business partner service team and advisers.

Let’s talk about you

You will be someone with:

• Extensive humanitarian experience, including working with a range of humanitarian donors such as ECHO, BHA, FCDO, GFFO, GAC, START, SIDA & DEC.
• Substantial experience in all aspects of Project Cycle Management with particular focus on proposal development, needs assessments, M&E and Knowledge management.
• Track record in successful humanitarian project development with partners and securing funds to support partner led programming in low and middle-income countries.
• Demonstrable experience in establishing partnerships with local and international agencies and in setting up partner-led responses.
• An ability to have a good understanding of the other key portfolio areas for HelpAge (healthy ageing, income security, society for all ages), and in-depth knowledge and experience of one of the focus areas is desirable.
• Experience of development and use of humanitarian MEAL systems and approaches, at project level, across development, humanitarian, and advocacy context.
• Demonstrable experience in leadership and programme management with geographically dispersed teams and in challenging humanitarian contexts
• An ability to represent HelpAge with traditional and non-traditional partners, donors and networks.
• Experienced in building and supporting national staff and partner capacity.
• An ability to travel, occasionally at short notice.
• Fluency in English and Arabic is essential.

At HelpAge International, we believe in the importance of empowering our people to be change makers and leaders at all levels. We expect our people to embrace and live our values, challenging themselves every day to identify issues that are most important to older persons and their communities, and to make an impact that matters.

In addition, as an HelpAge employee you are expected to:

Competencies

Description

Working Collaboratively with Others

Work collaboratively, building mutual trust and respect, with external organizations and partners to achieve our strategic aims and objectives; being accountable for the work we do together

Adaptability and Flexibility

Adapt to new directions or opportunities arising within the organisation and in our work area; being flexible in our role, constantly using the feedback to learn more and evolve further

Supporting and Facilitating Change

Lead behavioural and cultural change through embracing a supportive, collaborative and highly inclusive environment where everybody feels supported, respected and engaged

Extend HelpAge’s Reach and Impact

Extend HelpAge’s reach and impact by creating and identifying new business development opportunities and building relationships with new partners.

Diversity and Inclusion

Lead and promote a culture of including the voices of older people across our support, convening and thought leadership roles, in a way that is transformative, empowering and highly inclusive of those marginalised by gender, economic status, disability and other factors of discrimination

Leading Others

Demonstrate strong leadership to own unit/department and manage people in a well and reputable manner. Create an atmosphere of trust and an enabling environment where staff can contribute their best and develop their potential.

Safeguarding

HelpAge International is committed to safeguarding the communities with which we work, our partners, staff and any others who we come into contact with.

Therefore you will also be responsible for:

• Preventing harm and abuse from our people, operations and programmes, to anyone that encounters our work;
• Reporting all safeguarding incidents you see, hear, hear about or suspect, using our internal reporting mechanism;
• Complying with all safeguarding framework policies and practices
• Completing mandatory training courses relating to our safeguarding policy framework and complying with HR vetting procedures.