With 75 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.

Come join our 33,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

Employee Contract Type:

Local - Fixed Term Employee (Fixed Term)

Job Description:

Background:

World Vision is a Christian Relief and Development organization dedicated to helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience the fullness of life. In West Africa, WV partner with other organizations and communities to address the root causes of vulnerability and respond to natural disasters and conflict challenges that children and their families are confronted to. The agency has operational presence in nine countries in the region including Burkina Faso, CAR, Chad, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone and deploys humanitarian assistance and protection across different sectors, spanning health, food security, nutrition, child protection, education, water and sanitation, etc. with the goal to protect and lift up the well-being of children.

WV is looking for an outstanding humanitarian professional to coordinate and ensure the continued success of its disaster management mission in the region.

JOB PURPOSE  

WV is looking for an outstanding humanitarian professional to coordinate and ensure the continued success of its disaster management mission in West Africa region. The position provides strategic leadership and oversight to the integrated humanitarian and external engagement. This includes: HEA, external & Internal communications, advocacy and campaigns, and regional security coordination. The Director ensures coherence across humanitarian operations and external engagement, aligning with the regional strategy, global frameworks, and field priorities. Further the RHEAD will;

Provide strategic, innovative and operational leadership to the design and implementation of World Vision’s (WV) disaster management in West Africa, in line with Regional and Field office strategies.  Ensure the quality of WV emergency preparedness and response including compliance with WV Emergency Management System (EMS), Disaster Management Standards (DMS), WV Disaster Management policies and internationally recognized standards.  Position the organization in humanitarian emerging issues such as climate resilience, Humanitarian Development and Peace nexus, etc. Oversee WV response coordination mechanisms for the region including the Declaration Decision Group (DDG), Partnership Coordination Team (PCT), the Response Launch Support Team and Partnership Executive Team (PET)  Represent WARO in relevant country Strategy Support Team (SST) meetings as agreed with the SDO   Provide advisory support to the Disaster Management operations in the region working with all sectors and functions to ensure WV’s disaster management work is cutting edge, and effectively supporting children in all types of emergencies, with particular focus on conflicts, economic and climate related shocks. Build relationships internally and externally to increase and promote integrated disaster management and resource development, and be an authoritative voice for policy change and learning.  Provide leadership to the regional communications and advocacy unit, including the advocacy and campaigns and regional security operations.  

Key Outputs/Responsibilities

Strategic leadership and vision for WAR’s HEA department, Communications & Public Engagement, Advocacy, Campaigns and External engagement and Security functions (30%)

Position World Visions as a competent, innovative and effective humanitarian agency by ensuring that the West-Africa region responds professionally to all Categories of emergencies  Develop HEA contributions to the WAR Strategic Plan and to multi-regional and global emergency responses using innovative and cutting-edge programming and processes Assess existing disasters and Hunger Emergency and develop the necessary preparedness, advocacy and resourcing action plans. Work with the resource development unit and the Support offices to ensure effective resourcing of all aspects of disaster management, including innovative new funding opportunities with non-traditional donors Working with Field offices, assess, adopt and operationalize WV’s with a range of contemporary issues such as humanitarian principles, IHL, internationally recognized humanitarian standards, codes of conduct, contextual & humanitarian analysis, conflict issues. Work closely with other units, the technical specialists and the global campaign “ENOUGH” team to foster integration in West Africa Region Work closely with National Directors (ND), the Regional Security Adviser and Office of Security, Safety and Resilience (SSR) to promote appropriate measures for risk mitigation and staff awareness especially in medium to high risk locations. Coordinate and supervise WV participation in key networks and interagency working groups in the region Provide strategic oversight and coordination of the region’s external engagement, including public communications, advocacy and campaigns, and security. Ensure effective coordination between humanitarian response, advocacy, campaigns (e.g. ENOUGH), and external messaging. Strengthen WV's visibility and influence in the region through media, digital platforms, and advocacy networks. Align the regional communications and advocacy agendas with global positioning and local context. Support capacity building of communications and advocacy teams at the field level. Facilitate risk-informed messaging and protection-sensitive communications. Coordinate with the Regional Security Director to ensure child-safe, staff-safe operational environments, especially in fragile contexts. Ensure external engagement is responsive to crises and amplifies children’s voices during emergencies. 

Operational Support (15%)

Support and advise the West Africa Region Senior leadership in the event of Category II and Category III declarations and in the matrix management of Cat III responses Ensure Field offices have the technical and managerial capacity to respond to Cat 2 and 3 responses. In the event of a Global or Field Office Response declaration, fulfil all duties of the RHEAD (Regional HEA Director) Terms of Reference (ToR) as outlined in the Emergency Management System manual. Monitor all West Africa HEA projects on a regular basis, noting policy implications, and offering appropriate support to ensure projects are managed according to WVI and international standards. Maintain an up-to-date list of emergencies and related reviews/declarations meetings through established coordination mechanisms Operational support to communications, regional advocacy and campaigns and security functions.  

