Senior Humanitarian Officer

Position: Senior Humanitarian Officer

Introduction to the JCP country office:

Since 2011, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and DanChurchAid (DCA) in Zambia have been working together to implement a socio-economic justice programme that aims to empower rights-holders, especially women and youth through a Joint Country Programme. Through strong networks and alliances within Zambian civil society, we uphold and protect people’s dignity and promote their active participation in the development of Zambia. The JCP Zambia is a fully merged country programme where funding, technical advice, lobbying & advocacy, communication, administration is shared and coordinated, with NCA as the lead agency.  In the 2025-2029 country strategy, NCA and DCA will focus their interventions to save lives, build resilience of local communities and seek justice. We envision an inclusive, resilient and just Zambia.

Purpose of the role:

The Senior Humanitarian Officer – SHO is responsible for the overall coordination of JCP’s humanitarian response in Zambia and supports JCP SMT’s ambition to become a first responder and contribute to saving lives in emergencies. The role is responsible for planning, coordination and implementing humanitarian programme strategy for the Zambia country office working closely with all implementing partners in targeted response sites. The role is responsible for ensuring that all response measures are fully aligned to the core humanitarian standards (CHS) and are gender sensitive, including leading and coordinating quality, timely and effective protection responses to the needs of people targeted.

You will work in close collaboration with national authorities, humanitarian agencies (UN and international NGOs) and national partners and civil society organizations to strengthen emergency preparedness and provide humanitarian assistance to crisis affected communities.

Key roles and responsibilities:

• Lead, develop and oversee the country program’s humanitarian strategy and frameworks in line with the country’s and NCA overall strategy.
• Lead the design, planning and implementation of the response measures and strategies jointly with all implementing partners.
• Leads all needs and vulnerability assessments in target response sites in line with CHS standards and assessment guidelines.
• Conduct capacity building programmes for implementing partners on humanitarian programming, disaster risk reduction strategies, early warning, and preparedness.
• Review and provide advice on matters regarding protection, and safeguarding of humanitarian principles whilst ensuring the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance.
• Lead a process with partners and other relevant stakeholders to develop and implement a comprehensive protection approach addressing the specific protection needs of women and men, children, youth and older persons; Persons with disabilities and Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) priorities.
• Support senior management to ensure the protection plan is fully integrated into the Country Operations Plan.
• As required, participate and support in cluster meetings, coordination meetings with government, humanitarian country team (HCT) meetings, and workshops.
• Reporting our humanitarian response to key donors and partners
• Ensure that all program interventions are of a high quality and lead to measurable impact. This includes, but is not limited to, overseeing the program implementation plan and annual work plan preparation, identifying external technical support needs, ensuring that appropriate management practices are being used in program implementation and the monitoring and evaluation systems are being used to provide timely management information.
• Ensures full compliance of the humanitarian response programme with CHS standards.
• In liaison with project communications officer, ensures good programme visibility.
• Supports resource acquisition for continued programme response.
• In collaboration with the procurement department, prepare procurement and logistics plan to inform field distributions
• Manages the program budget and complete financial forecasting to inform cost-efficient, on-budget programming. Develop and oversee systems to monitor monthly spending.
• Leads risk management and mitigation measures, regularly updating tools and facilitating risk awareness within the team.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Degree in international development, social sciences, agriculture, and other related fields. Master’s degree is an advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in managing medium sized programs in fragile context
• At least 5 years of continuous experience with technical design and implementation of livelihoods, cash transfer and market systems development programming, 2 years must be in a humanitarian response in with international NGOs
• Experience with use of relevant sector design and assessment tools for service providers, market, needs, distribution and post-distribution processes
• Excellent verbal and written communication, network building and stakeholder management skills, and the capacity to work at a strategic level with both internal and external stakeholders; ability to influence with effective listening, persuasion, negotiation, and other techniques.
• Excellent problem solving and analytical skills with ability to identify problems and opportunities within a rapidly changing context, and propose and implement sound, forward looking solutions in a flexible and creative style; experience using adaptive management strategies.

PERSONAL QUALITIES:

• Respectful, clear, and constructive communicator with excellent cooperation skills.
• Structured and well-organized with a clear sense of direction.
• Flexible, self-driven, and able to work both independently and in teams.
• The ability to listen, motivate others, build trust and capacities among staff and partners.
• Excellent organizational skills, including prioritization, planning and project coordination skills.
• Results-oriented and quality-conscious, especially working with reports and applications.
• Ability to handle occasional stress and high workloads.

WE OFFER:

A full-time position based in Lusaka, Zambia. This is a rolling recruitment, and the vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate who meets the requirements is identified.

Opportunity to make a change and contribute to NCA’s work on climate and environmental stewardship.

Opportunity to travel nationally and internationally and take part in a global Community of Practice.
Access to staff development funds to support relevant career development and educational goals.

Competitive salary, private medical insurance for employees, spouse and up to 3 dependents. Smart phone with employee ownership plan.

A positive working environment with engaged supportive and highly qualified colleagues from around the world.

Before you apply:

We kindly ask you to carefully read the  ACT Code of Conduct for the prevention of misconduct, including corruption, fraud, exploitation and abuse, including sexual; and to ensure child safeguarding and the  Protection from Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse and Child Safeguarding policy before you submit your application. If you are the selected candidate for this position, you will be asked to complete and sign our Code of Conduct and Protection from Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse, and Child Safeguarding Policy.

How to apply

Kindly send your expected renumeration package (benefits included), curriculum vitae and cover letter explaining why you are interested in this job, and why we should interview you for this role. To apply for this job please EMAIL your CVs to recruitment.zambia@nca.no

Application Deadline: 20th June 2025