Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and DanChurchAid (DCA) have been working in Zambia for more than 20 years and became a Joint Country Programme (JCP) of NCA and DCA in 2011. Together with local communities and government institutions, JCP seeks to contribute to a Zambia where all women, men, girls and boys on equal terms are empowered to enjoy economic, political, social, environmental and democratic rights, so that they benefit from the sustainable growth of the country through three thematic Gender Based Violence and (iii) Fighting Inequality.
Purpose of the role:
The Senior Humanitarian Officer – SHO is responsible for the overall coordination of JCP’s humanitarian response in Zambia and supports JCP SMT’s ambition to become a first responder and contribute to saving lives in emergencies. The role is responsible for planning, coordination and implementing humanitarian programme strategy for the Zambia country office working closely with all implementing partners in targeted response sites. The role is responsible for ensuring that all response measures are fully aligned to the core humanitarian standards (CHS) and are gender sensitive. This role also works to strengthen JCP and partner representation on national and district level coordination platforms and acts as focal point for JCP for humanitarian emergency affairs.
Key roles and responsibilities:
Lead, develop and oversee the country program’s humanitarian strategy and frameworks in line with the country’s and NCA overall strategy.
Lead the design, planning and implementation of the response measures and strategies jointly with all implementing partners.
Leads all needs and vulnerability assessments in target response sites in line with CHS standards and assessment guidelines.
Conduct capacity building programmes for implementing partners on humanitarian programming, disaster risk reduction strategies, early warning, and preparedness.
In collaboration with the procurement department, prepare procurement and logistics plan to inform field distributions.
Support to stakeholder engagement and coordination at all levels.
Reporting our humanitarian response to key donors and partners
Ensure that all program interventions are of a high quality and lead to measurable impact. This includes, but is not limited to, overseeing the program implementation plan and annual work plan preparation, identifying external technical support needs, ensuring that appropriate management practices are being used in program implementation and the monitoring and evaluation systems are being used to provide timely management information.
Ensures full compliance of the humanitarian response programme with CHS standards.
In liaison with project communications officer, ensures good programme visibility.
Supports resource acquisition for continued programme response.
Manages the program budget and complete financial forecasting to inform cost-efficient, on-budget programming. Develop and oversee systems to monitor monthly spending.
Leads risk management and mitigation measures, regularly updating tools and facilitating risk awareness within the team.
Qualifications:
Degree in international development, social sciences, agriculture, and other related fields. Master’s degree is an advantage.
Demonstrated experience in managing medium sized programs in fragile context
At least 5 years of continuous experience with technical design and implementation of livelihoods, cash transfer and market systems development programming, 2 years must be in a humanitarian response in with international NGOs
Experience with use of relevant sector design and assessment tools for service providers, market, needs, distribution and post-distribution processes
Excellent verbal and written communication, network building and stakeholder management skills, and the capacity to work at a strategic level with both internal and external stakeholders; ability to influence with effective listening, persuasion, negotiation, and other techniques.
Excellent problem solving and analytical skills with ability to identify problems and opportunities within a rapidly changing context, and propose and implement sound, forward looking solutions in a flexible and creative style; experience using adaptive management strategies.
Skills and Competencies:
- Good understanding of humanitarian response landscape in Zambia
- Excellent English language writing skills.
- Project management experience
- Experience in creating, managing, and analysing budgets and writing and reviewing narrative reports.
- Ability to work with and through Zambia NGO partners
- Excellent verbal communication skills in English. Proficiency in Njanja and Tonga is desirable.
- Proficient use of MS office applications.
Personal attributes:
- High ethical standards of behavior, respect for others, and confidentiality.
- Strong interpersonal skills
- The ability to work in a multicultural and diverse environment.
- Energetic, proactive, and capable of working independently as well as being an active member of the team.
- Flexible and creative with a positive attitude and an aptitude for solving problems.
- Thoroughness, attention to detail and strong analytical skills.
