Regional Operations & Humanitarian Affairs Officer – MEEE

LOCATION: Amman, Jordan or other country in the region where there is SCI Country Office – National Terms

The Opportunity

Save the Children currently works in 12 countries in the MEEE Region with an annual expenditure of approximately $200 million, including two major humanitarian responses in Yemen and Syria. The post holder is expected to provide day to support and guidance to COs in both the Middle East and Eastern Europe in addition to maintaining close links with the Save the Children Headquarters in the UK.

The Regional Operations & Humanitarian Response team exists to support Country Offices (COs) and humanitarian responses in the Middle East and Eastern Europe (MEEE) 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, response to shocks, spikes and major sudden-onset crises, risk management, improving our ongoing programme delivery, reporting and information management. Many of these processes are spread across numerous departments and teams in Country Offices, Regional Offices and SCI headquarters (the Centre), requiring a significant amount of coordination and collaboration.

As a key member of the regional office operations team, the Regional Operations & Humanitarian Affairs Officer will serve to support the team by serving as the coordination point for many of these key processes, strengthening information management, monitoring key performance indicators and supporting the Regional Office’s use of established systems and procedures – such as for humanitarian reporting, risk management and ad-hoc initiatives to improve our work for children.

The post-holder will work closely with the Regional Operations & Humanitarian Advisors and Regional Strategic Analyst to coordinate, track and countries and support them in planning, resourcing, staffing and funding humanitarian response programmes and strategies, as well as support in the design and implementation of systems, processes and activities so that programmes are delivered on time according to organisational and donor requirements and within allocated budgets. S/he will play a key role in supporting countries in the effective scale up and management of Save the Children responses to increase impact and enable positive change for children in the MEEE region.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Key Areas of Accountability:

Supporting strong operations management and strengthening of the operational capability of the region to respond effectively to both immediate acute and medium to longer term chronic needs.

* Support the implementation of operational improvement plans and operations platform strengthening initiatives; tracking progress, identifying gaps, suggesting viable solutions and corrective actions and escalating issues as required within the Regional Operations team.

* Support country offices as needed to access and apply Save the Children approaches, quality standards, tools and best practice.

* Coordinate funding requirements for strategic priorities and ensure regional funding opportunities are communicated appropriately.

* Support inductions and orientation of key Country Office leadership staff.

Supporting emergency preparedness and response

* Provide support to track the maintenance of up to date early warning systems, emergency preparedness plans and contingency plans in line with Save the Children standards.

* Support with information management for monitoring of context developments and trends in the MEEE region.

* Provide support and leadership in emergencies (new and “spikes” in existing) by

o Supporting the SCI ‘categorization’ process of humanitarian needs in the country office,

o Supporting the appropriate and timely request and use of humanitarian seed funds, with particular attention to those from Save the Children-managed mechanisms.

o Providing support to ensure high-quality key deliverables (e.g. response plans, sitreps) are submitted on time

o Provide support to ongoing CO COVID – 19 responses as required

o Supporting with response strategy development and Real Time Reviews and evaluations

o Assisting in the coordination of multi-country responses.

Coordinating between key stakeholders

* Act as a focal point between Country Offices, Centre, RO, Members, Save the Children and selected external stakeholders.

* Disseminate information between stakeholders e.g. through coordination and preparation of content and talking points for regional operations calls, Member calls, Country Office operations calls and calls between Regional Office and Country Offices SMT.

* Act as a sounding board and problem-solving partner for addressing operational challenges in the region.

* Explore ways to improve coordination and integration of the RO knowledge of and support for the regional programmes between departments in the RO, and with Members and Save the Children.

Provide support to Regional Operations & Humanitarian Director for specific initiatives

* Support KPI monitoring, follow up and reporting (incl. drafting of quarterly annual reports).

* Provide support for analysis, writing, facilitation, coordination for special requests / initiatives as and when required, for presentations, communications, project inputs etc.

General

* Demonstrate leadership in relation to Save the Children policies and practice with respect to child safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.

In order to be successful you will bring/have:

* Two years’ experience in the humanitarian aid and development sector – or a related sector

* Proven experience as working as part of a team in a professional environment

* Strong understanding of humanitarian contexts 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

* 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 20% travel)

* Commitment to Save the Children’s vision, mission and values

We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector.