Haiti: Shelter Delegate

We help to reduce vulnerabilities and strengthen resilience by responding to disasters and crises and by supporting community and institutional risk reduction and preparedness. In the Netherlands with more than thirty thousand volunteers and internationally with the aid of specialists or by sending relief supplies or money. Together we act before, during and after disasters to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people.

We do this without regards to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinion. Our seven principles guide our humanitarian work: humanity, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

The International Assistance Department is looking for a Shelter Delegate who will be based in Les

Cayes, Haiti with frequent travels to Cotes de Fer and the other project sites.

Position title: Shelter Delegate

Duty station: Les Cayes, Haiti

Time period: 12 months, 40 hrs/wk

Starting Date: 1 February 2018

Status: Single posting

Place in the organisation

The Shelter Delegate is a member of the Netherlands Red Cross Haiti delegation and reports to the Country Representative who is based in Port au Prince. The Shelter Delegate will manage two teams of international and national staff working in two geographic locations (Sud Department and Sud-Est).

Purpose of the position

The Shelter Delegate, will work in collaboration with Haitian Red Cross, other Movement partners, local staff and local authorities and the affected communities within the mandate of the Movement in order to ensure efficient and effective design, management and implementation of the new shelter programming in Les Cayes. The Shelter Delegate will also ensure adequate operational capacity of current resilience programs for the target communities in Sud and Sud-Est Haiti. The aim of NLRC is to build longer term Resilience programming in Haiti.

About the projects

On October 4th 2016, the passage of Hurricane Mathieu in Haiti provoked the largest humanitarian crisis since the 2010 earthquake. Along the Hurricane’s path, 90% of the houses have had their rooftops, structures and walls blown away. Approximately 525 000 people, were in need for shelters & Non-Food Items. Field evaluations conducted by NLRC personnel identified additional needs in food security, water and sanitation. The NLRC emergency response directly contributed in tackling the acute risks related to poor access to water and sanitation. According to IOM, one year after the Hurricane, more than 26 000 houses are still in critical conditions (http://haiti.iom.int/photo-interpretation). Moreover, the close link between water cycle management/DRR and livelihoods in the region is confirmed by the chronic erosion to which the area was already exposed, which was aggravated by Matthew destruction of trees and agriculture. To achieve longer lasting impact it is thus crucial to participate in strengthening the overall community resilience strategies.

NLRC will implement a shelter programming as of 2018 and the project will be implemented in a community where the NLRC is already rehabilitating 3 GFWS (Gravity Fed Water Systems) Nan Bibi, Marin-Jeanne, Calice which will improve access to quality water. Moreover the NLRC is mobilizing additional resources in order to further develop its resilience approach in this community to protecting, improving and diversifying livelihoods, and enhancing local DRR capacity. Ideally, the NLRC together with the HRC will implement as well measures to mitigate soil erosion. An Environmental Impact Assessment will be carried out to select relevant areas. This will be done in consultation with the local authorities and the Ministry of Environment. The measures to mitigate soil erosion are physical structures: so called check dams and contour bund in combination with tree and grass planting. This activity was successfully implemented in our past project in the Sud-est Department. The Ministry of Environment is supportive of this approach and has regularly done their own assessments on this in which they concluded the relevance of this approach. This project focuses on improving local capacities and techniques.

NLRC has been implementing a number of Community Resilience projects in Haiti over the last years. NLRC and Haitian Red Cross (HRC) were already partners before the 2010 earthquake. In the partnership Resilience Programming has been the key orientation. From 2014, Resilience projects have been implemented in the Department of Sud- Est. NLRC is wrapping up two larger Resilience projects in Grand Gosier, Cotes de Fer and Bainet. The projects are funded by DG ECHO, other Red Cross societies and the Prinses Margriet Fonds. Project activities are focused on enhancing different elements that influence community resilience.

Since May 2017 a new Resilience project started in Cotes de Fer, Sud-Est with an overall objective is to increase the resilience of vulnerable people in the two above mentioned departments by protecting, improving and diversifying livelihoods, improving access to water and enhancing local DRR capacity. The Shelter Delegate is the project manager for this project. UNICEF has been funding additional WASH activities in the area. The recovery activities are on-going and the Shelter Delegate will be in charge of the management for this project as well. In the future the NLRC wants to include the target communes in the Resilience programming.

