The Access and Risk Advisor (ARA) will advise CARE Sudan (SDN), on strategies to work safely within their program environments, maintain accesses to program areas, reduce operational risks faced by staff and develop the capacity of national counterparts in the CARE Sudan Safety and Security department. This will be achieved by maintaining a pragmatic and operational posture that enables and supports CARE’s vision and mission in Sudan, whilst fostering an inclusive risk managed culture for health and safety amongst staff.
This post reports to the Country Director, with close, daily interaction and engagement with the Country Director and Senior Management Team, of which s/he is a member. The ARA will also maintain a technical link with the Sub-Regional Security Officer ECA Region and the Regional Security Manager.
The ARA will provide daily technical oversight capacity building and management of CARE SDN safety and security unit (SSU).

S/he will manage the ongoing review, development and implementation of the Country Office Security Risk Management Plan and associated budget.
The ARA will support and maintain safety advisories and operating procedures which are in line with the CARE International Security Principles. In supporting CARE SDN to achieve its mission, the ARA will advise management on a range of best practices to reduce operational risk and prepare robust contingency plans for incident and crisis response.
S/he will be responsible for developing the capacity of staff through training to ensure that risk management protocols and procedures are known, understood, and followed.
The ARA will be expected to grow and maintain strong network links with key peer collaboration groups and individuals including counterparts in the region to ensure that CARE can maintain access to program areas.
S/he will demonstrate a high level of socio-cultural, political, and economic understanding of the context where CARE works. S/he will also develop a solid working knowledge of CARE’s programs and have a strong understanding of humanitarian programming approaches.
Position is initially based in Nairobi, with the plan to prepare for and relocate to Sudan. S/he will be required to travel to operational areas (risk levels permitting), including potentially volatile locations to ensure the provisions of the Security Risk Management Plan are followed at field level. The ARA will support the development of appropriate localized plans and provide expert technical assistance to field staff where necessary.
Key criteria for success in this post are:
A clear vision and demonstrable leadership qualities, an advanced ability to communicate issues of risk management in a credible and consultative fashion and a management style that engages support and empowers strong decision making. A strong emphasis on this role is the continued development of skills and capacity of colleagues in the CARE SDN SSU.

Responsibilities:

1. Management of the CARE’S Access and Risk Unit
   • Manage the daily and long-term operations of the CARE SDN SSU as well as the professional development of members of the SSU as per standard CARE HR performance processes.
   • Directly manage and supervise SSU staff.
   • Oversee the development of SSU work plans and tasks, track and support task completion and ensure a high level of operational performance. Ensure an adequate annual budget is maintained and tracked to support risk management systems country-wide.
   • Continuously coordinate across departments and with project teams to ensure positive working relationships are established and maintained and that the risk management agenda and priorities are integrated into daily and long-term operations.
2. Analysis, Planning and Preparation
   • Prepare strategic oversight activity plans for the Country Director and CARE SDN Senior Management Team (SMT) to include annual operating plans, guidance framework, goals and activities plans.
   • Prepare detailed operational activity plans to include weekly and long-term work plans for the SSU, individual capacity development plans, security training plans for SSU and non-SSU staff and supporting budgets.
   • Develop and maintain a strong contextual understanding of the areas of operations in consultation with program staff, senior management, and the Country Director.
   • Ensure that all risk assessments for CARE SDN operational locations and projects are completed at a minimum on an annual basis utilizing the standard CARE risk assessment formats and adequately communicated to relevant CARE SDN staff.
   • Ensure the development of the SDN Risk Management Plan, using the CARE International template and implement this plan in programming locations.
   • Assist the CO to prepare for major critical incidents and crises through contingency plan development and participation in Crisis Management Team training.
   • Participate in the selection of any new SSU permanent staff and ensure proper training and orientation plans are conducted.
   • Work with program staff in development of new projects to ensure effective risk mitigation measures and strategies (and required budgets) are incorporated from program design.
   • Enable through the development of key networks, access to CARE’s program areas and partner communities.
3. Procedures and Protocols
   • Implement and maintain relevant and achievable risk management procedures based on current risk assessments and in line with CARE and the Country Office’s overall posture.
   • Ensure that effective communications equipment and protocols are in place and that all staff members who utilize this equipment are adequately trained.
   • Ensure that established movement tracking protocols are adhered to by both the SSU and CARE SDN staff.
   • Develop and ensure the implementation of physical access control protocols for all CARE SDN facilities.
   • Ensure that the CARE SDN Senior Management Team (SMT) and Country Director are aware of non-compliance with agreed standards and that obstacles toward maintaining standards are reported and acted upon by Country Office management.
   • Establish routine audit and compliance checks by the SDN to ensure that protocols are effectively being implemented.
4. Incident and Crisis Management PLUS: Job responsibilities included in word version of template.
   • Serve as the Security Risk Management lead on CARE SDN’s Crisis Management Team when it is required to be formed.
   • Ensure that all field level and country level Crisis management plans are kept up to date and reviewed, and if required amended.
   • Ensure that the necessary external relationships are maintained to facilitate a quick response and assistance to CARE SDN during any critical incident or crisis.

PLUS: Job responsibilities included in word version of template:

Capacity Building
Build capacity of the SSU through training, coaching, and mentoring as defined in annual Performance Plans (APAAs) as well as informal coaching and mentoring sessions. Ensure that members of the SSU plan for and attend relevant technical training during the Fiscal Year (FY) and that these training plans are supported by the available budget.
• Performance-manage any areas of weakness within the SSU team.
• Identify talent areas of SSU team members and develop those capabilities as required by the Country Office objectives.
• Support the SSU staff in capacity building of local guard-force staff during initial hire and perform regular refresher training on roles and responsibilities.
• As required by the CO leadership, support in strengthening the safety and security capacity among local program partners.

Advise and Report
• Prepare a monthly situational report to the Regional Office utilizing the pre-set format.
• Brief the Senior Management Team on contextual developments specific to CARE SDN’s area of operations on a weekly basis.
• Provide daily and formal or informal feedback to the Country Director on progress in respect to SSU actions and initiatives.
• Ensure weekly incident and context reports are compiled by the SSU and submitted to the identified members of the CARE SDN team. As required ensure this report is completed in local languages to ensure relevance and usability of local and national staff and in field locations.• Promote cross-regional collaboration, sharing of ideas and initiatives and operational best practice with Country Offices in ECSA or the broader CARE network.
• Other relevant tasking as defined by the regional office or the Country Director CARE SDN.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in a field related to humanitarian work or risk management or equivalent field / operational experience.
• 5 years’ experience in assisting international organizations in developing countries to manage staff and program safety.
• 5 years’ experience in working in an international organization.
• 5 years’ experience in working in complex and hazardous environments.
• Strong assessment, evaluation, and planning skills.
• Demonstrable expertise of Humanitarian risk management.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Strong demonstrated inter-personal skills in a multi-cultural environment.
• Ability to make good judgment on staff safety and provide appropriate advice.
• Demonstrated ability to manage under stressful conditions.
• Strong ability to analyze and understand complex situations and translate these into specific policy advice.