Humanitarian Programme Officer – LAC

Duty station: Bogotá, Colombia
Starting date: Immediate
Initial contract: 2-year fixed term contract
Position at (%): 100%
Reports to: Regional Representative Latin America and the Caribbean
Languages required: English, Spanish
Experience: Minimum 5 years

Application deadline: 30/08/2021

About ACT Alliance ACT Alliance is a coalition of more than 135 churches and affiliated organizations working together to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalized people regardless of their religion, politics, gender, sexual orientation, race or nationality. ACT Alliance is supported by 30,000 staff from member organizations and mobilizes about USD 3 billion for its work each year in three targeted areas: humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and advocacy action. The global ACT Alliance secretariat is based in Geneva Switzerland, Amman Jordan, Bangkok Thailand, Brussels Belgium, San Salvador El Salvador (moving to Bogota Colombia), Nairobi Kenya, New York USA and Toronto Canada. The secretariat supports the work of ACT forums and members by fulfilling key functions of connecting, facilitating, promoting and leveraging the work of ACT members and ACT national and regional forums. For more details about the general work of ACT, please refer to http://www.actalliance.org/

ACT Humanitarian Action One of ACT Alliance’s key strategies is to support an effective humanitarian response by ACT members. This area of work builds on the long history of ACT’s humanitarian work and contributes directly to the strategic aim on human dignity where the application of internationally recognised humanitarian principles and standards helps ensure the protection of human dignity. The humanitarian programme supports the Alliance to demonstrate enhanced efficiency, coordination and timeliness in humanitarian work, as well as to integrate approaches around response, preparedness, disaster risk reduction (DDR), climate change intervention and sustainable development.

Major functions The Humanitarian Programme Officer supports ACT members and country forums in Latin America and the Caribbean to develop/implement emergency preparedness and response plans and manages the implementation of the humanitarian mechanism based on the ACT Humanitarian Policy and integration of resilience programming in humanitarian appeals. She/he primarily works closely with ACT Alliance members and forums at the country-level, supporting humanitarian work in LAC, and with the secretariat’s humanitarian and regional teams.

Duties and responsibilities

· Works with the Head of Humanitarian Affairs, Global Humanitarian Operations Manager, Regional Representative and ACT Reference Group on Emergency Preparedness and Humanitarian Response in developing the ACT Global Emergencies Protocol/standby arrangements, and subsequent establishment of the mechanism at the regional level.

· Supports the Head of Humanitarian Affairs and Global Humanitarian Operations Manager towards the full implementation of the Humanitarian Response Mechanism and the ACT Humanitarian Policy.

· With the ACT Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, coordinates with other humanitarian agencies, donors and relevant UN agencies at the regional and country levels to advance ACT humanitarian work and promote best practices for emergency response.

· Provides coordination, technical and capacity building support to the regional office and country forums in ensuring effective, timely and accountable emergency response through the ACT Appeals and Rapid Response Fund (RRF) mechanisms.

· Fulfils a quality assurance role by using the CHS to quality check all forum level RRF and Appeal proposals prior to submission to the secretariat for approval.

· Provides CHS training at forum and member level in line with requirements identified through the development of EPRPs.

· Ensures that a functional monitoring and evaluation, reporting and learning support is provided to country forums and members in the implementation of Appeals and RRFs; leads the humanitarian learning and knowledge management process at the regional level.

· Serves as focal person for emergency preparedness and response planning (EPRP) at the regional level and provides appropriate coordination and capacity building support to country forums and members on EPRP.

· Supports ACT humanitarian advocacy work by engaging with country forums and regional bodies in advancing ACT’s advocacy priorities and works closely with the ACT Regional Representative and Head of Humanitarian Affairs in relevant advocacy platforms.

· Ensures timely submission of RRF and Appeal reports to the GHOM.

Competences and behaviours

· Committed to the values of the ACT Alliance and takes pride in delivering on agreed priorities according to the highest standards individually and as part of a global team.

· Proactively finds innovative and creative solutions, is efficient and reliable, adapts to change and uncertainty, is decisive and acts with integrity.

· Builds effective internal and external relationships, involves others when solving problems and treats others with consideration and respect in an alliance where faith is a key ingredient of people’s lives.

· Passion for building and developing core skills for the role and contributes knowledge outside of immediate own role.

· Effectively motivates, influences, and develops others, drives high performance, inspires people to follow them and acts as a role model.

Working relationships

· Reports to the ACT Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean (line management) and the Head of Humanitarian Affairs (matrix management).

· Supports the ACT national and regional forums and relevant humanitarian structures within the Alliance.

· Liaises with external organisations, ecumenical bodies, the UN, governmental representations, and INGO networks relevant to humanitarian issues.

Skills and experience

· At least five years of humanitarian response experience with an international organisation (preferably a combination of field and headquarters programme management experience).

· Excellent knowledge of humanitarian issues, policies, principles and standards (especially CHS) and humanitarian coordination mechanisms.

· Experience in DRR, preparedness, LRRD (linkage between Relief, Reconstruction and Development) and/or resilience programming an advantage.

· Familiarity with the role of faith-based actors in humanitarian response.