Humanitarian Access Advisor

Location: Lviv, (with 60% of travel time to CARE Ukraine area offices, conflict areas and extended field missions)

Reporting line manager: Deputy CD – Program Implementation

Duration: 12 months

Start date: As soon as possible

Conditions: Employment contract, gross monthly salary €5,000, Risks allowance of €400 – 500/month (medium- high risks areas), medical insurance and repatriation insurance and accommodation provided. Visa fees covered. Contribution to the luggage transportation up to €250. R&R (5 working days) every 8-12 weeks with an allowance of €1,000. Annual leave of 28 days per fiscal year.

CARE INTERNATIONAL

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development confederations. Drawing on more than 75 years of experience, through its 21 Members, as both a practitioner and thought leader, CI’s work reaches over 100 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice; where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. CARE focuses heavily on women and girls, and the areas of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty and social injustice until all people have equal rights and opportunities. We recognize that power relations between people and within systems and structures are unequal and that these are entrenched in our broader systems, structures, and institutions.

At the core of the CI Confederation is a globally distributed Secretariat, which provides coordination and support to its Members in areas including governance, strategic planning, communications, membership development and accountability, advocacy, humanitarian response, and program development. In addition, the Secretariat represents the CI Confederation at the United Nations and the European Union, and with other external stakeholders.

Context in Ukraine

On 24th February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine marked a significant escalation to the conflict that started in 2014. It continues to profoundly impact the lives of people across the country at various levels. The front line is continuously shifting and there are areas under Russian military control, as well as cities under siege. Attacks on military installations and critical civilian infrastructures are conducted in the whole territory of Ukraine, often resulting in collateral civilian casualties. The conflict has caused the largest population movement in Europe since World War II, with over 5 million currently displaced within Ukraine and 6 million refugees across Europe. OCHA had counted 17.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

At least one-third of the country’s energy infrastructure is damaged, leaving millions without heating and access to water. In October 2022, the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian oblasts, further increasing the challenge of access to these areas. Therefore, an ongoing priority for the international humanitarian response is to reach newly accessible areas in the East and South, and to provide aid to previously unreachable and particularly hard-hit areas of Ukraine.

CARE UKRAINE

CARE prioritizes a locally led response and is partnering primarily with Civil-Society Organizations (CSOs), National NGOs, local authorities, and when needed, INGOs with a longstanding presence in the country and access to hard-to-reach areas. CARE Ukraine deliberately and strategically prioritizes partnerships with local and national Women Led and Women Rights organizations (WLO’s/ WRO’s), further strengthening the Gender in Emergencies (GiE) principle and the Women Lead in Emergencies (WLiE) approach.

In the first few weeks after the escalation of the war, virtually all humanitarian aid inside Ukraine was organized and implemented by local actors. These groups (together with local authorities) remain the principal aid providers but are quickly being exhausted of funds, fuel, and physical energy. Thereby, a considerable proportion of CARE’s resources is dedicated to strengthening and supporting the capacities of local partners.

As of October 2023, CARE Ukraine has established partnerships with over twenty local/national organizations (incl. WLO’s/WRO’s). From the more than 45 million that have been raised for Ukraine thus far, more than half is allocated to local/national partners. Through the activities that have been implemented so far, CARE Ukraine has been able to reach more than 800,000 people, including IDPs and affected populations in hard-to-reach areas.

While CARE Ukraine’s country office is currently located in Lviv, we also have a coordination office in Kyiv as well as area offices in Dnipro and Odesa, covering both the East and South of the country.

Role Objectives

Under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director for Program Implementation (DCD-PI), the Humanitarian Access Advisor will provide high-quality strategic guidance and technical advice, support and capacity-strengthening to CARE Country Office (CO), Area Offices and Local/National Partner Organizations in Ukraine.

S/he will lead on planning and operationalizing of strategies and approaches that will increase the reach, acceptance and efficacy of CARE programs, particularly in difficult-to-access areas of operations, via contributions in humanitarian negotiations, access coordination and analysis, and civil-military coordination.

The Advisor will support country and field teams to develop and implement tools to assess risks and opportunities to increase humanitarian space through more effective engagement and negotiations with authorities, armed actors, communities, and other relevant stakeholders across Ukraine. S/he will advise on programming, engagement and negotiations modalities, monitoring, and operational footprints to be adaptive, conflict-sensitive and contextually driven. The Advisor will be expected to contribute to adaptation, development of solutions and recommendations for change linked to procedures and practices with long-term impact in the field of Humanitarian Access and Relations with Armed Actors.

