Urban Refugees (UR) is a French NGO which aims for refugees to become equal decision makers at every level of humanitarian aid, because we believe that no one sees the path beyond this crisis better than those at the heart of it. As such, we believe that refugees should be considered as victims but as potential project initiators.
We collaborate with refugee leaders, supporting them to influence decision-making processes, to receive significant funding, and to develop and implement their own community-led projects.
Today, refugee-led organisations (RLO) are the first responders to refugee crises in cities, to address the basic needs of their community members (information, food and shelter etc.). Created and run by refugees, they offer strong-impact, cost-effective and sustainable solutions. Yet, they are often considered as insufficiently credible or professional to become equal partners and decision-makers in the humanitarian sphere, and therefore continue to not be widely recognized nor meaningfully supported despite their huge role in urban refugees’ lives.
To address this, UR has developed a capacity-strengthening program, the Urban Refugees Incubation Program (URIP), which provides technical and financial support to RLO leaders to help them structure their organisations and programs and develop their partnerships and funding. Recently, UR has extended its capacity-strengthening to advocacy, so as to promote refugee-led advocacy.
UR has been implementing URIP in Kampala, Uganda, since 2019, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and with 6 RLOs. It is currently entering a scaling phase through a strategy of dissemination of its methodology.
Position Description
The Head of Mission represents URBAN REFUGEES in Uganda. He/she manages UR activities, office and staff in Kampala, ensures the quality and relevance of UR actions for its RLO partners, and supports the development of UR in Uganda.
He/she operates under the direct responsibility of the Executive Director, and works closely wiht the Advocacy Coordinator based in France.

Tasks and Responsibilities
Project coordination
• Supervise the project teams in the implementation of project activities, in compliance with funder requirements (logframes, timelines, etc.)
• Prepare narrative and financial reports to donors
• Identify needs of current or potential RLO partners to inform future project design
• Monitor project activities and results, through the setting up of adapted monitoring and evaluation frameworks for projects
• Define and collect, with the support of the UR advocacy coordinator, relevant indicators to promote our advocacy efforts for RLO participation and capacity strengthening
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of our program and methodologies, in particular to ensure that they are community-led

Partnerships
• Ensure equal partnerships with all RLOs in our projects and inform stakeholders on the modalities of these partnerships
• Follow up on project requirements and contracts with partners in Uganda
• Contribute to the identification of project opportunities and to drafting project proposals
• Initiate partnerships with local public and private stakeholders (UNHCR, local authorities, local and international NGOs, embassies, etc.)

Finance and administration
• Follow up on mission cash flow (cashbook and bank account) and prepare fund requests
• Approve and monitor mission expenses, in accordance with ongoing budgets
• Create and manage project budgets with the support of the Administrative and Financial manager in France
• Supervise sub-granting to partner RLOs, setting up rules and procedures where necessary as part of the URIP
• Coordinate the production and submission of necessary administrative documents to ensure the compliance of UR with national rules and regulations in Uganda

HR management
• Recruit and manage the UR team in Uganda (currently 3 national contracts)
• Manage volunteer contracts with RLO leaders
• Contribute to the implementation of new practices and frameworks to enhance the inclusion and participation of refugees in our programming

Representation
• Represent URBAN REFUGEES for all stakeholders in Uganda
• Participate in relevant humanitarian instances (clusters or other coordination meetings, consultations, etc.)
• Monitoring the context and security risks for the staff and programs locally

Skills & Experience
• Degree in project management, international development, humanitarian affairs or any other area related to the position
• Fluent in English and in French, both written and spoken
• At least 3 years of experience in development and/or humanitarian project management, including the design and management of activities, budget follow-up and reporting
• Experience in team management, preferably with national staff
• Understanding of the problematics of localisation of aid for refugees

Qualities
• Strong capacity to question established frameworks and propose solutions
• Rigorous and result-oriented
• Proactive and autonomous
• Strong interpersonal skills and capacity to work as a team
• Curious, with an appetence for challenges

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Duration: 12 months, starting as soon as possible and at the latest on August 29th 2021
Status: VSI for any non-Ugandan national, employment contract for Ugandan nationals
Remuneration: based on experience and UR salary grid
Advantages: accommodation, return flight to Kampala from home