Duty of Care Lead - Deris Wanaag

Position:  Duty of Care Lead - Deris Wanaag Project 

Location:  Nairobi-based, with travel to project locations in the Kenya-Somalia-Ethiopia border areas

Background

Deris Wanaag is a cross-border project seeking to enhance peace and stability, and strengthen social and economic dynamics, in the border areas between Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Enhancing peace and stability, and improving social and economic conditions, can only be achieved through increasing collaboration between the three countries, respective local administrations, and between the communities located across the borders.

To enhance peace and stability in a meaningful and sustainable way, Deris Wanaag integrates ongoing security, development and peacebuilding efforts. The project focuses on strengthening the effectiveness of national responses to insecurity along the border, supporting local conflict resolution and management structures, and building individual and community resilience to the influence of violent extremist actors. Deris Wanaag works at national, sub-national and community level to strengthen a coordinated response to instability in the border areas.

Purpose

One of the key challenges for programmes operating in the border areas is accessibility. Deris Wanaag operates across a range of hard-to-reach, high risk and volatile locations, with activities delivered by a mix of project personnel as well as project grantees. It is imperative that the project is able to effectively monitor and evaluate activities, and engage with key project stakeholders.

As the Deris Wanaag Duty of Care Lead, you will manage and direct operational, security and risk management activities in the region, and ensure all activities run smoothly and effectively. Critical to this will be the effective management and delivery of the operations component in conjunction with implementation of corporate policies of consortium members and the management and implementation of Security Standard Operating Procedures. You will be an enabler, responsive and solution oriented – to reflect anticipated operational challenges including the need to respond rapidly to changing environments, vague and dynamic regulatory environments, a fragile security environment combined and multiple duty of care challenges. The ultimate purpose of this role is to support the project in achieved.

Key Relationships:

• Internal:
  • Deris Wanaag Programme Management Unit
  • Consortium partners and their DoC teams
  • ASI Kenya Operations, Finance and Administration staff
  • ASI Global Head of Security and Risk, and ASI Head of Africa

• External
  • Client security and duty of carer personnel
  • Government Agencies
  • Relevant suppliers and subcontractors
  • Operations and security staff of peer companies operating in the border areas
  • Project grantees

Specific Tasks and Responsibilities

Key Accountabilities

• Safety of Deris Wanaag personnel working in project locations through the implementation of security and duty of care policies and procedures, including risk management, security and emergency to enable business and project continuity in a complex and insecure operating context; in coordination with consortium partners.
• Development and updating of security, duty of care and operational policies and procedures to fill gaps or address emerging challenges, risks and evolving context, in coordination with consortium partners.
• Proactively maintain an up to date and triangulated awareness of incidents, trends and potential risks to project personnel, and communicating this effectively to the project team, informing project decision-making.
• Support all travel related documentation and assessments required to enable travel.
• Build constructive and trusting relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Support to the Programme Management Unit in ensuring compliance with national legislation and corporate policy in all areas (tax, employment, health and safety, insurance, ethics, anti-corruption, safeguarding, diversity & inclusion and security).
• Identification and, where relevant, oversight of efficient, effective and value-for-money security and operational sub-contractors.
• Ensure operational support services are optimised and achieve maximum cost effectiveness and value for money.
• Create a conducive environment and provide effective guidance to support Deris Wanaag and consortium personnel.

Key Tasks

• Review existing project Standard Operating Procedures, approach to Duty of Care, and operational procedures to ensure that operational activities run smoothly and in compliance with rules and regulations.
• Lead the project’s travel planning, including prioritization of travel to project locations, liaison with consortium members, assessing locations, and developing and managing communications plans.
• Comply with the corporate policies, SOPs and applicable rules and regulations, ensuring that the project team complies with them, and take immediate action on any non-compliance including reporting the non-compliance to the GOSM.
• Work with the project team to identify and capture the operational and security risks into the project Risk Register and ensure that risks are mitigated with appropriate measures and response plans are appropriate and updated.
• Build relations with all key stakeholders, particularly in relation to consortium partners, local operating context, client relationship management, and third party service provision.
• Work with the Project Manager in ensuring that ASI duty of care responsibilities are discharged appropriately, consistently analysing threats and providing advice on implementation of mitigating actions.

• Periodic spot checks on project offices in NE Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
• Working with project grantees to strengthen their approaches to and delivery of duty of care responsibilities.

• Conduct security and onboarding briefing and necessary trainings to new staff and consultants in the country.
• Oversee and initiate relevant communication to all ASI staff through various means – email, WhatsApp group, phone tree – including post-event analysis and outcomes.
• Promote the culture dignity, professionalism, integrity and respect operations and ensure any action or omission that will harm ASI, its clients or partners are dealt with appropriately.

Experience

• At least five (5) years of practical experience in handling complex operations for an international organisations, or 10 years applicable experience in the Armed Forces or Police.
• Demonstrate solid experience of handling security and duty of care matters for international organisations in the Horn of Africa.
• Understanding of complex emergencies, related security concerns, and appropriate responses to such emergencies.
• Risk management experience in international organisations.
• Demonstrated abilities to build effective relationships with people from a wide range of professional and cultural backgrounds, and to work effectively in politically sensitive and challenging environments.
• Demonstrated ability of working both independently and with a team, should be innovative, energetic, positive, and genuinely committed to achieving lasting change.
• Ability to analyse events, incidents, and trends to facilitate anticipation of developing threats.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a consensus-building fashion that is sensitive to the needs of staff, associates, clients, and partners.
• Knowledge of DFID, FCO, USAID, EU, and UN regulations is desirable.
• Demonstrated experience of initiative, an entrepreneurial mind-set, client-orientation, risk taking, and working in complex and time-pressured contexts.

• Required qualifications:
  • Security management or close protection qualification
  • Operations Management qualification
  • Operational Risk Management qualification
• Knowledge of Swahili is a requirement.
• Ability and willingness to travel to the border areas. It is expected that c. 50% of time will be spent traveling to and within Mandera county, Garissa county, Wajir county, Lamu county; Jubaland state; and Somali Region State. This includes remote and hard-to-reach locations along the border.