Lebanon: Lebanon - An Area Coordinator in Akkar

Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilians’ victims of marginalization and exclusion, or hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapses, by answering their fundamental needs. Our aim is to provide emergency relief to uprooted people in order to help them recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency. The association leads in average 190 projects by year in the following sectors of intervention: food security, health, nutrition, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, water, sanitation, hygiene and economic recovery. PUI is providing assistance to around 5 million people in 20 countries – in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and France.

Humanitarian situation and needs

As the Syrian Crisis is in its fourth year, the number of Syrians seeking refuge in other countries has reached an unprecedented scale. Lebanon is the first host country for Syrian refugees with over 1.2 million refugees registered for an overall population of less than 4.5 million. Prior to this crisis, Lebanon was already hosting half a million Palestinian refugees; the pressure on the Lebanese government and local population is very high.

In April 2015, the United Nations Security Council declared that the international community has to help Lebanon in its efforts to host more than 1 million refugees from neighbouring Syria[1]. The Security Council also expressed concern over border violations including the presence of terrorists and violent extremist groups in Lebanese territory[2]. Since the beginning of March 2015, the government of Lebanon, through the General Security Directorate, is enforcing entry regularisation among refugees entering from Syria. The Lebanese government has also asked the UNHCR to stop the registration process hence new refugees and new born babies cannot be registered anymore and refugees that arrived after the 5^th of January 2015 have been unregistered. This means it is now much harder for Syrians to enter the country, while those residing in Lebanon are also facing difficulties in renewing their residency or having access to humanitarian aid or public facilities. This situation will place an increased economic strain on the families, and in addition to the expected decrease in basic assistance due to low funding levels, an escalation in negative coping mechanisms (such as begging, child labour, child marriages, sexual services for food/accommodation, petty crime, etc.) might be witnessed.

While Palestinian refugees are settled in camps, there are no official camps for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. On a case by case basis, the government may authorise the establishment of formal tented settlements (FTS). However, Syrian refugees are mainly settled in small shelter units (SSU), collective shelters (CS) or informal settlements (IS). The spillover of the Syrian crisis into Lebanon compounded pre-existing vulnerabilities among the Lebanese society. Refugee populations have in many cases settled in areas inhabited by impoverished and vulnerable Lebanese communities further stretching limited or non-existent sources of income and public services at the local level.

[1] UNFPA Regional Situation Report For Syria Crisis, Issue no. 31, 1-31 March, available on line https://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/documents.php?page=1&view=grid&Org%5B%5D=196 consulted on 22/04/2015

[2] Ibid.

Our action in the field**

Since 2012, PUI has been actively involved in the Lebanon emergency response to the Syrian crisis with presence in the North (Akkar), Mount Lebanon and South (Saida) of Lebanon.

In 2015/2016, PUI aims to reinforce the ability of each vulnerable community to become self-reliant and resilient to crisis, through 2 programmes:

• Humanitarian Assistance Programme: to provide a protection-based humanitarian material assistance and services for the most vulnerable refugees and host communities affected by the Syrian crisis.
• Resilience Programme: to develop and strengthen community-level infrastructures and support household-level economic survival and well-being with regards to specific poor and vulnerable groups.
  

As part of our activities in Lebanon, we are looking for an Area Coordinator in Akkar.

The field coordinator is responsible for the proper functioning of the project site, and proper implementation of programmes developed on that site.

• Safety: In collaboration with the head of mission and with the support of the base security manager, s/he is responsible for the safety of the site.
• Programmes: S/he is accountable for an adequate definition and efficient implementation of the projects. S/he ensures the coordination between the support teams (administration, information management and log), the implementation teams and the coordinators in order to timely and qualitatively guarantee that the objectives and results of the projects are reached. S/He preventively identifies issues, gaps and delays that may impede the correct implementation of the projects and proposes mitigation plan to the HoM.
• Human Resources: S/he supervises all the teams at the site, composed of national and international staff.
• Logistical, administrative and financial support: S/he oversees the logistical, administrative and financial components of the base for the purpose of programme implementation, and ensures compliance with the relevant procedures, with substantive support from the logistics coordinator, the human resources coordinator and the administrative coordinator of the mission.
• Representation: S/he represents PUI towards the stakeholders of the area (such as donors, authorities, international/local NGOs).
• Coordination: S/he centralises and disseminates information from/to the site, and consolidates the internal and external reporting activities implemented in his/her field of operations before submitting them to the head of mission.
• Assessment/ Strategy: S/he participates in strategy development and proposes new interventions in function of needs identified in his/her field of operations.
  

To stay up to date with our new job offers, join our Facebook groupMy Job In The Field**.**

Training and Experiences

Training:

MA/S or equivalent in social science, programme management, international development preferred;

Professional Experiences:

At least 3 years of experience in projects development/implementation (1M€ yearly budget);

Extensive training skills and experience building national staff capacity;

Strong experience in Budget/Finance Management (cost-efficiency);

Experience working with a variety of donors;

Experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methodologies required.

Knowledge and Skills:

Project Management skills

Team Management

Ability to represent PUI as per the recommendations of the HoM and ensure an efficient and proactive coordination with other actors.

Software:

Pack MS Office

Languages

English is mandatory.

French and Arabic are desirable.

Proposed Terms

Employed with a Fixed-Term Contract – 12 months

Starting date: 15th May 2016

Monthly gross income: from 1 980€ up to 2 310€ depending on the experience in international solidarity + 50€ per semester with PUI

Cost covered: Round-trip transportation to and from home / mission, visas, vaccines…

Insurance including medical coverage and complementary healthcare, 24/24 assistance and repatriation

Housingin collective accommodation

Daily living Expenses (« Per diem ») of 600€

Break Policy : 5 working days at 3 and 9 months + break allowance

Paid Leaves Policy : 5 weeks of paid leaves per year + return ticket every 6 months

To know more about our job offer, look at the complet job description on our website!

Please, send your application (Resume and Cover letter) to Jean-Christophe Ouedraogo, Human Resources Officer for Expatriates at recrutement@premiere-urgence.org with the following subject : «AreaCo–Lebanon».