Area Coordinator (national)

About Acted

For the past 30 years, Acted has been working at the forefront of humanitarian action to save lives. Acted supports more than 27 million people in 43 countries, meeting their needs in hard-to-reach areas, while pursuing a triple mandate as a humanitarian, environmental, and development actor.

Job Purpose

The Area Coordinator provides high-level strategic guidance, quality assurance, and humanitarian coordination for Acted activities within their designated geographic area. This role focuses on translating external field realities into actionable project strategies, driving critical thinking, and mentoring staff.

The Area Coordinator is responsible for representing Acted's interests with area local authorities, donors, beneficiary communities and other key stakeholders. This includes all external engagement on behalf of capital COO or PCs as well as management of MOUs, exploratory meetings with LA’s and other government officials, and donors.

The Area Coordinator is a member of the senior management team and works to ensure program quality and operational implementation, as well as growth where appropriate and feasible, and strong representation. The Area Coordinator collaborates with Project Coordinators ensuring that projects and programs address beneficiary needs and are implemented according to Acted's global strategy, donor guidelines, approved work plans and budgets. The Area Coordinator also oversees day-to-day operations and security in the respective areas.

Duties and Responsibilities

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

I. Strategic Input & Critical Thinking

• Act as the primary strategic representative for responsibility area at regional UN Cluster meetings, Humanitarian Hubs, and (I)NGO forums.
• Initiate and lead regular meetings and information exchanges with other international and local NGOs, external engagement with NGO platform, UN/OCHA, partner INGOs, partner NNGO/CSOs, operating in relevant geographic areas.
• Establish regular dialogue channels with local Ukrainian universities, think tanks, and local research institutes. Leverage academic and institutional data and research to refine organizational program design.

1.1. Networking, positioning and general representation:

• Participate in donor meetings at area level and communicate relevant information to the Country Director and other relevant staff;
• Establish, maintain and improve active and regular working relationships with other NGOs, UN agencies, clusters, working groups, consortia, etc. at area level ensuring maximum visibility of Acted
• Establish, maintain, and improve active and regular working relationships with local authorities and where necessary non-state actors and obtain required authorizations and buy-in for Acted's activities at area level
• Development and application of the Acted country strategy at area level and tie ins to Country strategy.
• Ensuring Acted representation and positive relationship building in the responsibility area including MOUs with hromadas/oblasts, + gaining traction in municipal space discussions.

II. Strategic Debriefing & Local Authority Analyses

2.1 Context analysis: Ensure Acted has an up-to-date understanding of the area's socio-economic situation, trends, needs and gaps, and who does what and where (eg using 4W, other sourced data).

2.2 Strategy Implementation: Take a lead role in implementing Acted's country program strategy in the area identifying strategic opportunities for expanding Acted's work in the area, and in particular:

1. Identify new opportunities and new sectors of intervention;
2. Consolidate and stabilize programming;
3. Review the geographic and thematic footprint;
4. Ensure activities are relevant and meeting area/beneficiary needs;
5. Identify Acted added value;
6. Ensure humanitarian principals are adhered to;
7. Contribute to identifying new donors, private sector partners, national and international NGOs, think tanks, academia, etc. to work with in the area based on complementarity and added value

III. Program Quality, Internal Coordination, and Advocacy

3.1 Program Quality, Development, and growth:

• Matrix Guidance: Provide operational and strategic guidance to Project Coordinators (and Managers as useful), ensuring project implementation aligns with overall country strategies and donor commitments.
• Operational Troubleshooting: Identify implementation bottlenecks across departments and facilitate collaborative, cross-functional problem-solving sessions to unblock field activities.
• Proposal Input: provide inputs for CNs, proposals, N/CEs with high-quality, evidence-based field analysis derived from local operations, hromada interactions, and external networks.

3.1.1. Proposal development:

1. Lead assessment(s) at area level to ensure proposals are relevant; create and contribute to concept notes using local knowledge
2. Support the Country Director and Project Development Department in proposal conceptualisation (problem statement, logframe) within the framework of the country, regional and global strategy
3. Contribute to budget design and ensure budget needs at area level have been taken into consideration

3.1.2 Project Implementation Tracking:

1. Supervise Project Managers/Officers in the area as needed, and provide support to project implementation through trouble shooting and eliminating blocking points
2. Monitor output achievement and cash burn rates to assist timely completion of projects through review of BFUs and project reports
3. Anticipate and mitigate risks ensuring operations in the area are compliant with Acted finance, logistics, administration/HR, transparency and security (FLATS) procedures
4. Ensure that relevant project information is up-to-date and available for reporting purposes
5. Ensure coordination and complementarity amongst projects within the area of intervention

3.1.3. Project Quality Control:

1. Ensure the application of a practical field-based MEAL system/plan for each project
2. Conduct frequent field visits to project sites to assess activities and ensure efficient use of resources
3. Advise Project Managers to adapt projects according to monitoring and evaluation findings
4. Ensure beneficiary feedback mechanisms are in place
5. Ensure capitalisation of best practices and lessons learnt for projects in the area of operations, and explore options to learn from other areas and teams.

