Union Aid

Program / Department Summary

General Position Summary

Implementing programs in the country, Union Aid needs to also build capacity for action in the areas of safety and security, humanitarian access, and liaison with the de facto authorities at Kabul and provincial/district levels. The Security In-Charge (SI) will kick start this capacity development for the staff, providing training to staff in safety and security topics, and supervising a team while helping the Executive director and SMT map out how the function can be best developed in the longer term. S/he will in addition coordinate liaison with the central de facto authorities, under the management leadership and with the support of the executive director.

The SI will build and maintain an acute awareness of the main actors and dynamics shaping the operating environment in Afghanistan. S/he must be able to work with a range of internal and external stakeholders to ensure that Union Aid can implement its humanitarian aid programs to reach vulnerable Afghans in our areas of operation and that it maintains constructive relations with the de facto authorities at central and local levels. S/he will offer advice and recommendations to the country program’s leadership on how access and safety affect program operations in Kabul and in field offices.

Essential Job Responsibilities

strategy and Vision

• With the support and guidance of the executive director, take the lead in developing safety, and security capacity in Union Aid, outlining a strategy and assisting in securing the environment for executing the humanitarian activities.
• Set out a clear vision for knowledge and skills transfer to UA staff to ensure a secure workplace by the end of the transitional period (i.e., the last quarter of 2022).

SECURITY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT

• Assess current skill levels and awareness around safety and security for staff in Union Aid.
• Ensure humanitarian access approaches are responsive to local context and include overarching community engagement components.
• Develop a training schedule for staff to include incident and crisis management, humanitarian principles, and risk analysis and management, among other topics
• Develop ongoing relationships with local authorities and other power brokers within Afghanistan germane to humanitarian access.
• Provide regular updates to access procedures for all Afghanistan program areas.
• Provide technical input and advice in assessments to consider new Union Aid programs in new geographic areas.
• Work alongside the Safety and Security focal points, executive director, and administration head in assuring humanitarian analysis informs operational security decision-making.
• Maintain a high level of preparedness vis-a-vis predicted contextual fluctuations operationally and programmatically.

Team Management

• Build out a small but effective, security team, inclusive of Professional staff.
• Supervise the work of the guards and security assistant (s)  in maintaining constructive and compliant relationships with the de facto central authorities.
• Supervise required for SFP’s for field offices
• Work with programs and operations colleagues in ensuring constructive relations with de facto authorities at provincial and district levels.

Influence & NETWORKING

• Maintain an internal network of humanitarian access and security focal points, working alongside the focal points to ensure a safe operation opportunity for program implementation.
• Provide timely feedback on questions and technical assistance requests from country program team members.
• Monitor and provide support and reporting on NGO humanitarian access initiatives as required.
• Identify, create and maintain a network with NGO/UN and other humanitarian access specialists in Afghanistan.
• Coordinate security-related activities with the relevant INSO representatives at central and provincial levels.
• Track and maintain the INSO directory, in regard to the Union Aid staff to ensure all staff members receive updates from INSO.

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies and SOPs as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies when required
• Monitor the entrance of staff on the start of business hours to ensure all staff attended the office safely.
• Monitor the surroundings, to ensure the premises are secured during business hours.
• Supervise that, all the vehicles are checked before entering the UA compound.
• Ensure all the staff vehicles are parked properly, to safe space and visibility for the guards to monitor the parking lot.
• Monitor as all the visitors are entering the compound according to the UA security procedures.
• Ensure that all incident and precaution updates have been provided to the team, using specific “easy use” communication tools.

INCIDENT REPORTING

• Maintain contextual awareness in all areas in which UA is working and inform security coordination and incident response, working jointly with the executive director.
• Ensure the security team contributes to and maintains a current mapping of humanitarian access and security conditions and issues to build a comprehensive view on events & trends in the region.
• Help create an environment where all Union Aid programs and team members and businesses are conducted with professionalism, impartiality, accountability, and other core principles required as a humanitarian agency.
• Place high value on inter-agency coordination in security; encourage Union Aid field-level coordination in the NGO community. Seek opportunities for formal and informal cooperation.

Knowledge and Experience

• Over three years of experience working in and/or advising on programs in fragile, insecure, and complex contexts.
• Experience managing humanitarian relief and/or transitional programs in areas affected by conflict and insecurity preferred.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills required, including influencing, negotiation and coaching;
• Strong management skills with a good understanding of managing international, and cross-cultural teams;
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members;
• Fluent written and oral communication in English is required;
• Knowledge of major donor requirements and compliance issues;
• A strong understanding of conflict-sensitive program mainstreaming and gender or protection mainstreaming would be an advantage.

• Please write the Job title/Vacancy Number on the subject line of your email.
• Aplications received after the closing date will not be considered
• ONLY SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONTACTED

hr@unionaid.org unionaid@hotmail.com