Norway: Head of Unit NORDEM

Are you an engaged leader with passion for human rights, democracy and peace building?

NORCAP contributes to solving key challenges within the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding sectors in order to make a change for people in need. Our ultimate goal is to protect the lives, rights and livelihoods of vulnerable people and communities. That means working to uphold their dignity, help build resilient communities and ensure peaceful transitions from conflict to democratic societies.

• We work with the UN, national, regional and global partners to strengthen and develop their capacity to protect lives, rights and livelihoods
• We promote more effective ways of working at the global level and in the field
• We deploy more than 600 experts annually to strengthen and develop our partners’ capacityWe believe that working together in a coordinated and sustainable manner is the best way to reduce needs, risks and vulnerability over time and to make a change for people in need. The Partnerships and Development section is responsible for driving strategic development and quality assurance within existing and new programmes, projects, and thematic areas, securing efficient working process, partnerships and funding, including development and maintenance of agreements.

In an effort to strengthen partner capacity and system wide coherence in the areas of human rights, democracy and peace building, NORCAP’s NORDEM Unit drives strategic planning and project development/management with the UN, OSCE, EU and other key institutional partners and donors at global and field level. NORDEM manages a dynamic portfolio of programmes, projects, and new initiatives and is key in translating strategic priorities to operations.

Duties and responsibilities

The Head of Unit is responsible for the strategic development and management of NORDEM. NORDEM aims at increasing the protection of human rights, strengthening democratic governance, rule of law and peace building mechanisms as well as addressing root causes of conflict by increasing the capacity of partners. To this aim, NORDEM deploys qualified and well-prepared experts to partner organizations and shares information and best practices with policy makers, practitioners and researchers.

The head of Unit holds the line management and budget responsibility for the unit and is expected to act as a proactive and ambitions leader. To reach the strategic obectives of the unit's portfolio the selected candidate will also be responsible for:

• Overall management of the NORDEM project, in line with relevant project plans and strategies and the Framework Agreement between NRC and NMFA and other donors
• Responsible for the financial management and accountability for the project, development of strategic priorities, annual plans, funding proposals and reports
• Drive strategic development within the NORDEM mandate and initiate and identify new projects, partners and funding opportunities based on Unit staff contributions
• Responsible for the development, quality assurance and maintenance of all strategic partnerships relevant for NORDEM, including preparing and coordinating NORDEM’s annual meetings with main partners
• Drive the development of interlinkages and synergies between NORDEM and other NORCAP areas of expertise and bring the NORDEM thematic areas within human rights and democratisation into NORCAP policies, strategies and communication
• Ensure that NORDEM contributes to targeted knowledge sharing within its mandate with the most relevant policy makers, donors, practitioners and researchers
• Further develop NORDEM’s role as the main provider of Norwegian personnel within human rights and democratisation through networking with other personnel providers and relevant thematic networks

Qualifications

• University degree within a relevant field of study
• Minimum 5 years of leadership experience, ideally from the humanitarian, development and/or peacekeeping sector
• Demonstrated experience from project development and management, project design, planning and budget processes
• Professional knowledge of human rights and democratisation
• Relevant international experience and knowledge about the UN system, the OSCE and the EU
• Hands-on professional experience in the sectors of human rights, democracy and peace building
• Documented strong skills in written English and development of proposals, concept notes and annual plan/reports
• Proven experience in building and cultivating donor relations
• In depth knowledge of relevant mechanisms and partners such as the UN, AU and OSCE
• Proven experience in grants management, including financial and narrative reporting to donors
• Fluency in English
• Knowledge of standard ICT office systems and tools
• Experience from field operations an added value

Personal Qualitites

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including cultural sensitivity
• Ability to work in a structured, proactive and independent way
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in highly stressful situations and contexts
• Highly developed analytical skills
• Solutions oriented
• Ability to influence and gain buy-in for new perspectives

To learn more about the role and to apply, please follow this link