Turkey: Program Manager II - Food Security & Livelihoods Cluster

Feb 9, 2017 | Catholic Relief Services
View Original

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

Primary Role:

The FSL Cluster Co-Coordinator is responsible for ensuring that FSL Cluster is implementing proportionate, appropriate, and timely responses that are cost-efficient.  The FSL Cluster Co-Coordinator works in close coordination and harmony with the other FSL Cluster Co-Coordinator (FAO/WFP) and implementing member organizations (IMOs).
 

The Co-Coordinator liaises very closely with Cluster members, Donors, OCHA, the Inter-sector working group and relevant bodies/groups to ensure a direct link with the response and planning. The Cluster Co-Coordinator shall be based in Antakya or Gaziantep (with frequent travel to both locations) and coordinates regularly with all coordination fora. In addition, the Co-Coordinator would also provide technical recommendations, best practices and quality standards in the areas of Food security and Livelihoods, humanitarian principles, and market-based modalities including the use of cash and vouchers.
 

The Co-Coordinator will report directly to the CRS/Turkey Head of Programming and will also be responsible for supervising the Information Management Officer/support officer (CRS employee).


CRS Background and Context:

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) began its operations in Turkey in response to the growing humanitarian needs of vulnerable populations in Northern Syria and refugees in Turkey. In Northwest Syria, CRS is working through its partner DAR to provide assistance in immediate lifesaving support as well as slowly paving the way for transitional development initiatives to meet medium to long term needs of vulnerable families inside Syria. Through programs funded by USAID/FFP, USAID/OFDA, GAC/IHA (Canada), and other private donors, CRS has developed a wide reaching portfolio of programs to support the immediate food and NFI needs of IDPs and host communities in NW Syria through a collection of in-kind, voucher and cash modalities.  The DAR team in Syria is also implementing a number of other emergency response and early recovery projects focusing on Agriculture, WASH, Shelter and Psycho-social support. In addition to programming inside Syria, CRS is working through a network of partners in Turkey to implement formal and informal education and psycho-social activities for refugee children and youth. CRS/Turkey currently holds a main office in Antakya/Hatay.

FSL Cluster Background and Context:

Following a mission by the global Food Security Cluster to Gaziantep and Antakya in April 2013, including intensive consultations with various humanitarian actors, it was determined that technical and coordination support would add great value to ongoing efforts in the Food Security and Livelihood (FSL) sector. The Global Food Security Cluster has since deployed a coordinator seconded from FAO and an Information Management Officer to provide contextualized coordination solutions and sector support to FSL actors in Southern Turkey. In February 2015 the Cluster system was officially activated in Turkey by the IASC principals.  The FSL Cluster is chaired by the global FSC chairs (WFP-FAO), with an NGO nominated by the NGO Forum as the Co-Chair.  CRS has been selected in January 2017 to take over the co-lead for the coming period.

Primary Responsibilities:

Ensuring the inclusion of key humanitarian partners within the cluster coordination mechanism through:

  • Identifying key humanitarian partners for the FSL cluster, respecting their existing mandates and program priorities;
  • Ensuring appropriate coordination with all humanitarian partners (especially with Syrian, Turkish and international NGOs; the UN agencies, the Red Crescent Movement, and other international organizations active in the sector) as well as with national authorities and local structures (if applicable);
  • Establish/maintain appropriate cluster coordination mechanisms, including working groups at the national, international (WoS) and if necessary, local level in close collaboration with the other Cluster co-coordinators and Lead and co-lead agencies;
  • Fully integrate the IASC’s agreed priority cross-cutting issues, namely human rights, HIV/AIDS, age, gender and environment, utilizing participatory and community-based approaches into all relevant initiatives and responses.  In line with this, promote gender equality by ensuring that the needs, contributions and capacities of women and girls as well as men and boys are addressed;
  • Ensuring the complementarity of the various stakeholder’s actions;
  • Promoting emergency response actions considering the need for early recovery planning as well as prevention and risk reduction concerns;
  • Ensuring effective links with other clusters (also with OCHA support);
  • Representing the interests of the FSL cluster in discussions with the DRHC on prioritization, resource mobilization and advocacy;
  • Act as focal point for inquiries on the cluster’s response plans and operations.
  • Provide access to Arabic language translation during the cluster meetings and cluster communications and products.