Responsibilities

Be the project manager of 4 projects:

• Shelter (Woon) Campaign Program

• Community Resilience in Cotes de Fer, Sud-Est

• Hurricane Recovery project in Sud

• UNICEF WASH project in Sud

With the purpose of building long term Community Resilience Programmes in both areas;

• Manage two delegates and around 25 national staff

• Ensure that the project activities are well planned and meet the requirements of the community and take into account sustainability and community ownership;

• Be in regular contact with other humanitarian actors, Red Cross colleagues and the donor community and look for opportunities to cooperate and funding;

• Lead Shelter and resilience projects/program development in close consultation and collaboration with HRC, other Red Cross partners and non-Red Cross partners;

• As the foremen work together with the team in the implementation of all activities as laid out in the plan of action and build on the positive lessons in the other project;

• Develop appropriate shelter programming to provide timely, adequate shelter, maximizing local capacities and whilst reducing shelter & settlement related risks and vulnerabilities. explore all possible shelter options (emergency & transitional) in line with the IFRC shelter strategy and the priorities for the Haitian Red Cross.

• Provide detailed, costed technical assessments as required, and develop operational plans for shelter programmes identified in accordance with appropriate participatory design, construction and monitoring methodologies.

• Ensure that all shelter activities are developed in coordination with other sectoral teams as appropriate.

• Ensure that the shelter response, technical design and site activities comply with appropriate local, national and international standards and regulations.

• Ensure that environmental and sustainability issues are considered in the technical design and works on site, in keeping with agreed best practices.

• As required, provide overall management of all projects-related activities, including technical assessments, project development and design, tendering and contract administration.

• Represent the NLRC in shelter related platforms within the Movement and outside as necessary. Coordinate with the relevant RC Movement partners and liaise with non-government agencies and collaborate as appropriate.

• Ensure synergies among different projects to ensure cross-sectoral complementarity towards holistic resilience building;

• Be the budget holder of the 4 projects and ensure proper monthly reporting to the Port au Prince Office;

• Manage the effective and proper use of assets, financial resources and facilities according to standard procedures in order to comply with auditing requirements;

• Support monitoring, and after action reviews/rapid impact evaluations of livelihood, WASH and DRR/CCA projects undertaken in order to identify lessons learned – and with a view to potential scale up;

• Identification, documentation and sharing of success stories/evidences and lessons for program improvement and scaling up;

• Strengthen the Haitian Red Cross (HRC) Resilience unit by providing guidance on operational structure and member’s roles and responsibilities, together with other Movement partners;

• Establish and ensure effective working relationships with the other colleagues, especially from IFRC and PNSs (including Canadian and Spanish Red Cross that are also operating in the South East Department and American red Cross working in the South);

• Ensure effective working relationships with direct HRC counterparts and leadership.

Candidate profile:

• University (Masters) Degree or advanced degree in civil engineering, architecture or related field;

• A minimum of three years construction experience, including site supervision and contract management

• Experience in developing and implementing shelter or community infrastructure projects on behalf of development organizations

• At least 3 years international experience in a Disaster Risk Reduction, climate change adaptation, food security livelihood enhancement and WASH;

• Demonstrable commitment to community resilience strengthening with strong experience of programming preferably in developing countries;

• Experience with working with communities and exploring local shelter options

• Experience of and fluency with appropriate construction administration systems and procedures, in particular control of works and financial management.

• Experience of managing and supporting staff, skills transfer and capacity building An awareness of appropriate local construction technologies and materials.

• Experience with community based interventions;

• Experience in project identification, formulation, planning, management and implementation, reporting and monitoring and evaluation;

• Knowledge of finance, accounting, budgeting, and cost control procedures;

• Demonstrated orientation on results, process, and people.

• Excellent communication skills with strong interpersonal and coaching skills

• High level of patience as well as cultural sensitivity;

• Fluency in written and spoken English and French;

• Demonstrated understanding and knowledge of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is highly preferred.

We offer:

• A full time appointment (based on 40-hour work week) for one year, with the possibility of extension depending on performance;

• A flexible and human centred working environment in an international environment with a variety of international organizations;

• Well balanced employment conditions with space for initiative and development.

Applications:

Please send your resume in English and letter of motivation with reference to Annemieke van Teeffelen before 2 January 2018 using the following link: https://werkenbij.rodekruis.nl/en/Vacancy/Apply/92322.

For more information about the position, you can contact Wassim Beaineh by e-mail: WBeaineh@redcross.nl.

An initial assessment of candidates short-listed is part of the selection procedure.

For more information of the work of the Netherlands Red Cross, please visit www.rodekruis.nl and www.rodekruis.tv. NLRC on Facebook: Facebook.com/rodekruis and Twitter: Twitter.com/rodekruis.