Head of Programme - Iraq

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a non-governmental, humanitarian organization with 60 years of experience in helping to create a safer and more dignified life for refugees and internally displaced people. NRC advocates for the rights of displaced populations and offers assistance within the shelter, education, emergency food security, legal assistance, and water,sanitation and hygiene sectors.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has approximately 5000 committed and competent employees involved in projects across four continents. In addition, NRC runs one of the world’s largest standby rosters -NORCAP, with 650 professionals, ready to be deployed on 72 hours notice when a crisis occurs

Rights Respected, People Protected

NRC in Iraq

The unfolding crisis in Iraq is one of the most complex humanitarian emergencies in the world today, with millions of uprooted Iraqis, and hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. For the past several years, millions of people have been displaced from and within Iraq as a result of military operations. At the end of 2015, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) began a military operation to enter and retake control of parts of the country under the control of armed opposition groups, especially in the Anbar governorate. Civilians have been caught in the crossfire. 

NRC has been present in Iraq since 2010, with offices located in Baghdad, Erbil, Dohuk, Kirkuk and Mosul.  We have scaled up our response across Iraq to meet the large-scale crisis facing the country, reaching Iraqis with emergency assistance and supporting Syrian refugees as they live in exile.  Our goal is to always be prepared to work in new settings, so we are establishing more local partnerships in Iraq.  Additionally, NRC is part of the UNICEF and WFP-led Rapid response mechanism (RRM), which enables us to reach newly displaced populations with the most urgent life-saving assistance.

Today, NRC is one of the biggest cash providers in Iraq. Our emergency assistance also includes distributing food rations, hygiene kits, water and basic non-food items (NFIs). In the winter months, we also provide blankets and heaters.  We pay particular attention to gender equality and ending gender-based violence (GBV).

More recently NRC in Iraq has been responding to the ongoing Mosul crisis, where it is estimated that 1.2 million people are in grave danger.

Head of Programme

Role Specific Information

•  Establish and manage the programme support unit including specialist, M&E and grants, ensure coordinated and integrated programmatic strategies and approach
• Liaise with the ME Regional Office and Country Offices within the region to ensure operational and organizational consistency
• Ensure NRC is represented in relevant coordination fora pertaining to Iraq operations. Provide analysis of the operational modalities of other humanitarian actors
• Be responsible for the core competency programmatic input to all relevant processes and documents
• Ensure that a country monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning plan is developed and implemented
• Ensure that a variety of protection practices and processes are mainstreamed throughout NRC programmes

• Ensure sound and timely grants management through NRC’s project cycle management framework and in line with donor requirements and practices

• Supervise, coach, mentor, train and facilitate professional development opportunities for staff within the Programme unit

• Contribute through sound data management, processing and analysis to NRC Iraq’s advocacy efforts.

Our Ideal Candidate:

Minimum 4 years experience from a senior management position in a humanitarian/ recovery context.. Strong leadership and programming experience. Knowledge of the context in Iraq and the Middle East and understanding of arabic language is an edge.

We are looking for a strategic thinker that is able to handle high pressure environments, can build trust and empower others and that has a strong network ability and decision making. 

Screening CV's will be on a rolling basis, interested individuals are encouraged to apply ASAP

Additional Information:

Contract period: 12 months 

Salary/benefits: According to NRC’s salary scale and terms and conditions

Duty station: Erbil (potential family accompanied contract in Amman)

Approved health certificate will be requested before contract start

NB: Please enter the geographical location in the "Company name" field for both company and location on your application.

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