Deputy Head of Mission - Nigeria (M/F) at Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA)

Location: Maiduguri, Borno

Position Typology

• The Deputy Head of Mission reports to the Head of Mission based in Maiduguri
• He/she works closely with the Projects Coordinators and the coordinators of the support departments
• He/she works closely with the authorities and NGO partners.

Mission and Main Activities

• Under the direct supervision of the Head of Mission (HoM), the Deputy Head of Mission (DHoM) who is a member of the Country Coordination Team is responsible for ensuring the daily functioning of the mission, the successful operation of programs by overseeing the quality of programmes operations and efficient support services.
• In the absence of the HoM, the Deputy may provide interim coverage of mission leadership in coordination with Medical Coordinator.
• Whereas the HOM will validate major orientations and decisions of the mission, parts of this role delegated to the DHOM as described in details below, and according to objective criteria (known by all staff in the mission) taking into consideration sustainability in the treatment of the different dossiers.

Programmes Operations, quality monitoring and program management/development:

• Analyze the political, security and humanitarian situation of Borno State and at national level in order to proactively guide ALIMA’s Country programs.
• In coordination with the Medical program teams, proactively identifies new programming opportunities, needs for assessment to prepare ground for future opportunities.
• Provides strategic direction and support to the Projects Coordinators in ensuring the planning and effective delivery of program activities, objectives and desired outcomes; successfully integrating them with the annual strategic plans (MAP/Mini-MAP)
• In coordination with the Operations/Grants manager and Medical coordinator, leads and coordinates the program development processes, ensuring the design of a robust and appropriate programs and actions that aims to address the medical health needs of the affected population in coordination.
• Visits ALIMA field activities regularly, to monitor program quality standards while building deeper knowledge of operation realities, and reports on challenges faced by the field teams and document lessons learnt to generate action/ recommendation to improve/ address the challenges identified to be validated by the mission coordination team. Ensure that programmes are implemented in secure enabling environment with minimal/ manageable risks, are adequately resourced, well planned and executed on time.
• Ensures the program documentation, archiving, capitalization of integration and reporting information and data management.
• Lead the teams on program coordination meetings to improve information sharing and institutional memory. Strengthen the team synergy, enhance consensus building, giving technical support, direction, and consolidate the team efforts.

Supervision of support departments (Logistics, HR, Fin):

• In coordination with HOM and Coordinators, he is responsible for the technical briefing and debriefing as well as management of consultants and external specialists arriving to support the mission.
• Administrative / Legal Follow up: responsible for ensuring ALIMA compliance with Nigerian laws and Regulations. Support with the ALIMA registration extension requirement interacting with Nigerian Authorities at State and Federal Level.
• Coordinate with the Logistics/procurement and medical team and Support to “out of Borno medical order” and other International order to support the procurement, clearance and shipping of supplies to Borno state ALIMA bases.
• Oversight to Support departments (Logistics, Administration, Finance, Human Resources) in specific points to be defined by the HoM and ensures smooth, coordinated operations, finding synergies and improvements where possible. More specifically :
  • Logistic/ procurement monitoring: ensures that current logistics /procurement procedures follow ALIMA standards and formats, and are in accordance with donor rules and regulations, overseeing and implementing an effective and efficient supply chain.
  • Administrative and financial monitoring: ensures that current administrative and financial procedures follow ALIMA standards and formats, and are in accordance with donor rules and regulations.  Ensures donor budgets spending are eligible, as planned and correct any variations on spending.
  • Human Resources: provides support to the HR department, ensuring competent human resource needs are deployed on a timely manner, and conduct HR follow-up in accordance with the local regulations and ALIMA guidelines
• Assists the Head of Mission in the analysis and management of the mission security.

Coordination & Networking with other NGO, INGO and INGO forum:

• The DHOM maintains close relations with the other national NGOs and INGOs present in the region. For this, S/he attends regular meetings and checks that ALIMA is represented with coherence in the national and international community.
• Under the supervision of the HoM, represents ALIMA at meetings/official negotiations with authorities; donors, UN and INGOs partners.
• In liaison with the medical coordinator, coordinates the humanitarian and medical assistance provided by ALIMA with that of other agencies and organizations, which involves taking part in regular information exchanges with the other humanitarian organizations and UN agencies present in the field.
• He is responsible for representation of ALIMA in partnership-related meetings groups, etc. Participates in Clusters, mainly INGO Forum in Maiduguri level.

Experience and Skills

• Minimum 3 years of successful experience managing large portfolio emergency health and early recovery programming in dynamic, insecure and resource-poor context. Experience in NE Nigeria is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience of working with and managing the relationship with Nigerian authorities and implementation of EU Health development programmes with the State Government, management of grants and contract is an added advantage.
• Knowledge and experiences of working with key institutional donors: ECHO/EU and USAID/OFDA as well as UN, GAC and French embassy
• Previous experiences in strategy and programming including core support function; Logistics; Finance; Administration; HR
• Previous experiences in managing a consortium and strong partnerships with other NGOs
• Strong negotiation skills with key government, donors and partner organizations.
• Ability to delegate, and at the same time, to follow up several projects in several areas.
• Strong leadership and ability to inspire and bring together various profiles, team management as well as management/ training capacity
• Strong organizational capacities;
• Ability to work rapidly under short deadlines
• Proven writing and spoken English are required; knowledge of the local language is an asset

Language:

• English is mandatory (written, read, and spoken), French is an asset.

Conditions

• Contract term: contract under French law, contract length: October 12th, 2020
• Position to be filled: ASAP
• Travel costs between the expatriate’s country of origin and the mission location
• Accommodation costs
• Medical cover from the first day of the contract to a month after the date of departure from the mission country for the employee
• Evacuation of the employee