IFRC: Disaster Risk Management Officer

Job Distription

Job Title	Disaster Risk Management Officer, Pretoria Cluster
Classification Level	TBC
Organizational Unit / Duty Station (Department / Zone Office / Delegation….. etc)	Disaster Management Department, Southern Africa, Cluster Office Pretoria
Immediate Supervisor’s Title	Operations Manager, Pretoria
Technical Manager’s Title (if applicable)	DM Delegate , Nairobi
2nd line Manager
Supervise along technical lines
Number of Direct Reports (if applicable)
Duration of Assignment	12 months with possible extension

Organizational context (where the job is located in the Organization)

The International Federation and Red Crescent Societies of the Red Cross (IFRC) ‘s Southern Africa Country Cluster office is in Pretoria, South Africa and serves ten countries, namely Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that strengthening resilience to disasters is not only about disaster management but an essential component of all emergency and development programming. Communities/households with sustainable livelihoods, good levels of health care are less susceptible to hazards and faster to recover. However, it is also important that these development gains are protected from disasters.

The International Federation has made it a priority to ensure that disaster risk reduction is an integral part of its development work and that all its programmes work towards disaster risk reduction in an integrated and mutually supportive way.

This JD summarizes the tasks related to the position of Disaster Risk Management Officer.

Job Purpose

• Under the supervision of the IFRC Southern Africa Operations Manager, the DM Officer will ensure timely, effective and efficient support in disaster risk management activities with National Societies. He/She will work in building national, regional and institutional (including secretariat) disaster and response preparedness capacities to enable them to improve their disaster management programming and be an advocate for IFRC’s Preparedness for Effective Response approach.
• He/She assures ongoing collaboration with all relevant partners in the region in the field of disaster risk management and will also work on further developing these relationships. He/She contributes to the quality improvement of the programme programmes of NS throughout the region.

Job duties and responsibilities:

1. Build capacity and competencies in Southern African National Societies on Disaster Management and support them in becoming a relevant partner for Disaster Risk Management in their respective countries.
2. Coordinate the scaling-up of ‘Preparedness for Effective Response’ approach and improving coordination and harmonisation of DRM capacity building approaches
3. Ensure effective working relationships with the DM departments of National Societies of the region under the leadership of the Operations Manager, and work to create synergies and links between Operations and Disaster Risk Management.
4. Support National Societies to analyze and integrate food security and livelihoods, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation concerns into disaster preparedness, response, cash and recovery programming.
5. Provision of technical guidance and oversight to the National Societies in establishing preparedness systems, development of standard operating procedures for Forecast Based Financing (FbF) at national and district level and in establishing and managing of FbF partnerships and FbF networking.
6. Provision of technical guidance and oversight to the National Societies on Cash Transfer preparedness and programming in different contexts.
7. Support the National Societies with the process of hazards mapping, development and review of Contingency Plans, SOPs at national and branch levels.
8. Provide technical support to National Societies with the design, implementation and evaluation of emergency operations (DREF and Emergency Appeals).
9. Ensure National Societies are conversant with the various tools and guidelines for disaster risk management, interventions are managed and implemented in accordance with Federation’s strategic programme framework and agreed standards including Red Cross Red Crescent Code of Conduct, Sphere Standards and Humanitarian Accountability Partnership.
10. Conduct monitoring and supervisory visits to relevant IFRC programme activity sites in the field.
11. Promotes knowledge sharing and best practices at international meetings and conferences and influences partners in stakeholder consultations;
12. Organize and facilitate training sessions for National Society technical staff and volunteers in various areas of disaster risk management.
13. Participate in relevant meetings with Red Cross Movement partners, Governments, donors, NGOs and UN Agencies co-financing and implementing initiatives for disaster risk management.
14. Perform other duties in addition to the above responsibilities, commensurate with background and experience as deemed necessary by Supervisor.

Duties applicable to all staff:

• Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals
• Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles
• Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

Position Requirements

	Required	Preferred
Advanced university degree in Development Studies, Project Management, Disaster Management or other relevant field.	X
Professional training in disaster risk management		X
	Required	Preferred
Experience of working for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – preffered	X
Five years of relevant experience in the field of disaster risk management	X
At least 2 years of working for a humanitarian aid organisation	X
Experience of planning and managing finances and budgets	X
	Required	Preferred
Strong and highly developed technical skills in disaster risk management international practices	X
Self-supporting in computers (word processing, spreadsheets, internet and web-based searching etc.)	X
Solid and tested analytical skills	X
Operational management and reporting skills	X
Excellent communication, interpersonal and networking skills	X
	Required		Preferred
Fluently spoken and written English	X
Competencies (to be filled in by HR)
Accountability
National Society Relations
Teamwork-interpersonal skills
Integrity and personal conduct
Professionalism
Communication Managerial effectiveness
Initiative and direction
Flexibility, Patience and adaptability-sensitivity to diversity

• Candidates can submit their CVs and Motivational letter by email: [email protected].
• ​Kindly note the South African work permit is required.