Co-lead emergency preparedness and contingency planning amongst Cluster member agencies

Coordinate emergency funds (ERF, Pooled funds)

  • Advocate for FSL fund and partners’ priorities within the emergency fund;
  • Ensuring that a neutral and inclusive Cluster review committee formed by FSC members is set up for proposal review and recommendation.

Deliver strong coordination and information sharing during emergency responses within the cluster, including the identification of gaps and the updating of sector response plans; lead efforts to collect up-to-date information to provide an accurate picture of food security and livelihoods so that the cluster and member agencies can design appropriate and high quality responses.

Development, revision, dissemination and application of technical standards and best practices;

Ensure that adequate verification and reporting mechanisms are in place to measure progress against implementation plans and sector objectives. Specifically, this will include:

  • Ensuring adequate monitoring mechanisms are in place to review impact of the sector and progress against implementation plans to include an analytical interpretation of best available information in order to benchmark progress of the emergency response over time; i.e. use of monitoring indicators (quantity, quality, coverage, continuity and cost) of interventions, which are derived from working towards meeting standards (mentioned in point 4);
  • Ensuring regular and adequate reporting against cluster indicators of intervention progress and impact (quantity, quality, coverage, continuity and cost), to include a sector gaps analysis;
  • Ensuring effective information sharing (with OCHA support), with due regard for age and gender desegregation;
  • Liaison with Cluster Chair agencies to develop a comprehensive gaps analysis for Syria based on the information collected by the Turkey Food Security and livelihoods Custer.

Provide a forum for advocacy and resource mobilization which includes:

  • Advocating with donors to fund Cluster partners to carry out priority activities in the sector concerned, while at the same time encouraging cluster partners to mobilize resources for their activities through their usual channels.
  • Identification of core advocacy concerns, including resource requirements, and contribute key messages to broader advocacy initiatives of the DRHC and other actors;

Strengthen the capacity of humanitarian actors through training and capacity investment through:

  • Promoting and support training of humanitarian personnel and capacity building of humanitarian partners;
  • Supporting efforts to strengthen the capacity of the national/local partners and civil society.
    Supporting the national/local partners with bilateral meeting.

Supervision and coaching:

  • Directly supervise and provide effective coaching, mentoring and support to the Information Management Officer
  • Ensure adherence to the CRS Performance Management System, including high quality Performance and Development plans, self-appraisals and assessments.
  • Seek opportunities to support the professional development and advancement of direct reports through external and internal trainings, acting coverage, TDYs, on-the-job learning opportunities and other mechanisms.

Qualifications and Experience:
 

Requirements:

  • Academic background and advanced degree in Humanitarian Studies, Agriculture, Community Development, Natural Resource Management or closely related discipline.
  • At least three years of practical experience with an international development organization, managing agricultural/livelihoods projects under complex operating environments similar to Syria (preferable MENA region).
  • Good/Excellent knowledge of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) /Cluster system/IASC references/FSC guidelines.
  • Excellent technical understanding and experience in the FSL sector, particularly in emergency contexts.
  • Proven coordination and relationship building skills.
  • Strong analytical, information management and presentation skills.
  • Good IT skills, including strong knowledge of MS Office applications
  • Excellent communication, interpersonal and training skills and a track record of building/developing cohesive teams.
  • Strong knowledge of household livelihood security framework, value chains methodology and market-based approaches to working with poor populations.
  • Excellent English language skills (written and spoken), with good knowledge of Arabic (spoken and written) a distinct advantage

Desirable:

  • Experience coordinating Sector or multi-agency working groups
  • Experience of working in Syria (MENA region)
  • Arabic speaker
  • CRS’ recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

Catholic Relief Services is an Equal Opportunity Employer