United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Emergency Operations Manager

Job Title: Emergency Operations Manager

Grade and salary: Competitive

Location: London with frequent travel in sub-Saharan Africa

Department: DAI Global Health

Responsible To: DAI-TDDAP Team Leader

Matrix Managed (employer): Paula Sansom, The Operations Partnership

Key Relationships: Other ERM team members (, Health advisor, Grants Manager, and Grants Coordinator), Country Coordinators, and other DAI and DAI-TDDAP team members and consortium members

Externally, working relationships with key partners, WHO, MoH and other INGOs

Contract: Permanent, full time (36.5 hours per week)

The Operations Partnership, partnered with DAI on the TDDAP project, is looking to recruit an Emergency Operations Manager

JOB PURPOSE

The Emergency Operations Manager will provide oversight to the ERM operational activities with partners associated with Output 5. They will be responsible for the provision of operational and emergency preparedness input, which includes the review of proposals and their associated budgets and the identification of any operational risks and collating information to inform decision making throughout the ERM funding process. Ensure processes and protocols are followed by partners and advise when revisions are required. Ensure the appropriate input into developing grant activity recommendations and the validation of the decision making and reporting requirements.

They will manage multiple streams of work that are being implemented by the ERM team within the six priority countries, as well as other countries that are identified within the WHO-AFRO region, who meet the agreed ERM criteria. Guide and support partners with understanding and mitigating operational challenges in the implementation of response activities to mitigate against the potential escalation of an identified outbreak from a pre-crisis to a crisis scenario.

Play a leading role in assessing and building the local emergency response capacity of identified partners, both national and international, in areas related to the ERM response. This will include the facilitation of the direct delivery of emergency preparedness and response trainings in country and the coordination of any external trainings when required and in agreement with each of the country coordinators of the six priority countries.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Responsibilities

ERM Funding:

• Play a key role in grant management, reviewing proposals for funding, including quality checking proposals and budgets,
• Provide the support and back-up necessary to enable the ERM to respond to emergencies within focus countries within 24-72 hours
• Working with the wider ERM team oversee the monitoring of partner responses, troubleshooting issues and coordinate with key stakeholders and checking exit strategies.
• Work with teams across the six focus countries to coordinate pre-crisis response funding and initiatives in support of partners, donor reports and monitor contractual requirements.

·In line with ERM protocols, initiate rapid appraisals and develop recommendations for response that may be required in any pre-crisis scenario planning

• Support finalization of the ERM protocols during the first phase of implementation and ensure regular review points during the project implementation.
• Participate in a rotational on-call system that is shared between the ERM team, although they may be called outside of the agreed on-call period.

Liaison and Coordination:

• Liaise with Key stakeholders, which may include DFID, Epi-Threats, WHO/AFRO, Consortium members, INGOs and national NGOs/CSOs.
• Represent DAI-TDDAP ERM externally as required.

Partner management and strengthening:

• Support the partners on programme quality including the adherence to donor requirements, the implementation of international programme standards (e.g. Sphere) and adherence to internal guidelines, policies and procedures.
• Oversee and undertake partner capacity assessments to identify emergency preparedness needs of partners in the 6 focus countries.

· Facilitate the direct delivery of trainings and knowledge transfer activities to help build the capacity of identified partners and have proven experience with cross cultural team and capacity building.

• Lead roll out of partner capacity building in organisational emergency preparedness including the roll out of Emergency Preparedness planning and resource management e.g. ALERT Platform, both directly and in identifying trainers and emergency preparedness experts.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Ensure appropriate levels of monitoring and evaluation of pre-crisis response grants including After Action Reviews
• Liaise with the DAI-TDDAP Monitoring and Evaluation manager to track progress, gather and share lessons learned.
• Review monthly field reports and ensure appropriate follow up and decision making on data relevant to the partners activities.
• Participate in the preparation of any agreed monthly reporting to DFID and contribute to any internal reports as requested.
• Reports on any field visits and training deliveries undertaken.

Operational Management and support:

· Work with Country Coordinators to ensure country-specific MOUs are in place and clear on the scope of ERM operations

· Monitor high-risk contracts and produce monthly reports on operational adherence to protocol flagging any issues.

• Support the Grants Manager to ensure timely monthly reporting from the field and actively promote good communication between country offices, partners and the ERM team
• Work with partners to share and monitor the security context and information to potential and active responses to inform decision making and donor made aware of relevant issues and incidents.
• Ensure any hosting partner has security guidelines and policies in place and any ERM team members or ERM consultants have relevant security information before travel

COMPETENCIES
Essential

• A degree-level education or equivalent work experience.
• Significant project and operational management skills, including managing teams and budget literacy.
• Significant experience working with donors and donor compliance (especially DFID), and managing a portfolio of grants.
• Experience in conducting assessments, analysing and interpreting data and comfortable making decisions or recommendations autonomously.
• Experience in organisational capacity building, ideally with national partners.
• Experience of working in a humanitarian team and responding to emergencies – preferably in disease outbreak response. Possess a high level of adaptability and be able to adjust to the constantly changing programmatic and working environment due to the diverse pre-crisis outbreak scenarios that are likely to present across the countries.
• Excellent command of written and spoken English and French.
• Good knowledge of aid sector and standards, such as Codes of Conduct and Sphere
• Experience of establishing strong working relationships with colleagues from different functions and cultures
• Able to work independently and manage various tasks under tight deadlines and limited resources.
• Able to develop/adapt training materials and deliver trainings to a variety of audiences
• Willing to work unsocial hours during emergencies and able and willing to travel to remote and insecure locations for short periods of time and at short notice.

Desirable

• UK-based international development project experience.

• Experience of working in a consortium

• Experience of emergency health programming or knowledge of basic public health approaches

• Experience of working in Sub-saharan Africa

• Available to deploy for STTA to the WHO/AFRO region. Last date for submission of applications is 15th August 2019.

Interested applicants are requested to email their resumes at info@theoperationspartnership.com