Humanitarian Access and Safety Coordinator

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is seeking an experienced Humanitarian Access and Safety Coordinator to help develop regional related policies and to provide professional guidance and support to DRC’s country operations within the West Africa Region.

DRC West Africa Regional Office (WARO), is based in Dakar. Led by a Regional Director the office oversees, supports and provides strategic directions for DRC’s country offices within the region, which currently includes Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Centrafrican Republic.
 
About the job

The Humanitarian Access and Safety Coordinator will manage all aspects of the DRC Safety Risk Management System (SRMS) for both DRC and DDG programmes.  S/He contributes to the development of regional strategies, which are translated into action plans and day-to-day tasks.

The Humanitarian Access and Safety Coordinator has a regional focus and ensures compliance to DRC procedures and guidelines within the whole regional area. S/He provides support and/or technical guidance to country operations (6 Safety Advisers, 1 Liptako Gourma Humanitarian Access Coordinator) while overseeing activities with regional scope. 
 

In more detail, your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Develop Humanitarian Access Regional Framework 

• Support countries in developing access strategies.
• Support the development of tools and training strategies to operationalize access strategies with Safety HQ.
• Supervise country offices efforts in mapping, planning and coordinating engagement with all key stakeholders as it relates to humanitarian access
• Technically support and quality check ongoing access assessments and other interventions as needed.
• Ensure access and safety issues are effectively represented in operation risk registers.
• Provision of quarterly analysis, statistics and reporting on key developments within the country to the RD and HQ Safety on safety and access risk. Support and monitor the quality of weekly and monthly reporting within the West Africa region countries

Oversee the development and implementation of the SRMS process, including:

• Assist and monitor the development of Country SRAs; supervise the assessment of Safety Levels Scores (SLS) and provide strategic recommendations to the Regional Director for approval;
• Oversee the Safety Risk Management (SRM) process
• Develop area and country safety management policies, protocols and procedures
• Facilitate Safety Risk Assessments (SRAs) and support the implementation of mitigation measures
• Analyze, manage and report relevant information within geographical area of responsibility
• Maintain relevant safety documentation, data and records for the areas of concern

Technically advise on the procurement of safety-related equipment, facilities and other resources.

• Advise Country Managers and Safety Focal Points (SFPs)/Safety staff on available safety management strategies
• Conduct (at least) annual travel to each permissible DRC office or site location for review;
• Support the development of Country safety plans, including Critical Incident Management Plans (CIMP); Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs); Contingency Plans (CPs); Safety Improvement Plans (SIPs); and Minimum Operating Safety Standards (MOSS);
• Monitor and evaluate the SRMS process in country programmes for compliance/quality assurance, providing updates on the quality and progress of SRMS implementation to relevant stakeholders;
• Represent regional interests at the annual Safety Network Meeting and contribute to the development of SRMS and Global Safety Policy

Capacity building of all staff, consultants and implementing partners, including:

• Oversight / Provision of operational safety briefings and orientation to all new and visiting staff travelling to duty stations defined as hostile environments (SLS 4-6) in the West Africa Region;
• Provide capacity-building, training and mentorship to Access and Safety staff.
• Support the Organizing and coordination of the delivery of Personal Safety Training (PAST) as required for staff and arrange other training needs in conjunction with Safety HQ
• Prepare an annual safety training plan

Represent the Region within inter-agency fora as related to safety issues, including:

• Attend NGO security coordination, Humanitarian Access Regional Working Group, UN and other relevant external fora;
• Establish a network of contacts and represent DRC/DDG at security meetings in support to the Regional Office team, or Country Offices if requested.

Incident and crisis management and response, including:

• Develop the capacity of Regional Crisis Management Team (CMT) in conjunction with Safety HQ through a bi-annual IM workshop
• Support the establishment of IMTs at country level, including reviewing CIMPs, IM training, and support area-specific CPs to harmonize with DRC HQ CMT;
• Coordinate the Country IMT in the event of a critical incident;
• Support the delivery of bi-annual training exercises to ensure that the Country IMT is capable of responding;
• Support the development of business continuity/disaster recovery planning, including remote management planning.

Quality assurance of safety-related policies, protocols, procedures and regulations:

• Follow up on Scheduled MOSS audits of all programme areas;
• Provide methodological and technical support for the training of guards, drivers and Watchkeepers;
• Assess the implementation of physical and asset protection protocols and regulations;
• Conduct regular site assessments and advise on mitigation measures;
• Assist logisticians and administrators with the technical design, procurement, delivery and control of safety equipment and countermeasures;
• Support the interest of safety and access through the management of operation risk registers
• Act as the focal point for specialist systems and support options, contributing to overall DRC security policy.

About You

To be successful on this role, we expect you to possess the following:

Experience and technical competencies:

• Minimum 3-5 years of working experience as a safety, security or humanitarian access manager/advisor with an INGO
• Experience working in multicultural work settings
• Proven ability to develop and implement effective and contextualized protocols and systems
• Experience with information gathering, analysis and report writing
• Ability to conduct and produce high quality assessments on access and safety issues.
• Ability to steer the joint definition and implementation of access strategies in a participatory manner within consortia and with local partners.
• Experience with critical incident management
• Experience with delivering safety and/or access-related training
• Experience working in hostile or hazardous environments
• Humanitarian programmatic experience an advantage.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent;
• Security risk management certification or equivalent.

Languages:

• Full professional proficiency in French.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English

In this position, you are also expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies: 

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process. 
Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback. 
Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation. 
Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly. 
Demonstrating integrity: Upholding and promoting the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to DRC’s values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer

Contract length: 01 year, open for extension pending performance, funding, and programme needs 
Level: E
Designation of Duty Station: Dakar, Senegal l Family duty station, accompanied
Start date: As soon as possible

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates; please refer to drc.ngo under Vacancies.

Application process

All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English. Applications sent by email will not be considered.

Closing date for applications: 6 July 2020

Please note that applications will be reviewed continuously and interviews will be planned as soon as a suitable candidate is identified - so early submission of applications is encouraged. DRC remains a right to close the vacancy once a suitable candidate is identified.

For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website drc.ngo.