Deputy Country Director for Programs

Solidarites International

Yangon, Myanmar

About the mission

Myanmar, all projects (funding from ECHO, UNOPS, UNICEF, MHF, FCDO, CDCS, CIAA-AAP, French Agence de l’Eau, AFD). Large volume of grants (8, regular ones) and impacts of fundraising dedicated to the Mandalay and Sagaing Earthquakes response (top-ups or 3 new grants), covering Rakhine, Kachin and the central part of the country. Participation to number of consortia of various international and national NGOs across bases.

General objective:

The DCD-Programs’ prime objectives are to provide leadership and management of the strategic programming, overseeing the strengthening of SI’s programs development, quality and accountability. The DCD-Programs ensures the internal coherence between program activities and is responsible for ensuring that programs are driven by needs, based on evidence, adaptable to contextual changes and conflict sensitive, monitored closely and resourced appropriately. He or She leads a team of technical coordinators and advisors dedicated to promoting technical expertise and quality programming in direct liaison with the Program teams. He or She closely collaborates with Field Coordinators and Supports Services to mitigate operational constraints.

The DCD-Programs leads the roll-out of institutional workstreams and cross-cutting theme framework with the support of the Programs coordination team and in collaboration with the Field Coordinators.

About the job

Issues and specific challenges:

Access challenges and remote management: due to bureaucratic and administrative impediments, access to the country and, within the country, access to the areas of intervention remains a constant challenge to adapt to with impacts on completion of activities, budget consumption;
Scope of programming: with activities ranging from pure emergency response through partners to development activities implemented by SI, the scope of programming of SI Myanmar covers a wide spectrum, although focusing primarily on WASH, FSL and shelter & NFI. Number and diversity of consortia established and envisioned at country level (both national and international partners) are requesting SI teams to improve its command and collaboration with Health, Nutrition and Protection responses;
Partnership approach: a strong focus is put on localization in all areas of intervention. This requires adaptation to new operational modalities and a strong support to local partners.

Priorities on the 2-3 first months:

Close monitoring of program implementation, adaptation to remote settings: in a volatile environment, and with a recently increased budget for parts of the mission and a decrease in other parts, a close monitoring of projects’ progress and budget consumption is required to adapt quickly to the situation, in line with donors’ contractual requirements, programming strategy etc.;
Revise operational model to fit critical underfunding of protracted sub-crises in Myanmar;
Develop alternative fundraising in the concerned areas;
Finalize the programming strategies of the mission and at base level in close collaboration with the Country Director and the 3 field coordinators, adapt the needs assessment and updated access capacities to review programming priorities (geographical areas, sectors, modalities);
Localization process: localization is a strong trend in Myanmar context, due to multiple reasons. Support should be provided to the coordination and bases’ teams to ensure identification of relevant partners and update a localization and partnership approach on the mission.

Security constraints:

No major security concerns in SI office (coordination), both Rakhine and Kachin are in Security level 3, borderline 4, but remain largely inaccessible for expatriate given the visa situation. The position will be based in Yangon as a starter.

Remote management and adapted modalities require a strong application of digital/online security framework.

Your profile

Education/academic background:

MSc in Humanitarian affairs, programming, International affairs.

More than 5 years in the humanitarian sector;
3-4 years of experience on a similar position.

Specific skills and experience:

Transversal skills

Extensive knowledge about project cycle management and monitoring tools;
Operational monitoring and improvement of programmatic delivery in highly constrained areas;
Experience in partnerships mapping and development.