Head of Mission Palestine

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job title: Head of Mission
Location: West Bank, Palestine, office is in Ramallah
Purpose: To lead, develop and implement Bidna Capoeira programmes across the Palestinian territories.
Reporting to: Programme Director
Line managing: Initially team of seven
Salary and benefits:  Competative and depending on experience, a company car is provided for work purposes.
Start date:  ASAP
 
Overview of Bidna Capoeira’s Palestine programme

Bidna Capoeira was founded in 2007, it started activities in Syria with children on the streets and has since then grown across the region. The Palestine chapter has been active in the West Bank since 2011. We work closely with local partners and international donors.  BC currently runs programmes in East Jerusalem, and across the West Bank through a local office which is currently based in Ramallah, al-Bireh. BC is a social organisation that applies the sport and art-form of capoeira as a psycho-social tool to help empower youth and children faced with trauma and stress, in particular, refugees. BC’s social capoeira approach is respectful to all capoeira styles and traditions, and we do not follow any particular school of practice. Training takes place with the input of a psychosocial counselor and in partnership with our local networks and partners. Our social capoeira goals include using principles of capoeira training, such as the development of confidence and self-respect among our beneficiaries, to produce positive social impacts across the communities we engage in.

Role Overview
Bidna Capoeira’s Palestine Programme aims to establish a sustainable capoeira psychosocial programme across the oPt.  The role of the Head of Mission will be to lead  on implementation and develop the BC programme in a highly culturally complex conflict environment.  You will be in charge of the BC office, recruitment of staff, managing the team, and working with local and international partner organizations as well as donors to deliver BC’s programme goals across the oPT.  You will also be responsible for financial planning, and forward financial strategy for the Palestine office, alongside daily management of the all project and donors budgets.  As part of your leadership role you will support with developing the overall strategic direction of the BC Palestine programme.

You will also source potential new donors and projects to support the Palestine Programme, closely liaising with BC fundraising staff, and BC HQ.

As the Head of Misson you will work as part of an international team.  Your staff will initially include four capoeira trainers, a psychosocial counselor, an accountant and a coordinator.   You will coordinate and liaise with international BC staff based in London, Jordan and in other locations as necessary.  In addition, you will also ideally recruit and manage volunteers to support the programme.   You must have excellent project management, people management, and leadership skills, alongside a strong track record of delivering programme goals and developing strategy as part of an international organization.   You will have strong written and spoken communication skills, with strong reporting skills and be comfortable working in high stress environments with personality characteristics that contribute towards abilities to calmly manage a crisis.

The office is currently located in Ramallah and the projects take place across the West Bank, and in the East Jerusalem area. Working days are between Sunday to Thursday, full-time.  Events and ‘Community Outreach Classes’ will be frequently scheduled on weekends and evenings.  This is not an exclusively office-based role; the Head of Mission will need to be mobile and travel to attend training and meetings as necessary with time spent outside of office hours. Bidna Capoeira expects the Head of Mission to be flexible with working times and able to follow-up on issues as and when necessary.
Responsibilities

You will manage the day-to-day implementation of the project, bringing capoeira training to selected community groups in close partnership with BC field partners.  You will help create and ensure that the BC Project Plan is followed, meeting all milestones and raising any potential areas of concern in good time with the Programme Director. You will explore and develop new funding and partner opportunities to expand the programmes. You will create a strong and process driven structure into the team dynamics, ensuring transparency and efficiency in management of the Palestine chapter. You will assess risks and pose key solutions to help evolve, grow and establish the programme.

Organization
-The role requires key organization skills to manage an international team, which often facilitates up to 15 classes per week with the potential to grow rapidly. You will train, support and lead all staff members in in implementing the smooth running of a weekly and monthly program.
-You will oversee all major programme deadlines which include the submission of both financial and monitoring and evaluation reporting.
-Manage coordination and mediation with the Head Quarter (HQ) in a transparent and organized fashion. Providing all relevant data for both direct donors to the Palestine programme and partners of HQ.
-Managing the day-to-day implementation of the Programme. Maintaining a good relationship with key partners via coordination and mediation through project coordinator. Working closely with the monitoring and evaluation officer to collect necessary data for reporting. Coordinating with donors to produce milestones, reports and implementation of project effectively.