The main responsibilities include:

Under the supervision of the DCD PI and in close consultation with the HQ, country, and field safety and security teams the Humanitarian Access Advisor will:

• Support CARE Ukraine programs and ensure deliverables related to the program objectives and activities.
• Support response teams on humanitarian access related issues (e.g., through development/drafting and roll-out of context-specific guidance, engagement, access or community acceptance plans/strategies, and/or capacity building)
• Remote or direct support to relevant field, response teams or CO SMT in their engagement with authorities, armed actors or communities around particular access challenges and/or other principled engagements. This could involve Crisis Management Team support, engagement planning, or direct support.
• Monitoring and analysis of access constraints and program contexts, including bureaucratic access impediments (BAI) and aid diversion incidents, to inform CARE and partners operational and strategic decisions and accountability with regards to operations in hard-to-reach areas.
• Training of CARE and partner staff on civil-military coordination, humanitarian negotiations, reporting of violations, conflict sensitive approaches to relations with armed actors, humanitarian principles, and other relevant CARE field colleagues and partner practitioners in sharing experiences and lessons internally and externally, as well as participate in/facilitate regional and global coordination whenever relevant, learning and networking through relevant internal and external platforms/webinars/meetings/workshops related to access, humanitarian negotiations, civil-military relations, safety and security etc.
• Ensuring that lessons learnt are fed into annual country and strategy planning in order to improve quality of programming.
• Mapping and monitoring of, and capacity building support to, relevant CARE’s national and local partner NGOs current capacity and ability to maintain and expand high-quality access in areas of operations and hard-to-reach areas.
• The Humanitarian Access Advisor will play a contributing role in designing proposals
• Ensure that safe programming is embedded in program design and considered throughout implementation to ensure that we do all we can to ensure affected population in our programs are safe, in line with CARE’s safeguarding policy.
• Ensure that program design and implementation addresses cross-cutting issues (gender, disability, and resilience) and is responsive in a humanitarian context.
• Contribute and represent CARE in the Humanitarian Access Working Group (AWG) and OCHA relevant meetings.
• Maintain active contact with Access/Liaison counterparts from peer agencies (including Local Humanitarian Partners) and relevant organizations.
• Coordinate with the Global and CO Security Managers on key issues and access strategic direction.
• Regularly monitor changes in the political, humanitarian and security and stay abreast and informed of key developments in policy and regulatory environment in Ukraine and provide structured updates to the SMT and field teams as it relates to access including relevant advice on opportunities, strategies and entry points for engagement.
• Support with establishing and maintaining contacts with the authorities in the areas of operation with a specific focus on the development of access related networks.
• Working closely with the Advocacy Manager in HQ to develop advocacy products specific to access.

Additional job responsibilities

• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties assigned by the DCD PI within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

The post holder should be able to demonstrate the following attributes:

• Master’s degree in social sciences with a focus on humanitarian protection and access in armed conflict and emergencies. Postgraduate courses on Conflict and/or Security Studies, International Humanitarian Law, Civil-Military Relations.
• At least 7 years’ experience in an NGO environment.
• Minimum of 5 years of prior experience working in humanitarian emergency, conflict, post-conflict, or post-disaster settings including humanitarian access, and Civil-Military coordination.
• Solid understanding of humanitarian principles, humanitarian access, humanitarian negotiations, and conflict sensitivity.
• Comprehensive knowledge and applied experience of humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law in strategic and operational planning
• Knowledge and applied experience of context and conflict analysis, humanitarian access strategies, humanitarian negotiation, humanitarian civil-military coordination, engagement with armed groups and/or community engagement
• Knowledge and experience of risk management, program criticality, remote management and/or complex supply chains a strong advantage
• Knowledge and experience in developing and delivering training programs and coaching support to individuals, teams and/or partners strongly preferred
• Demonstrable work experience in Ukraine and/or neighbouring countries is strongly preferred
• Demonstrable ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, tasks efficiently in a high-stress, fast-paced environment;
• Demonstrable experience of working in conflict/volatile security contexts;
• Demonstrated commitment to the aims and principles of CARE, particularly concerning gender equity in emergency programmes.
• Demonstrated commitment to creating an environment within CARE’s workplaces, programming, and communities where CARE works that is free from sexual harassment, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation and child abuse (SHEA-CA).
• Ability to represent CARE effectively in external forums, including advocacy and networking with duty bearers (negotiation and influencing skills).
• Commitment to the principles of confidentiality, survivor-centered approach, and Do No Harm principle.
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact, and diplomacy.
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Excellent interpersonal , communication and public speaking skills including influencing, negotiation, strategic planning and coaching.
• Excellent time management skills and resourcefulness with strong attention to detail;
• Demonstrable experience in capacity development;
• Strong people management skills;
• Ability to produce high quality reports;
• Fluency in written and spoken English and computer literate ;
• Proficiency in Ukrainian language or other regional language is an asset.

Accountability:

A commitment to CARE values and CARE’s integrity framework is critical to working with CARE. Any candidate offered a job with CARE will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with CARE’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within the programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a CARE staff or partner.

Safeguarding:

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with CARE as a result of CARE activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that CARE shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Gender Equality:

CARE is committed to meeting the standards of the CARE International Gender Policy (2019). Through this policy, CARE seeks to promote the equal realization of dignity and human rights for girls, women, boys and men in all diversities, and the elimination of poverty and injustice. Specifically, this policy seeks to improve the explicit incorporation of gender in programmatic and organizational practices.

How to apply

Please send your CV (in pdf format max. 4 pages) and a cover letter in English to , no later than 9 November 2023. Please name your documents Surname_CV, Surname_Cover Letter. Put Humanitarian Access Advisor as the subject title of your email. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.