3.1.4. Partner Management:

1. Identify potential local partners in the area based on an assessment of complementarity and added value
2. Provide support to partners in project implementation and ensure timely and qualitative implementation of projects by partners in line with Acted and donor requirements

3.2. Internal Coordination & collaboration

ACs will work collaboratively with internal department heads, project coordinators, and capital coordination to achieve mission results. They are an integral part of FLATS and SMT meetings and coordination.

3.2.1. Internal Coordination and Staff Management

1. Facilitate interdepartmental communication and information sharing for a positive working environment
2. Ensure implementation of Acted coordination mechanism at area level
3. Ensure that all staff in the area understand and are able to perform their roles and responsibilities related to area operations and link with the capital Head of Departments to discuss improvement initiatives
4. Promote team building, productivity and staff welfare
5. Mentor and support the team to build capacities, and improve efficiency and performance, and follow career management
6. Manage interpersonal conflicts among staff at area level

3.2.2. Finance Management:

1. Although budgets are generally held at Capital level, the AC should be able to advise on project budgets at area level to help PCs avoid under/over spending.
2. Collaborate with Finance teams and PCs to ensure accurate budget forecasting and efficient cash flow management; lead Area BFU preparation and maintenance.
3. Assist with timely and accurate area finance TITANIC reporting, as requested

3.2.3. Logistics & IT Management:

1. Ensure timely procurement and adherence to rules of origin and nationality at area level
2. Ensure quality supply management at area level
3. Ensure proper asset management at area level and enforce asset investment policy
4. Ensure proper stock management at area level
5. Ensure proper IT systems, data back-up and protection from malware at area level
6. Ensure sufficient and reliable means of communication at area level
7. Ensure fitting office and guesthouse space depending on size of team and availability of budget
8. Assist with timely and accurate area logistics TITANIC reporting

3.2.4. Administration and HR Management:

1. Ensure transparent and timely recruitment of national staff and contribute to international staff recruitment upon capital request
2. Proactively advise Head of Department managers and Country Coordination around adaptive staffing structures, tailored to area needs and funding parameters
3. Ensure regular performance appraisal and career management for staff at area level
4. Assist with timely and accurate area HR TITANIC reporting, as requested
5. Ensure timely and complete exit forms

3.2.5. Transparency/Compliance Management:

1. Minimize risk of fraud and corruption by ensuring adherence to Acted FLATS procedures
2. Ensure that staff is aware of Acted's transparency and whistle blowing policy
3. Ensure appropriate action from departments and teams for department and project documentation, and uploading onto Archive 2.0

3.2.6. Security Management:

1. Analyse the security context at area level and in close collaboration with the Country Security Manager contribute to defining, analysing and evaluating risks
2. Engage with relevant key stakeholders at area level to ensure access and support of interventions
3. Address security and safety risks by implementing standard operating procedures defined for the area
4. Ensure the offices and houses conform to recommended security, health and safety standards
5. Ensure all staff in the area adhere to security procedures
6. Ensure security incidents at area level are promptly reported to the capital

3.3. Advocacy

The AC should act as both a collector of information for processing and use in Acted country proposals/strategy, as well as being an area advocate in groups and collective NGO meetings to discuss and formalize issues, and to raise relevancies for Country Coordination to follow through with state bodies as needed.

3.3.1. Advocacy: Contribute to drafting issues papers, advocacy notes, press releases on relevant humanitarian and development issues in the area of operation.

3.3.2. Promotion of Acted network: Keep abreast with and contribute to Acted's global initiatives and global trends, in particular Impact (REACH), HQ initiatives (3Zero), and the Acted Humanitarian Network.

IV. Key Performance Indicators

• Number of (elected) positions in area-based clusters, working groups, coordination mechanisms
• Knowledge of strategic partners and key stakeholders in area including analysis, networking, stakeholder mapping, and administrative (governmental) relationships
• Number of localised partnerships in the area and improvements catalogued by AC and /or partnerships team
• Number of projects in the area and % change as compared to previous year
• Retention rate among international and national staff
• Regular and timely holding of internal coordination meetings and submission of reports to D/CD
• Proactive contributions to donor reports and concept notes for capital level
• % ineligible expenses incurred at area level and % change as compared to previous year
• % of projects in area with contractual targets/indicators met
• Number of complaints received from beneficiaries and % change as compared to previous year
• FLAT folders are complete and sent to capital office in a timely manner