Line management
You will initially manage a team of seven people.  The team consists of four capoeira trainers, a psychosocial counselor, a bookkeeper and a project coordinator.  You will be responsible for recruiting and managing staff, setting up performance objectives and evaluating performance, identifying training needs and directly supporting with training where able, developing and implementing HR policies and guidelines as necessary,  ensuring safe conduct and highlighting any potential issues to the Programme Director in good time.

Monitoring and evaluation
-Effective monitoring and evaluation of programme is fundamental to BC’s work and the Head of Mission role is crucial to this. Here, you will be responsible for ensuring the programme team carries out all the necessary data collection, ensuring it is of good quality and helpful towards producing the relevant programme reports.
-You will also be expected to contribute to the strategic development of BC’s monitoring and evaluation process.  The monitoring and evaluation officer will support the Palestine team in implementing and developing the M&E systems and processes.

Administering the office and financial management   
-You will be responsible for managing all aspects of office administration, including bills, office items and inventories of all BC supplies.  You will manage the project finances, ensure that all expenditure is within the outlined budget with transparency, highlight any areas of concerns and ensure bookkeeping is accurate and up-to-date.
-Work closely with the accountant to understand and develop procurement processes related to the project. Ensure documents are clear, transparent and up-to-date.
-Help provide support in overseeing the financial reporting to HQ and to donors. Identify and raise budgetary issues in good time with HQ.

Person Specification
-Able to travel across checkpoints in the oPt , access to Jerusalem.
-Minimum 6 years of project management and people management experience,
-A minimum of three years of proven fundraising and donor management experience.
-Understanding and experience of working with large budgets, financial reporting, donor-management with key abilities to maintain EU procedures, procurement and other related practices and policies.
-Experienced with creating financial strategy and forward budgeting as necessary
-Strong experience in creating a diversified team from the outset with candidate having ongoing direct line management authority
-Innovative approach to problem solving in the context of BC programme goals, and the ability to communicate all decision making to the Palestine team and amongst the wider BC team
-Fluent in English (both oral and written). Proficiency in Arabic (both oral and written). Proficiency in Hebrew preferred (oral).
-Experience in negotiation and mediation. Strong interpersonal skills and presentation skills.
-Ability to work under pressure in a challenging environment, manage a team via leadership and attention to process and detail.
-Understanding of the role sport or art and music can play in a development context, adherence towards Bidna Capoeira’s vision, mandate and goals.
-Demonstrate respect and cultural understanding towards the regional and local context. Ability to work within a dynamic, young team from various social, ethnic, religious backgrounds with no prejudice towards age, gender, religion, race, values etc.

Essential
-Excellent written and spoken English. Proficiency in Arabic.
-Minium of six years proven management experience, able to recruit, manage and motivate a team of 7 or more.
-Experience of financial management, ability to oversee and manage budgets with attention to detail; experience of creating financial strategy and forward budget planning
-Ability and proven and experience in producing final version reports and documents as necessary
-Demonstrable experience in delivering project goals, programme milestones, identify gaps and report lessons learned.
-Ability to work under pressure in a challenging environment.  Strong time management, transparency and integrity.
-Excellent administrative skills, organization and motivation.
-Excellent communication and presentation skills.  Ability to give presentations to a range of audiences, particularly donors, HQ and partners.
-Dynamic, problem-solving and solution oriented approach,.
-Ability to create processes and structure an organisation to support long-term planning and implementation
-Commitment towards and passion for Bidna Capoeira’s work, projects and engagement with local communities.
-Able to travel across checkpoints in the oPt, access to Jerusalem.
    
Desirable
-Knowledge of Portuguese or EU other language.
-Knowledge of basic or intermediate Hebrew.
-Experience of working in an NGO environment with a focus on youth.
-Knowledge of capoeira and/or the role that sports and arts can play in a development context.
-Experience in working with displaced populations across the West Bank.
-Experience, coordination and liasoning with international organizations including UNRWA and UNICEF. Engagement with other key organizations that work on issues pertaining to youth, psycho-social health, community and empowerment.

To Apply

Please send complete applications to “ [email protected]” with the following subject line: “ Head of Mission Palestine, last name_first name”. Please include a copy of your cover letter , curriculum vitae and information of two references.

Bidna Capoeira will only contact applicants considered for the role within two week to facilitate interviews to further the selection process. We thank all applications for their interest and energy towards cultivating their applications.

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