Disaster Response TeamMember (Role Description)

Background

World Jewish Relief’s Humanitarian response strategy recognises the unique and individual nature of each emergency context. However all responses are based around the following key strategic considerations:

  1. We will always seek to work through local civil society partners in all components of our disaster response and recovery activities.
  1. We recognise the limitations and capacity constraints of local partner agencies and seek to ensure we leave them stronger on exit than when we started the partnership.
  1. Our ability and capacity to deploy our own technical personnel to the field is primarily an action to identify, assess, support and strengthen our local partner agencies.
  1. Our interventions seek to support all components of the Disaster Management framework with particular emphasis on utilising our expertise in the recovery contexts post disaster.
  1. We continue to build our expertise in the following key areas:
  2. Needs assessments.
  3. Non-food item distributions
  4. Cash based responses to emergency and recovery work.
  5. Livelihood recovery work in both urban and rural settings.
  1. Each of our emergency response/recovery interventions should be formally reviewed and evaluated ensuring we are capturing the lessons learned.

Generic Purpose of the Deployment Mission

The Disaster Response Team (DRT)will primarily play a role in identifying potential local partner agencies and then assisting an identified partner(s) to assess, define and scope the scaling up of the quality and quantity of its response and recovery activities to meet humanitarian need, while providing World Jewish Relief’s London office with sufficient surge capacity, analysis, information and reporting to strengthen both the efficacy of its emergency grant allocations and its ability to raise resources to underpin them.

DRT members may be deployed during both emergency and recovery phases of the post disaster context.

DRT members will report at all times to theDRT Team Leader or the Humanitarian Manager.

DRT members are ambassadors of World Jewish Relief, signatories of its Code of Conduct and governed by its organisational policies.

Specific Responsibilities (depending on operational circumstances)

  • Partner Selection
  • To assist in the identification and verification of the most appropriate Local Partner Agency to partner with World Jewish Relief in responding to the crisis.
  • To assess and report on Local Partner capacity and capabilities.
  • To assist in the completion of WorldJewish Relief’s required Local Partner Due Diligence process
  • Needs Assessment
  • In partnership with Local Partner Agency to assist in the rapid needs assessment process (or verify existing assessment material) required to design effective programme interventions
  • To assist Local Partner Agency conduct effective and targeted needs assessment analysis to ensure programme design meets appropriate accountability standards
  • Intervention Design
  • In partnership with Local Partner Agency(s) to assess, plan and design appropriate emergency and/or recovery interventions to ensure appropriate standards are in place enabling clear monitoring and evaluation.
  • To ensure programme plans and budgets are clear and measurable and communicated to World Jewish Relief London.
  • To encourage wherever possible the utilisation of cash based responses to both emergency and recovery needs.
  • Building Capacity
  • To work wherever possible in close partnership with the Local Partner Agency, respecting their capabilities, leadership, decision making and culture.
  • To find ways to ensure that the Local Partner Agency is left more capable and with added capacity at the end of the partnership.
  • Reporting and Accountability to London
  • Inevitably given the fast moving context of the environment, World Jewish Relief needs to be kept abreast on a regular and determined timetable to ensure it is able to support and resource the response.
  • A daily bulleted situation report in the standard format should be provided to the Humanitarian Manager or International Director
  • All resource based decisions need to be referred to the Humanitarian Manager or International Director.
  • Media and Communications
  • There will be regular demands for professional and personal perspectives on the operational context and World Jewish Relief’s response.
  • All planned interviews or discussions with external media need to be preapproved by World Jewish Relief’s Humanitarian Manager.
  • Safety and Security
  • DRT members have to adhere to World Jewish Relief’s Safety and Security Policy and Guidelines at all times.
  • It is essential that DRT members have continuous communications capabilities and are able to check in with the Key Contact Point 24hrs a day.
  • All travel plans need to be pre-approved by World Jewish Relief’s Humanitarian Manager or International Director.

We are primarily seeking individuals with international humanitarian, crisis response or relevant international development experience in the following key areas:

  • International humanitarian response leadership
  • Needs Assessments
  • Logistics and monitoring of emergency distribution mechanisms
  • Cash or cash based interventions in emergency or recovery contexts
  • Livelihoods recovery in an urban or agricultural context.
  • Gender specialist
  • Water and sanitation health
  • Emergency provision of temporary shelter

World Jewish Relief’s rigorous recruitment and candidate selection process will ensure all potential roster members have the appropriate skills, experiences, competentices and behaviours.

The generic profile of potential roster members will be as follows:

Individual Profile

  • University degree or relevant and recognised professional training
  • Significant work experience preferably in an appropriate context.
  • Work proficiency in English
  • Other language skills
  • Excellent interpersonal and intercultural skills
  • Experience from crisis and conflict situations
  • Leadership and managerial skills
  • Applied methodological knowledge (e. g. project management, needs assessment, presentation skills, administrative skills)
  • Team work abilities
  • Dealing with frustration, stress and pressure
  • Self-management, self-awareness of personality, reflective on own behaviour
  • Strong motivation to work in crisis management and conflict recovery
  • Computer literacy
  • Physical and mental fitness