Back Yemen - A Field Coordinator in Hodeidah

Starting date : July 2020

Duration of Mission : 9 months

Localisation : Hodeidah, Yemen

Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilian victims of marginalization and exclusion, or those hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapses by answering their fundamental needs. Our aim is to provide emergency relief to uprooted people in order to help them recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency. The association leads in average 200 projects a year in the following sectors of intervention: Food Security, Health, Nutrition, Construction and Rehabilitation of infrastructures, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Economic Recovery. PUI is providing assistance to around 6 million people in 23 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and France.

Find out about our history and values

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION AND NEEDS

General Context

The conflict in Yemen started in 2014 with an internal political crisis which, later on, degenerated into an open war between northern-based Houthi Movement, and forces loyal to the official government, led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. In March 2015, violence escalated when a Saudi-led coalition launched military operations to restore the official government and stop the Houthi-Saleh alliance, who already controlled Sana’a and advanced on Aden. The Saudi intervention led to a stalemate in which the country largely remains as per now. The war also escalated on the economic front as the Saudi-led coalition declared a blockade on large portions of the country still controlled by the Houthis.

At this stage the country is basically divided in two parts, with the frontline recalling the division between People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in the South and Yemen Arab Republic in the North before they were unified into the Republic of Yemen in 1990. While Houtis in the North are the only De Facto Authority, with a quite tight control on the territory, the situation in the South is much more fragmented, with several actors fighting for military and political control. The Internationally Recognized Government, most of whose members are actually in Saudi Arabia, struggle to control Aden and the other territories. The Southern Transitional Council has the most of the control in Aden and surroundings, while Tareq Saleh’s National Resistance and other militias are gaining a tighter control on the West Coast. The so-called Riyadh agreement was signed in November 2019 between the Saudi-backed IRG and the STC supported by the United Arab Emirates, but it is currently stalled and no progress has been made. This led to a surge of insecurity in Aden, where the situation is tensed and security volatile.

The conflict has led to devastating consequences for a population already highly vulnerable. The intervention of the Saudi-led coalition in March 2015 translated into a severe aggravation of the humanitarian context. The disruption of the commercial and humanitarian imports, the displacement of populations, the disrupted market system, the loss of livelihoods and incomes, the damage on the private and public infrastructures, and the general destabilization of the public system contributed to widespread food insecurity, malnutrition and a serious lack of access to health. As a result, according to last OCHA Situation Report (April 2020) an estimated 21.4 million people in Yemen (80 per cent of the entire population) need some kind of humanitarian or protection assistance, including 14.3 million who are in acute need. Over 230 of Yemen’s 333 governorates are food insecure. Conditions in these districts are the worst in the country: 103 districts are at risk of famine; 41 districts have malnutrition rates above 15 per cent; 54 districts have acute WASH deficits; and 46 districts are at high risk of cholera.

Intensifying conflict has compromised access to health care while there are ongoing risks of cholera, malaria, dengue and other disease outbreaks; only 50 per cent of health facilities in Yemen are functioning, and services are restricted further by intermittent electricity and power outages across the country. Finally, the increasing difficulties of food supply in the country and, more importantly, the ongoing collapse of the riyal, which severely impacts the price of basic commodities, raise the possibility of a large-scale problem of access to food in Yemen.

The dire situation is currently (May 2020) exacerbated by the fear of a covid-19 outbreak which would be potentially catastrophic for a population exhausted by 5 years of conflict with acute levels of vulnerability, some of the lowest levels of immunity across the population and a very fragile and - in many places, broken - health system” which would make the spread of COVID-19 in Yemen faster and wider than in other countries.

OUR ACTION ON THE FIELD

PUI has been present in Yemen since 2007. From 2007 to 2011, PUI supported the primary health system in Hodeidah Governorate. After a one-year stand-by in 2011 due to security reasons, the mission re-started in July 2012 with a nutrition project focusing both on emergency response and a longer-term community-based approach in Hodeidah and extended its activity in Raymah Governorate. In 2019, PU-AMI opened a base in Mokha, Taiz governorate.

Since the beginning of the current crisis in 2014, PUI has progressively developed a core field of intervention based on an integrated approach in order to contribute to tackle one of the main issues faced by the conflict affected population in Yemen: acute malnutrition and access to health care.

