Job Description

Position:                                  Deputy Area Coordinator

Department:                             Coordination

Location:                                  South West State

Direct Hierarchy:                      Area Coordinator

Starting date:                           Nov 2024

Background on ACTED

Created in 1993, ACTED is an international non-governmental organization pursuing a dual mandate of emergency response and development interventions in 40 of some of the world’s most vulnerable countries affected by conflicts, disasters, or socio-economic hardship. With a team of 7,000 national staff and 400 international staff, ACTED implements 500 projects a year to support more than 20 million beneficiaries, notably in hard-to-reach areas.

ACTED goes to the last mile through programs and approaches that look beyond the immediate emergency towards opportunities for longer term livelihood reconstruction and sustainable development. Guided by the motto “Think Local, Act Global” and its 3Zero –Zero Exclusion, Zero Carbon, and Zero Poverty – strategy, ACTED puts local territories at the centre and provides a tailored support to local needs.

ACTED is looking for professionally confident, self-motivated, experienced, and committed team player to fill the Deputy Area Coordinator position to based in South West State, Somalia.

Position Profile:

The Deputy Area Coordinator is responsible for assisting the Area Coordinator (AC) to represent ACTED’s interests in South West State with local authorities, donors, beneficiary communities and other key stakeholders. The Deputy Area Coordinator works to ensure program quality and operational implementation, as well as growth where appropriate and feasible, and strong representation. The Deputy Area Coordinator supports the Area Coordinator and Project staff to ensure that projects and programs address beneficiary needs and are implemented according to ACTED’s global strategy, donor guidelines, approved work plans and budgets. The Deputy Area Coordinator also assists with overseeing the day-to-day operations and security in the respective area. In this particular setup the Deputy Area Coordinator will have to oversee the main programmatic, project development, and Key stakeholder relationships of the base.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Positioning

-       Context analysis 

• Support the AC to analyse the area’s socio-economic situation, (donor) trends, needs and gaps;
• Regularly conduct stakeholder analysis, in particular who does what and where (3W) in the area. 

-       Strategy Implementation 

• Provide support in the implementation of ACTED’s country program strategy in the area identifying strategic opportunities for expanding ACTED’s work in the area, and in particular
• Support in the identification of new opportunities and new sectors of intervention;
• Assist in consolidating and stabilizing programming;
• Review the geographic and thematic footprint;
• Ensure activities are relevant and meeting area/beneficiary needs;
• Identify ACTED added-value;
• Ensure humanitarian principals are adhered to;
• Contribute to identifying new donors, private sector partners, national and international NGOs, think tanks, academia, etc. to work with in the area based on complementarity and added value 
• Networking, positioning and general representation 
• When requested, participate in donor meetings at area level and communicate relevant information to the Country Director and other relevant staff;
• Maintain active and regular working relationships with other NGOs, UN agencies, clusters, working groups, consortia, etc. at area level ensuring maximum visibility of ACTED
• Maintain active and regular working relationships with local authorities and where necessary non-state actors and obtain required authorizations and buy-in for ACTED’s activities at area level
• When requested, represent ACTED in key clusters, working groups, NGO coordination bodies, etc. at area level 
• Proposal development
• Support the Project Development Department in proposal conceptualization (problem statement, log frame) within the framework of the country, regional and global strategy
• Contribute to budget design ensure budget needs at area level have been taken into consideration
• Advocacy 
• Contribute to drafting issues papers, advocacy notes, press releases on relevant humanitarian and development issues in the area of operation 
• Promotion of ACTED network 

Management and Internal Coordination

• Internal Coordination 
• Facilitate interdepartmental communication and information sharing for a positive working environment
• Implement ACTED coordination mechanism at area level (WAM, meeting, etc.) 

Project Implementation Follow-up

• Project Management Oversight and Responsibility 
• Oversight of all other Projects in the area, and the support in Management of other Project Managers at the discretion of the Area Coordinator. 
• Project Implementation Tracking 
• Support Project Managers in project implementation through trouble shooting and eliminating blocking points
• Monitor output achievement, cash burn rates and ensure a time completion of projects through review of PMFs, BFUs and project reports
• Ensure that relevant project information is up-to-date and available for reporting purposes 
• Project Quality Control
• Ensure the application of a practical field-based M&E system/plan for each project
• Conduct frequent field visits to project sites to assess activities and ensure efficient use of resources
• Help Project Managers to adapt projects according to monitoring and evaluation findings
• Ensure beneficiary feedback mechanisms are in place
• Support with the documentation of best practices and lessons learnt for projects in the area of operations. 
• Partner Management 
• Identify potential local partners in the area based on an assessment of complementarity and added value
• Provide support to partners in project implementation and ensure timely and qualitative implementation of projects by partners in line with ACTED and donor requirement 

FLATS Management

• Support BFUs in Programatic aspect
• Assist the Administration and HR Management
• Support Transparency/Compliance Management
• Assist Drafting Political and Security Updates 

Protection Mainstreaming

• Promoting of and adhering to Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse policy and guidelines (for site residents, ACTED staff, partner agencies, casual labors).

Perform other tasks and responsibilities as requested. 

Experiences and Qualifications

  Degree in Political Science, International Development studies or related field is preferable.

• Demonstrated experience (5 years and above) in project development in an NGO/INGO is highly preferable.
• Able to manage a high workload and meet tight deadlines
• Excellent experience in proposal writing
• Understanding of the development’s issues and/or work experience in Somalia
• Well versed with computer knowledge
• Excellent communication skills with knowledge of both internal and external communications environments.
• Proactive, self-starter – able to work with minimum supervision.
• Excellent time management, organization, and prioritization skills, with the ability to work under pressure and to meet deadlines.
• Willingness to travel to the field
• Understanding and ability to fluently speak English language
• Flexible, enthusiastic and willing to listen and learn from others.
• Ability to work independently.

Skills Required

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