What we are looking for:

An experienced Humanitarian Access Manager who will be responsible for planning and operationalizing strategies and approaches that will increase the reach, acceptance and impact of NRC programmes, particularly in hard-to-reach areas through humanitarian engagement, advocacy, access coordination and analysis, and civil-military coordination.

The job holder will advise on strategic decision-making, program design, monitoring, and operational footprints to be principled, conflict sensitive, adaptive and contextually driven, enhancing NRC’s response capacity, preparedness, and comparative advantage.

What you will do:

• Develop country and area-based humanitarian access strategies to support the safe and principled delivery of emergency assistance to be inclusive of: Country and area-based Red Lines and acceptable options for negotiations and operations as well as country and area-based engagement plans aimed at addressing access barriers and maintaining principled humanitarian action in NRC areas of operations.
• Contribute to the development of international and national advocacy initiatives, with a particular focus on access barriers faced by people in need and humanitarian agencies.
• In coordination with HSS, contribute to the provision of information into national and regional contextual and access analysis briefings and dashboards.
• Design internal and external humanitarian access briefings and accompanying data collection tools that contribute to raising awareness of humanitarian access barriers and potential solutions across NRC’s areas of operation.
• Ensure NRC has an up to date and comprehensive actor mappings and analyses of the key national and international stakeholders relevant to humanitarian access.
• Collaborate closely with regional and country advocacy colleagues and key stakeholders to coordinate advocacy and engagement processes and initiatives concerning various access impediments, including leading, participating, and/or contributing to multidisciplinary working groups and taskforces.
• Provide policy advice to senior humanitarian leadership at country and regional level related to humanitarian access and other relevant thematic areas.
• Produce a range of products including policy briefings, guidance notes and reports to support influencing and external engagement particularly related to humanitarian access and humanitarian diplomacy.
• Rove between Gaza and West Bank operations, to support NRC teams and Partners on humanitarian access (e.g., through development-drafting and roll-out of context-specific guidance, access and acceptance plans-strategies, and capacity building).
• Remote or direct support to relevant response teams or Country Office (CO) Country Management Group (CMG) in their engagement with authorities, armed actors or communities around access challenges and/or other principled engagements.
• Contribute to the development of a remote management strategy, alongside programme, logistics and security colleagues that can help ensure NRC can continue to deliver assistance across a range of scenarios.
• Coordinate cross sectoral input into operational response scenarios and provide recommendations on appropriate response modalities.
• Deliver context specific trainings to NRC staff, especially access focal points, and local partners on humanitarian principles, access, negotiations and key principles of Civil-Military Coordination.
• Maintain active contact with Access/Liaison counterparts from peer agencies (including Local Humanitarian Partners) and relevant organisations.
• Liaise with critical coordination mechanisms (such as the protection and logistics clusters/working groups) at the national level.
• Represent NRC at the Humanitarian Access Working Group. Within this role, provide support on: ensuring alignment between humanitarian response access strategy and that of NRC as well as advocating for and supporting collective and principled humanitarian access in all areas of operations.

What you will bring:

• Advanced University/master’s degree in relevant field
• Minimum 3 years of experience from working as a Senior Project Manager in a complex emergency with high level access constraints.
• Experience working in hostile environments in the Middle East specifically Palestine is an asset.
• Previous experience chairing, cochairing or playing a prominent role in coordination mechanisms is a strong asset.
• Demonstrates ability to negotiate and manage negotiations with stakeholders to achieve acceptable outcomes. Experience of engaging with civilian and military interlocutors.
• Demonstrates significant experience in safeguarding humanitarian principles.
• Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile with documented results related to the position’s responsibilities.
• Fluency in English both written and verbal. Fluency in Arabic is considered an asset.

What we offer:

• Duty station: Jerusalem, Palestine
• Contract: 12 months (Renewal is subject to performance and funds availability)
• Travel: Minimum of 40% time to NRC operating locations.
• NRC is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to diversity without distinction to age, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and physical ability.
• We think outside the box, encourage ideas, and give responsibility to all employees at all levels. You will have many opportunities to be heard and take the initiative.

Find out more about the benefits of working for NRC

Important information about the application process

• Internal candidates: To apply as an internal candidate, log in with your official email or click on Opportunity MarketPlace.
• When creating your profile, include your full name as given on your national identification card. Complete all the system-required fields for experience, employment history and education.
• Submit your application and CV in English, taking care to attach your latest CV.
• This position is open to candidates who have the legal right to work in Palestine. Due to legal restrictions in obtaining visas for some applicants please click on the link to confirm your eligibility before sending your application. 
• We receive many applications for each vacant position and so only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
• Applications that do not meet the minimum standards in terms of experience or qualifications will generally not be considered. Unsolicited applications not related to this specific job advertisement will not be considered. Recruitment will be done on a rolling basis so please send in your application at the first opportunity.
• If you have any questions about this role, please email mero.recruitment@nrc.no with the job title as the subject line.

Why NRC?

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. Our 15,000 staff work in crises across 40 countries, providing life-saving and long-term assistance to millions of people every year.

NRC currently has over 3,000 staff across the Middle East dedicated to assisting people affected by conflict in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya and Palestine. Its humanitarian interventions are based upon its programming expertise in the Core Competencies of Shelter, Education, WASH, Livelihoods and Food Security, and Information Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) to vulnerable displaced people that were forced to flee.

Watch this short video to see NRC in action.

We are looking for people who are passionate about helping refugees and people forced to flee. Are you one of those people? If you are, NRC offers you the opportunity to:

• do demanding and professional work, often in challenging contexts.
• join a work culture that empowers every employee to share ideas and take responsibility.
• be part of a welcoming and supportive community committed to human dignity.

Learn more about NRC’s operations in Palestine here.