This integrated approach currently includes:

• The direct provision or the support to Primary Health Care (PHC) services, including Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), Sexual and reproductive Health care (SRH) Antenatal and Postnatal Care (ANC & PNC), Vaccination, Health and hygiene Promotion.
• The management of Outpatient Therapeutic Programs (OTP) and Supplementary Feeding Programs (SFP) for Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) cases.
• The support to standard safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services in Health facilities
• The distribution of Food Baskets for households with SAM cases.
• Community mobilization, health nutrition education.
• Capacity building of health workers on-the-job and through training and workshops

PUI is also positioning itself in influencing positions, through effective participation to clusters and sub-clusters (health, nutrition, food security, WASH) and working closely with relevant government departments at all levels (Sana’a, Aden, governorate and district levels).

While the activities in Hodeidah and Rayma governorates are quite developed, Mokha base is operational for less than one year and still consolidating the setup, with a high potential for growth and further development.

Click here for more information about our response to the crisis

As part of our activities in Yemen, we are looking for a Field Coordinator in Hodeida.

OVERALL OBJECTIVE

The Field Coordinator is responsible for the proper functioning of the project site, and proper implementation of programs developed on that site.

TASKS AND RESPONSABILITES

• Safety: He/She is responsible of the safety and security of the site, as well as people and properties in close coordination with the HoM.
• Programs: He/She coordinates the teams, and ensures proper implementation of programs on the site, under the supervision of his/her immediate supervisor.
• Human Resources: He/She supervises all of the teams at the site, as well as national and international staff.
• Logistical, administrative and financial support: He/She oversees the logistical, administrative and financial components at the site for the purpose of program implementation, and ensures compliance with the relevant procedures, with substantive support from the Logistics Coordinator, and the Administrative and Financial Coordinator of the mission.
• Representation: He/She represents the organization before the partners, authorities, and various local actors operating in the area where his/her base is located.
• Coordination: He/She centralizes and disseminates information from/to the site, and consolidates the internal and external reporting activities implemented in his/her field of operations before submitting them to the immediate supervisor.
• Assessment/ Strategy: He/She participates in strategy development and proposes new interventions in function of needs identified in his/her field of operations.

FOCUS ON 3 PRIORITY ACTIVITIES RELATING TOTHE CONTEXT OF THE MISSION

1. Redeploy Hodeida expatriate team in the field, according to the context.
2. Continuation of the staff ‘s capacity building, especially Activity and Program Managers
3. Deployment of the new mission‘s security plan.

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCIES

Training:

• Bachelor/Master in and International Relations, Political Science or similar.

Experience:

• 2 years minimum; experience in safety management
• International Experience
• Technical Experience

Knowledge and skills:

• Security Management
• Project Management
• Team Management
• Excellent skills in terms of external relationships
• Knoweldge of Pack Office

Languages :

• English mandatory

Required Personal Characteristics :

• Ability to work independently while taking initiatives and showing a sense of responsibility
• Ability to live in a closed off environment
• Ability to withstand pressure
• Sense of diplomacy
• Analytical skills
• Capacity to adapt and showing organizational flexibility
• Organization, rigor and ability to meet deadlines
• Ability to work and manage affairs professionally and with maturity
• Ability to represent the activities and the mandate of PUI before local authorities
• Ability to integrate the local environment into operations, in its political, economic and historical dimensions
• Ability to work with various partners, in a spirit of openness, and with adaptable communications strategies
• Strong listening and negotiation skills
• Good people and communication skills
• Ability to remain calm and level-headed
• Patience and Sense of humor

Other :

• Ability to implement various intervention strategies based on difficult security, logistics, humanitarian contexts,and ability to adapt quickly while responding to new constraints (security, logistics)

PROPOSED TERMS

• Employed with a Fixed-Term Contract - 9 months

• Starting Date: July 2020

• Monthly gross income: from 2 000 up to 2 530 Euros depending on the experience in International Solidarity + 50 Euros per semester seniority with PUI

• Cost covered: Round-trip transportation to and from home / mission, visas, vaccines…

• Insurance: including medical coverage and complementary healthcare, 24/24 assistance and repatriation

• Housing:in collective accommodation

• Daily living Expenses (« Per diem »)

• Break Policy : 5 working days every 2 months + break allowance

To stay up date with our new job offers, join our Facebook group My Job On The Field.