Area Director

Location:

Position Location:

Description

JOB DESCRIPTION

Title

Location

Travel

Job Family and Grade

Pre hire checks

1.          Scope

Department:

Reporting to:

Direct reports:

Budget responsibility:

Relationship management

2.          Context

About Relief International

Relief International (RI) partners with communities impacted by conflict, climate change, and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and well-being.

Currently, RI is active in 15 countries around the world, including some of the most fragile: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, occupied Palestinian Territory (oPT), Pakistan, Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.

Relief International includes the four corporate members of the RI Alliance: Relief International Inc., Relief International-UK, Relief International-France and Relief International-Europe Under our alliance agreement, we operate with a single, shared management structure.

About our Country Program

RI was operational in oPT starting in 2007, and after entering hibernation period in 2017, has recently reactivated its operations at the end of 2023.  RI is currently building its response to the current and evolving situation in Gaza and the West Bank through both a direct implementation and partnership approach. Rl’s programming in oPT follows RI’s global strategy with Health as a central focus with components linked to our work in Health through the sectors of WASH, Protection, Education and Livelihoods. The initial phase of RI’s response will focus on Gaza in both secondary and primary health care by supporting hospitals, static health facilities and mobile medical clinics, along with integrated WASH and Protection. The context in oPT is extremely dynamic and requires focus on immediate emergency response and humanitarian service delivery while laying the foundations for early recovery systems strengthening and longer-term programming across all sectors of RI’s focus.

Middle East Region

RI operates in seven countries in the Middle East region:  Iraq, Jordan, oPT, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Yemen, with a focus on the four RI sector pillars: Health, WASH, Education and Economic Opportunity.  We employ more than 4,000 staff (direct and indirect) in the Middle East region and implement a range of humanitarian and development programs valued at approximately $7Are0 million USD on an annual basis.

3.          Job Profile

The Area Director – Gaza will lead the Gaza-based operations of RI’s oPT response. The Area Director-Gaza will head the structure of the Gaza-based team, be responsible for ensuring the implementation of activities in Gaza in accordance to program design and compliance while remaining flexible and adaptive to the evolving context. Your role will be critical to building RI’s mission in Gaza while simultaneously ensuring life-saving program delivery as quickly and as efficiently as possible. You will report to the Country Director, sit on the country SMT, work closely with all key management functions in the county team, and be responsible for a team of both national and international staff inside Gaza.

4.          Key responsibilities

Position Accountability and Complexity

·       Accountable for managing a team inside Gaza responsible for implementation and program service delivery.

·       Challenges will be extremely complex given the evolving nature of the war on Gaza, including security concerns, access challenges and unprecedented levels of need. Ensuring program implementation and life-saving service delivery despite of/ alongside these complexities will be key to the success of this position.

·       This position requires autonomy in decision-making and initiative to be proactive within the dynamic context, understanding when decisions can/should be driven forward without consultation versus when consultation with SMT and/or other team members should be exercised.

Gaza Area Office mobilization

·       Assume lead role in driving the establishment of RI operations in Gaza, including building the team and establishing office infrastructure (office, GH, warehouse, fleet, etc)

• Ensure optimal safety and security management procedures and practices are in place and all staff are trained on them.
• Ensure establishment of effective functioning of logistics systems to receive, store, and distribute supplies for program implementation (including needed infrastructure and clear SOPs).
• Build relationships with key external actors operating and/or coordinating work inside Gaza, including other INGOs, lead national agencies, UN agencies, etc.

Program Implementation

·       Work with program leads to ensure day-to-day implementation according to project plans, adapting quickly to changing contexts, especially related to emergent security and access dynamics.

·       Oversee the receipt, storage and distribution of program supplies in Gaza, and take leadership role in troubleshooting challenges faced within Gaza.

·       Ensure strict adherence of all team members to security procedures and practices, and monitor closely new security developments.

·       Ensure systems for reporting and monitoring program progress are in place and data is being collected, shared.

Team Management

·       Build environment of team spirit where staff in Gaza work together to accomplish mission objectives.

·       Prioritize staff care and foster a culture of compassion given the difficult circumstances of working and living in Gaza.

·       Ensure team in Gaza have the training, tools and support they need to succeed in their work.

·       Hold staff accountable for performance.

Behavior and conduct

·       Ensures that behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RI’s code of conduct and safeguarding policies

·       Acts with integrity and holds themselves accountable for being respectful, inclusive and professional

·       Reports any concerns

Safeguarding and Accountability in Leadership

·       Ensure the highest standards of behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RI’s code of conduct and safeguarding policies

·       Be a model for ethical conduct standards for other team members

·       Embrace diversity, and model inclusive and equitable behavior

·       Ensure own actions and the actions of the teams’ members they manage do not adversely impact the safety of the RI team and the vulnerable communities we serve

·       Ensure donors, partners and communities are aware of RI conduct and reporting mechanisms

·       Ensure safeguarding is embedded in all the work we do

·       Be responsible for ensuring a culture and systems in place for reporting

·       Report any concerns

5.          Person Specification

Skills, knowledge and expertise required for the role.

Essential criteria

·                [insert 5-10 key essential skills/competencies, knowledge and experience needed for this job – please only include those absolutely critical to the role]

Desirable criteria

·                [insert 4-5 ‘nice to have’ skills/competencies, knowledge and experience for this job – attributes or skills that are not necessary but would be valuable and could help differentiate between a number of strong candidates]

6.          RI Values

Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as well as “Do No Harm,” Relief International Values:

·                Integrity

·                Adaptability

·                Collaboration

·                Inclusivity

·                Sustainability