The Senior Expert - Emergency Preparedness and Response will ensure that relevant emergency preparedness and response capacities are built in the Helvetas Ethiopia program, with a strong focus on the nexus of humanitarian and development activities. The role holder will lead the design, planning, and coordination of effective and appropriate large and smaller-scale stand-alone humanitarian interventions that are implemented and managed by respective project teams as well as designing nexus and ER elements in development projects. The position furthermore takes the lead on the country humanitarian strategic management, representation, coordination, advocacy and program support at senior level. This position will be based in Addis Ababa Helvetas HO and works with project managers, focal persons and other staff members in HELVETAS field locations (Sekota, Debark, Bahr Dar, Hawasa and Yabelo) and any other as required and as requested.

Detail Responsibilities and Tasks:

Strategy:

Provide strategic leadership in establishing the Helvetas’ humanitarian response strategy in line with the Country Strategy and building on the principles of Triple Nexus – connecting humanitarian with developmental action and peace building;

Coordinate within Helvetas’ regional offices on humanitarian issues build strategies accordingly;

Liaise with HO donor units and technical advisors to assure strategies and proposals meet internal standards and are donor compliant;

Develop and maintain close working relationships with project teams, experts (SIE, MEAL, Safety & Security) and Communications Officer to encourage and strengthen Helvetas’ overall Emergency Preparedness & Response quality;

Build the capacity of staff in humanitarian response including conducting assessment, design and implementation of humanitarian response activities.

Planning and Preparation:

Lead the design and development of appropriate contingency plans, and related preparedness and mitigation strategies, including capacity building initiatives, to ensure Helvetas’ humanitarian mandate can be met at all times;

Lead the preparedness by ensuring that well-trained human resources are always ready to act and appropriate tools and modalities are readily available to project teams and implementing partners;

Support partner organizations in developing required capacity to deliver projects within agreed parameters;

Ensure that key humanitarian information is circulated timely, within Helvetas and with partners;

Ensure that funds are properly allocated to humanitarian preparedness, capacity building and implementation.

Procedures and Protocols:

Coordinate the overall national and local response as and when required;

Develop and manage an appropriate response to humanitarian crises in line with agreed standards (e.g. Core Humanitarian Standards, Code of Conduct; SPHERE, Gender Policy etc.) and Helvetas’ best practice;

Lead and guide the development of a gender sensitive rapid situation assessment mechanism and develop high quality gender responsive proposals for emergency response;

Ensure that emergency response activities are implemented in a consultative, participative and gender sensitive way.

Operations:

Lead on enhancing Helvetas’ ability to respond in a timely, appropriate, accountable and cost-effective manner to humanitarian crises in program areas;

Ensure a focus on program quality and accountability to affected people in a continuum between relief, recovery and on-going development programs;

Provide required inputs to other departmental strategies, including but not limited to preparedness, contingency planning, advocacy, gender, protection and development and support relevant policy issues;

Implement Complaints Response Mechanisms (CRM) for accountability and transparency reasons, particularly in respect of the beneficiary populations we work with;

Be the source of early intelligence and acquire resources for humanitarian response projects through well maintained networks and strong contacts and lead on project design.

Representation:

Represent Helvetas in appropriate humanitarian fora at a local and national level with government authorities, UN organizations, NGO’s, private sector and donor agencies. 

Job Requirements

• Master’s degree in social science particularly emergency aid, food security, gender, sociology and other related fields with ample implementation experience in different parts of Ethiopia;
• A minimum of three years of emergency response management experience with INGOs, UN or other relief and development organizations, notably experience of implementing gendered humanitarian interventions and mainstreaming protection in humanitarian interventions;
• Cooperation and teamwork with different Helvetas development projects
• Excellent English language skill both spoken and written with strong comprehension and writing skills, and ability to persuade with diplomacy and tact. Ability to speak more than one Ethiopian language will be an advantage
• Direct and relevant experience on gender and social equity programming, training and communication in an INGO setting is a must
• Coordination and organizational skills, even under difficult conditions
• Upholding HELVETAS’s Core values and ensuring its principles
• Comply and exercise organizational values and culture as stipulated in the Code of Conduct and Child Protection Policy and others in all emergency activities
• Help to promote rights and good governance as well as complaint handling mechanisms in all emergency activities
• Ensure gender transformative behavior is built into emergency response activities where appropriate

How to Apply

Interested applicants should submit their application, including a CV, with names and contact numbers of three referees directly either by CLICK HERE , or by email through  hr.ethiopia@helvetas.org .