Technical support and capacity building (15%)

Support capacity building of HEA units at Regional and Field Office (FO) levels, including leading Regional Disaster Management Team (RDMT) and National Disaster Management Team (NDMT) Trainings. Lead the West Africa Region HEA team in ensuring that field offices have the knowledge, skills, resources tools and capacity to maximize mitigation, preparedness, response and transition at a community level. Ensure individuals’ performance and development needs are met, and employees are high performing and engaged.  Engage in FO HEA staff hiring processes Assure that Field Offices have a functioning National Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund (NEPRF) in place as per the NEPRF policy guidelines. Ensure that Regional HEA Unit is adequately resourced and capacities are built and developed to provide effective support to FOs. Promote and ensure high standards of programmatic quality in such areas as emergency programming and Design Monitoring and Evaluation (DME).  Facilitate integration of Nexus, Anticipatory actions and transition approaches into field offices and regional strategies where feasible. Ensure that the FOs Disaster Management Scorecards and Disaster Preparedness plans, as well as Community-based Disaster Preparedness Plans (DPPs) are updated on a regular basis Assist in establishing Early Warning systems and strengthening Early Warning and Anticipatory Actions implementation  Participate in, and facilitate lessons learned processes, program evaluations and audits (operational as well as financial) of Field Offices (FO) responses, and contribute to post-audit monitoring and remedial activities. 

Management (15%)

Provide oversight on overall department plan and budget ensuring that operations are within approved plan and budget. Ensure that staff annual objectives, performance indicators and learning development plans are achieved. Provide oversight to the management of exceptions during emergency responses in collaboration with the Regional Finance Director. Actively promote staff care practices & policies within the Integrated Ministry team and with NO counterparts. Ensure the proactive and consistent cross-functional engagement of the HEA team as an integral part of the West Africa Region Senior Management Team. Lead and coordinate surge management to strengthen response capacity. Ensure that HEA operation is compliant with WV’s policies, procedures, practices and standards, minimize risk. 

Collaboration and learning (20%)

At a strategic and policy level, represent WV with Government agencies, UN, INGO and Church bodies, in collaboration with Field Offices (if present), dealing with macro and local issues regarding humanitarian principles including advocating on key issues which affect the most vulnerable. Enhance constructive collaboration with Global Center (GC), WAR departments, Learning Centers (LCs), Support Offices (SOs), Global capitals, FO’s, regional networks, institutional donors and organizations at regional and country level to ensure effective and efficient disaster management. Promote continuous learning in the field of HEA at regional level and ensuring that FOs take up good practices. Share learning, innovations and better practices across the region and HEA Community of Practice (CoP) Ensure HEA is contributing to Child Well-Being (CWB) reporting and breaking silos between development and relief Working with the Resource Development director, represent WVWAR in strategic forums that could enhance WVs profile 

In line with FO and RO strategy, build consortium and relationships with other agencies for disaster management. 

General responsibilities (5%)

Contribute and support Christian activities that enrich and develop mutual growth in Christ in a way that promotes holistic and integrated witness in our life and work and impacts the poor and vulnerable. 

Perform any other tasks assigned by the supervisor. 

Required Education, training, license, registration, and/or certification: Masters-level degree in management or similar areas of study.

Required Professional Experience:

A Minimum of 15 years in operational humanitarian experience with minimum of seven years in a leadership role, preferably in Africa  Strong empirical knowledge of the humanitarian sector including humanitarian charters, laws and standards Strong commitment to WV’s vision, mission and core values Strong ability and commitment in critical networking, relationship building, and partnerships, especially those outside of WV itself Understanding of management and integration in a cross functional management matrix model  Strong skills in strategy development, prioritization and implementation Understanding of and comfort with providing leadership in an increasingly globalized organization in an increasingly complex industry environment.Proven ability to manage large numbers of staff, efficiently and effectively, whether in a live or virtual environment. Recent and extensive experience living and working in sub-Saharan Africa. Effective in written and verbal communication in French and English.  Additional languages representative of the countries WV serves in an advantage. Fluent in both French and English 

Required Language(s): French and English languages 

Required travel and/or work environment accommodations :

The position requires the ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 30% of the time.  Virtual/hybrid working environment 

Position’s physical requirements : This position requires ability to cope under significant pressure while maintaining a healthy work life balance.  

Preferred Experience, Knowledge and/or other Qualifications :

Experience working with World Vision internationally, thorough understanding of WVI’s internal business processes and policies.   Proven track record of delivering consistent, quality results with accountability and integrity. 

Applicant Types Accepted:

Local Applicants Only