Program Coordinator – Mogadishu, Somalia

Term of Reference 

Job Title: Program Coordinator Somalia

Based: A the capital (Moqdisho) will travel across Somalia and potential travel to the Horn of Africa Region.

Managers: HQ – Global Program Manager/ Horn of Africa Program Manager.

About UMR:

United Mission for Relief and Development (UMR) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, DC. We are one of the fastest growing NGOs in the United States, with a focus on relief and developmental needs globally and domestically.

The UMR Somalia Program Coordiator will join UMR’s Program Division. The he/she will work closely with  the East Africa Program Manager, Global program lead, project managers, program officers and coordinator to ensure comprehensive support for UMR’s humanitarian portfolio in the Horn of Africa.

This role will focus on support for refugees and displaced people through UMR countries of operations including protection of well-being, rights, and dignity; service delivery; and other aspects of humanitarian assistance required as governments seek durable solutions to support these populations. S/he will work closely with UMR’s  program teams (in the field and HQ) and Business Development team to help design and provide relevant technical support. S/he will represent UMR in key humanitarian forums, ensure project quality, build capacity of teams, lead on business development, and contribute to the organizational learning across the shelter and protection portfolio.

Key Responsibilities:

Core responsibilities:

• The primary focus of this position will be to lay the legal and programmatic groundwork for UMR operations in Somalia.
• Liaise with the Health, WASH, and FSL Cluster, local and international NGOs, the Somali Ministry of Health, and civil society actors to identify humanitarian needs in Somalia partially Government held areas.
• To Propose possible areas of intervention for UMR in Somalia , including key supporting data to feed future concept notes.
• Work with the UMR program team in Kenya and HQ to identify funding opportunities in Somalia.
• Propose funding opportunities that fit UMR’s mission and, if appropriate, local or international partner organizations that may act as co-applicants.

Project Quality and Learning

• Ensure that camp and settlement-based humanitarian projects implemented by UMR are of highest quality and meet global standards (i.e., Core Humanitarian Standards, SPHERE etc.)
• Promote systematic program learning to ensure that lessons learned are identified, documented, and shared across country programs and the overall portfolio.
• Support UMRt’s Humanitarian Assistance Technical Community of Practice to ensure global organizational best practices in the shelter and protection sectors are leveraged across all UMR’s projects.
• Provide support to projects through technical backstopping, review, and refinement of implementation SOPs to ensure alignment with global best practices, and review and support for program reports and other donor deliverables.
• Support to country programs to ensure all tools, guidelines, and procedures required in emergencies and humanitarian contexts are in place, understood, and utilized by UMR staff and partners.
• Lead on organizational learning products and tool development including humanitarian response plans, humanitarian manuals, white papers, and guidelines.
• Support monitoring and evaluation teams to ensure data and project learnings effectively inform current and future programming.
• Ensure that gender equality, safeguarding, and the centrality of protection is mainstreamed throughout humanitarian assistance projects.

Capacity Building

• Lead on identifying field technical staff capacity gaps and developing capacity building plans to improve program quality.
• Support the continual professional development of the field technical staff through a combination of approaches – remote training, on the-job support and guidance, in-person training, technical backstopping, advice etc.

Business Development

• Approximately 60% of the position will be dedicated to new and follow-up business development. The primary role will be to act as the technical lead on proposals, guiding their development and ensuring the technical approach is in line with international best practices.  This role will also require the incumbent to lead the writing of a limited number of proposals.
• Maintain relationships with charities, governmental and institutional donors and other key stakeholders for networking, consultation, and new business development.

Representation

• Represent UMR at key humanitarian forums in Somalia and (the region of Horn of Africa if online) including relevant humanitarian coordination mechanisms, technical working groups, seminars, workshops, and donor meetings.