Country Administrator (National Position)

DESCRIPTION:

During the eight years of Syrian crisis, the influx of refugees from Syria into Lebanon has placed additional strains to an already vulnerable situation. When the Syrian refugee crisis began in late spring 2011, North Lebanon became the first area to host refugees: in the urban areas, most refugee families rented accommodation and/or were hosted by Lebanese families. The Government and the local municipalities and other public authorities had to deal with one of the most catastrophic humanitarian disaster in the 21st century: Lebanon currently has the highest per-capita concentration of refugees in the world with the largest concentrations of registered refugees. Due to the rapid increase of the country’s population over the last few years, the capacity of municipalities and other public authorities to meet the demand in terms of basic services, including solid waste management and sanitation has significantly decreased. Therefore, local authorities have limited resources and administrative capacities to deal with protracted refugee crisis, this further exacerbating conflicts within communities.

COOPI has been operating and developing humanitarian projects in South Lebanon during the years 2003-2005, then, since 2013, in Northern Lebanon, supporting most basic and pressing needs of Refugees and vulnerable host communities through a multi-sector and integrated approach. COOPI assists the targeted communities mainly by providing water, sanitation and hygiene assistance, shelter support, multi-purpose cash assistance and education support. Since 2018 COOPI has been implementing a Solid Waste Management (SWM) programme funded by UE, entitled: “SWaM Akkar. Supporting Sustainable Solid Waste Management in Jurd al-Kaytee, Akkar”.

Since June 2018 COOPI has been implementing a Solid Waste Management Project financed by EuropeAID, entitled: “SWaM Akkar. Supporting Sustainable Solid Waste Management in Jurd al-Kaytee, Akkar”m whose objective is to improve and to support integrated sustainable solid waste management within the Union of Municipalities of Jurd el-Kaytee in Akkar district, Nahr al-Bared river basin by: 1) introducing a Participative Waste Management Master Plan in Jurd al-Kaytee area; 2) mitigating the Municipal solid waste pollution in all the member municipalities; 3) sensitizing the Local authorities and local community on sustainable waste management and recycling. The programme is implemented in collaboration of several partners, including the Union of Municipalities of Jurd al-Kaytee (UMoJK), three international partners expert in the sector, the American University of Beirut (AUB) and one local partner specialized in the sector.

Responsibilities:

The Country Administrator is responsible for supervision, management and quality implementation of all aspects of COOPI financial and administrative operations in country.

Organization management:

Supervise and manage program staff: supervise preparation of contracts for personnel staff; manage contracts of local and international staff and supervise administration staff, from an administrative point of view (general validity according to local laws, coherence with country regulation, compliancy with salary grid, payments, salary advance);

Budget preparation: support the Head of Mission and Project Managers in budget preparation as well as proposals development;

Administration and finance:

Ensure compliancy with financial and administrative requirements set by the Donors and by COOPI;

Control and assure compliance of program expenditures with program budgets;

Monitor cash flows and supervise petty cash handling;

Ensure proper administration for outstanding debtors and creditors, follow-up overdue and signal potential problems in timely manner;

Prepare payment vouchers and verify supporting documents for project and administrative expenditure. Ensure classification of all financial information and documents in accordance with the projects and respective budget lines;

Ensure appropriate filing system of financial documentation is in place, accurate and updated;

Provide timely and systematic monitoring of program expenditures as well as timely budget program forecasts;

Ensure that taxes are timely remitted to relevant authorities;

Logistics:

Coordinate the Country’s registration documents, from the visas of the staff to the registration processes at the local authorities;

Supervise preparation of lease contracts, contracts with suppliers and any other contract issued by the program. Ensure that contractual commitments are accurately tracked;

Supervise appropriateness and updating of all procurement documentation at the various steps of the procurement process. Ensure budget availability of expenditures and that appropriate authorizations are in place;

Procurement: provide technical oversight to the procurement process and ensure proper supply chain management procedures are in place and that standard logistics and related administrative systems are established and implemented within COOPI country programme;

Bring up-date the stock inventory;

HR:

Coordinate and supervise overall human resources policy implementation, included Labour Law application, contracts, recruitment and that staff salaries are effectively paid to eligible staff and an audit trail of records is maintained;

Reporting:

Prepare, on a monthly basis, financial reports and/or requests to be sent to COOPI Milan HQs;

Produce monthly cash and bank reconciliation statements;

Prepare monthly, quarterly and yearly projects’ financial reports;

Institutional relationship:

Build relationship with the banks for a proper financial management;

The Country Administrator will also contribute at managing the relationship with the institutional partner and stakeholder with specific reference to the authorization requests and to the procurement;

To participate and engage on sector forums from LHIF related to Finance and HR or any other as per requested by the Head of Mission.

Minimum requirements

Background:

University degree in social sciences, business or technical sciences or in economics;

Professional experience related to the job:

A minimum of three years of relevant working experience;

Experience in international relief and development in Middle East countries in a similar position;

Experience in logistics, procurement and security matters is a strong advantage;

Experience at working on one or more among the main donors, with priority to EU, ECHO, UNHCR, AICS, OCHA, USAID-FFP and WFP;

Experience in liaising with governmental/ local authorities, IOs and NGOs;

Experience of working within an insecure environment with accountability for security monitoring and management;

Competences:

Ability to manage a humanitarian programme by an administrative point of view;

Ability to understand the administrative policies of the donors;

Proven capacity to work in a team is essential; experience in organizing and supervising a complex team is a plus;

Ability to organize work efficiently and deliver assignments in a timely manner often under time constraints;

Budget design and management (mission coordination costs).

Attitudes and soft skills:

Strong analytical and practical problem-solving skills;

Institutional relations management and cultural context understanding;

Strong supervisory abilities, and demonstrated capacity of teamwork and of coordination with the relevant actors;

Demonstrated effective verbal and written communication, negotiation skills, multi-tasking and organizational skills;

Demonstrated ability to work in stressful environments and under pressure;

Fluency in English and Arabic

Very good inter-personal behavior;

Computer literacy, with high proficiency in the use of standard office software applications (e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint)

Desirable requirements:

Experience in working in conflict-prone environments a plus;

Knowledge of Italian is a plus;

Previous work experience in country is a plus;

Knowledge of COOPI’s procedures is a plus;

Knowledge of main donors’ procedures is a plus