INSO recruits 01 Safety Advisor

INSO recruits 01 Safety Advisor

Organisation Background

The International NGO Safety Organisation (INSO) is an international charity that supports the safety of aid workers by establishing safety coordination platforms in insecure contexts.  INSO provides registered NGOs with a range of free services including real-time incident tracking, analytical reports, safety related data and mapping, crisis management support, staff orientations and training.

INSO services help NGOs with their day-to-day risk management responsibilities and improve their overall situational awareness to support evidence-based humanitarian access decisions.

Founded in 2011, the International NGO Safety Organisation has grown from innovative start-up to become a globally recognised charity and a highly valued component in the humanitarian safety coordination system. With operations in 11 countries, INSO has revolutionized the humanitarian safety coordination sector by introducing a robust and high quality field safety platform model that has been deployed in some of the world’s most high-risk settings.

The strong focus on humanitarian principles and exclusive NGO-only membership criteria have meant that INSO is now accepted as a standard component of modern humanitarian response offering independent frontline reporting and coordination services that save lives, strengthen operational practice and enable humanitarian access

Today the organisation provides daily support to more than 1000 NGOs in eleven of the world’s most insecure countries and has earned a strong reputation for performance, principles & professionalism.

Cameroon Country Office, Lake Chad Basin Program

Since becoming registered in Nigeria in 2016, INSO has developed a strong regional approach, supporting NGOs working on the Lake Chad Basin Crisis from all neighbouring countries. The coordination office, which is based in Abuja, oversees two operational offices in Maiduguri, Nigeria and in Maroua, Cameroon. The Maroua office was opened in November 2018.

We are seeking an experienced individual to join our team as INSO Safety Advisor (SA) to be based in Maroua, Cameroon.

The Safety Advisor for Maroua will combine a strong humanitarian and safety background with experience of a similar country risk context, a clear understanding of humanitarian safety principles, conflict analysis and with a flexible, outgoing personality he/she will be able to interpret and articulate and publish best information and principled, expert advice to a broad range of humanitarian actors.

Safety Advisor positions are highly rewarding roles, offering a unique opportunity to work in a close-knit team giving security analysis and advice that is not only some of the best of its kind, but that is also vital to the efforts of the NGO community to deliver aid and assistance to the thousands of people who need it. Successful candidates will be outgoing and resilient, with the ability to analyse complex security issues and contexts, give sound practical safety and security advice, communicate to an excellent standard of English both verbally and in writing, and above all else share INSO’s commitment to humanitarian principles.

Successful applicants will be able to build and maintain a diverse network of contacts, articulate complex political and socio-economic analysis from an objective, neutral perspective, and produce and disseminate written products and deliver briefings on a time-sensitive basis.

In addition, the applicant will be able to identify trends and patterns within quantitative datasets of security incidents, linking this information to broader political and socio-economic developments.

The applicant must use his or her experience as a functional practitioner within insecure/post-conflict environments and his or her knowledge of the humanitarian community to ensure that analytical products are tailored to offer practical guidance and operational support.

The applicant must also be an appropriate representative of INSO among a diverse and important audience of members and a wide network of contacts, including UN agencies, international donors and organizations, local communities and their leaders.

In addition to providing potentially life-saving advice and analysis, our Safety Advisor must consistently represent INSO’s mandate of neutrality and independence, while upholding humanitarian principles and actively promoting the improvement of operating practices, to allow access to be retained and expanded, and vital services to be delivered safely and promptly.

Major Responsibilities:

• Establish and maintain an active information network, which includes NGOs, the UN, military forces, and other national and international security actors to obtain credible and relevant safety information.
• Participate to humanitarian coordination meetings and provide access and security enabling information
• Provide NGOs with timely and credible security information and contextual analysis of the local security situation through: daily incident alerts, reports, weekly incident lists and bi-weekly analytical reports.
• Facilitate and lead regional NGO community security roundtables.
• Assist NGOs in developing their own security management capacities by reviewing policy documents, conducting site-security surveys, and assisting in crisis evacuation planning.
• Manage a small office team, including supervision national staff and oversight of local logistics and administration.
• Effectively represent, promote and protect INSO’s mandate of independence, impartiality and neutrality.

Mandatory Requirements:

• Fluency in French and English (written and spoken).
• Graduate level education or equivalent work experience.
• Experience in insecure/conflict-affected environments.
• Strong writing and proven analytical abilities (proven written/published sample requested).
• Demonstrable understanding of humanitarian safety practices and principles and their application.
• Experience with humanitarian NGO security and/or project management.

Preferred Characteristics:

• Minimum 1 recent year experience in Cameroon or other countries of the Lake Chad Basin, ideally in an NGO safety role or equivalent – and demonstrable understanding of the security dynamics and context.
• Employment history that reflects experience in both security and civilian fields.
• Local language skills.

Key Personal Competencies

• A good listener
• An effective communicator
• Excellent analyst
• Team player
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• A people manager

Interested persons are requested to send the following to jobs@nga.ngosafety.org  and ensure to reference ‘INSO Safety Advisor – Cameroon in the subject line of your email. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted after the closing date.

• Cover letter specifying how you meet the mandatory requirements, your motivation in applying and what you hope to bring to INSO (1-page maximum).
• Up to date CV (2-page maximum).
• One relevant and substantive writing sample in English that demonstrates your analytical and reporting ability (10-page maximum).

Please do not send any additional information (certificates, other writing samples, etc.) and keep the total size of your application under 2MB if possible.