Kenya: Senior Operations Officer

Organization: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies

Country: Kenya

Closing date: 10 Jan 2016

Organizational context (where the job is located in the Organization)

The Eastern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands region is characterized by the complexity of slow and rapid onset emergencies, with some of the worst humanitarian statistics in the world. The National Societies in the region have been engaged in humanitarian operations responding to various types of disasters while also undertaking initiatives to build community resilience and addressing underlying causes. The National Societies of the region are also at various levels of capacities and face different challenges, which require IFRC, support in program, organizational development, humanitarian diplomacy, and reporting and resource mobilization. The region has been a focus for humanitarian actors, which require IFRC engagement in coordination and advocacy to influence humanitarian and development agendas.

Job purpose

The role of the Senior Operations Officer is to support the Operations Coordinator to ensure timely, efficient and effective IFRC support to National Societies that are dealing with the impact of sudden and slow onset disasters and crises events, to significantly reduce the impact of these events through effective response, relief and recovery operation support.

The cluster Senior Operations officer will work as part of the East Africa cluster support Operations Coordination unit and is accountable, under the direction and guidance of the Regional Operations Coordinator, for managing the IFRC operations support to National Societies in the region.

In addition, the Senior Operations officer will be able to focus on key project management functions (including contract management) for individual operations and provide support in the administrative and financial management functions of the unit.

He / she works closely with the IFRC East Africa Cluster and Africa Regional technical teams with the aim of contributing to the improvement of the quality of DREF, Emergency appeals and other response operations.

Job duties and responsibilities

· Contribute to the management of Emergency Appeal and DREF request processes at the Regional level, making recommendations as to scope and content of appeals /plans of action in line with relevant standard operating procedures, standards and guides. In doing so ensuring effective cooperation with IFRC technical units, logistics, finance and resource mobilisation units.

· Undertakes project management responsibilities for individual operations

· Contribute to the coordination of Federation emergency response operations and provide guidance and support to National Societies (NS) in these response operations.

· Ensure that Federation/NS response is appropriate and aligned with the SPHERE guidelines, the Better Programming Initiative (BPI) and other Federation polices and strategies (e.g. Strategy 2020, Code of Conduct, Principles and Rules for Disaster Relief, Seville agreement etc.), including not least the IFRC SOP’s for Disaster Response in Africa Zone.

· Participate and facilitate in ensuring that lessons learnt and good practice from disaster management in the region are compiled and used to improve future planning, programming and implementation.

· Ensure effective working relationships with the DM departments of National Societies of the region under the leadership of the Regional Operations Coordinator, and works to creates synergies and links between Operations and Disaster Risk Management

· As required represent the Federation to authorities, ICRC, OCHA and other UN agencies, and other international and national organizations within the mandate of the key tasks and responsibilities set in this job description.

· Provide surge capacity as required, in particular in the early stages of the emergency response operations.

· Is responsible for management and updating of the operations coordination resource mobilisation and funding plan.

· Is responsible for continual improvement in the administrative and financial management of operations and functions of EA/DREF.

· Ensure the production of regular, timely and accurate narrative and financial reports for the Federation and its donors

· Undertake other actions and responsibilities as assigned by the supervisor.

Duties applicable to all staff

1. 
   

   Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals

   
   


2. 
   

   Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles

   
   


3. 
   

   Perform any other work related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

   
   

Position Requirements

Education

Relevant degree level qualification or extensive professional experience in related field

Relevant training in disaster management.

Experience

2 years of experience of working with IFRC operations management and coordination in the field and in a regional office.

2 years of experience of analysing, planning, and managing relief and development programmes and resources

Experience of planning and managing finances and budgets

Experience in IFRC Project management tools and systems

Experience of working for the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement

Knowledge and Skills

Self-supporting in computers (Windows, spreadsheets, word-processing)

Strong skills in general administration, oral and written communication

Skills in Monitoring and evaluation,

Skills in project management

Languages

Fluently spoken and written English

Knowledge of French is an big asset.

How to apply:

Click on the link to apply:-

http://www.ifrc.org/en/who-we-are/working-with-us/current-vacancies/