Deputy Country Director for Programs at Solidarites International

Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Desired Start Date: ASAP
Duration: 1 year

About The Job

• In close collaboration with the Country Director (CD), the DCD’s prime objectives are to provide leadership and management of the strategic programming, overseeing the strengthening of SI’s programme development, quality and accountability.
• The DCD ensures the internal coherence between program activities and is responsible for ensuring that programs are driven by needs, based on evidence, adaptable to contextual changes and conflict sensitive, monitored closely and resourced appropriately.
• The DCD is part of SI Senior Management Team and has direct line-management of the Technical Coordinators (WaSH, Shelter and MEAL).
• Under the supervision of the Country Director and with the support of headquarters teams, the Deputy Country Director for Programs is responsible for:
• Strategic Direction: Collaborate with the CD to develop a program strategy and related processes consistent with the association’s policies and population’s needs.
• Project Implementation: the DCD has to follow up programs team and monitor the activities to make sure they are implementing it on time. He is continuously in direct contact with the projects managers and the field teams.
• Quality Follow-up: the DCD is in charge of ensuring and improving the quality of all activities with the support of the MEAL team and the technical department (Shelter / WASH / FSL).
• Partnerships and representation: the mission is working with many partners such as ALIMA, PUI, ACTED, REACH, INTERSOS and TDH. The coordination of these actors must be closely monitored and improved. A regular participation in coordination meetings must also be ensured.
• Reporting and proposal writing: the DCD, with the support of the Grants manager, is in charge of drafting reports to donors. S/he is the one responsible for the strategic direction of proposals.
• Structuration: The mission is young and has grown very rapidly. As a result, the mission needs to be structured and strengthened to ensure a serene future. Considering the strategic position of the DCD, he/she has to ensure that all departments are communicating well and evolving together in the same direction.

The main challenges:

• Security: the volatile security context can reduce the access to the areas of implementation, which can sometimes causes delays. Furthermore, the regular clashes between the different stakeholders of the conflict are causing important movements of population. Thus, the programs, and more globally the mission, should show a strong adaptation and reactivity capacity.
• Contractors: SI’s activities are requiring strong technical skills and heavy machinery (borehole drillings). Thus, SI has to rely on contractors to conduct those works, and the DCD with the programs teams should closely monitored the contractors.
• Lack of coordination: the several organizations active on the field are not coordinating enough, which has an impact on the implementation of the activities.
• Management: the DCD has the direct management of four staffs: a grants manager, a WASH Coordinator, a Shelter advisor and a MEAL Coordinator. As functional manager of the program team at base level, the DCD should have regular exchanges with the Program managers, without overlapping the Field Coordinators.
• Communication channels: In Maiduguri, both of the operational base and the coordination team are located. It will be important to ensure that communication schemes are in place and that there is no confusion between base and coordination (decision-making, roles and responsibilities).

Your Profile

• Masters’ degree or equivalent in related sectors
• Previous experiences in emergency contexts and high volatile environments
• Previous experiences in strategy and programming
• Ability to delegate, and at the same time, to follow up several projects in several areas.
• Ability to set up and orientate coordination mechanism in an operational way
• Strong leadership and ability to inspire and bring together various profiles
• Previous experiences in managing a consortium and strong partnerships with other NGOs.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Ability to prior tasks and manage a large scope of work
• Proven writing and spoken English are required;

Living Conditions

• The living conditions of the base are comfortable (A.C, comfortable beds, TV, ping pong table, good cooking etc) with possibility of finding a wide range of goods for cooking. Despite restriction (curfew & limitation of movement), the level of activities is good (Sport: Soccer, volleyball…and interactions with other INGO).
• The multicultural environment allows for enriching exchanges and extensive discussions, as the atmosphere is very uplifting. The problematic aspect is that security procedures are quite restrictive (which is normal given the context) but it means that movement are limited and that knowledge of the city and the culture will be also very limited.

SI Will Offer You

• According to experience, starting from 2860 euros gross per month (2600 base salary + 10% annual leave allowance paid monthly) + valorization of your experiences
• A monthly Per Diem of 600 USD
• SI also covers accommodation costs and travel expenses between the expatriate's country of origin and the place of assignment.

Vacation:

• During the assignment, a system of alternation between work and time-off is implemented at the rate of one break every three months. For a one-year assignment, the expatriate will have a 7-day break during the 3rd and the 9th month (with 750 USD allocated by Solidarités). He or she will also be entitled to go back to his or her home country for a 14-day period after six months spent on the mission (Solidarités will cover travel costs).

Social and medical cover:

• Expatriates benefit from an insurance package which reimburses all healthcare expenses (including medical and surgical expenses, dental care and ophthalmological expenses, repatriation) and a welfare system including war risks. Essential vaccination and antimalarial treatment costs are refunded.