Safety, Security, and Access Manager – Port-au-Prince, Haiti

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

The Program/Department/Team

Mercy Corps helps communities develop their own ideas to solve Haiti’s most daunting problems by using innovative approaches to bring Haitians new social and economic opportunities and to make their country more secure, productive, and just. Established in January 2010, Mercy Corps Haiti has offices in Port-au-Prince, Canaan, Arcahaie, and Mirgoane and more than 80 staff implementing programs in economic development, agriculture, natural resource management and humanitarian response. Mercy Corps’ economic development work is guided by the principles of pro-poor development and demand driven strategies. Mercy Corps takes a progressive approach to development that leads communities and entrepreneurs from relief to sustainable livelihoods to resilience.

On August 14th, 2021 a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Haiti creating widespread destruction, impacting over 130,000 households, and causing over 12,000 injuries and 2,200 casualties. Mercy Corps’ team in Haiti responded immediately, implementing our SMS emergency alert system to provide communities with critical information, as well as distributing Non-Food Items (NFIs) to meet families’ urgent needs including: personal hygiene, food preparation and light and thermal comfort for their shelters.

The Position

The Security, Safety and Access Manager (SSAM) is responsible for coordinating all Security, Safety and Humanitarian Access Efforts for Mercy Corps’ activities in Haiti. This position is responsible for supervising day-to-day operational security needs for programs as well as the more strategic and coordination level engagement. In this sense, this position is expected to strongly support Mercy Corps’ programs with forecasting at the program design stage.

The SSAM will supervise existing national team members supporting them administratively and contribute to their mentorship and technical skills in mapping, writing and planning. As such, a critical element for success will entail collaborating closely with program team members to develop lines of communication to understand security needs for implementation and community access as well as considering how security aspects can be informed and strengthened through program and community inputs.

This role will interact with expatriates and Mercy Corps regional and global security focal points and are a critical figure in upholding our commitment of Duty of Care for all team members. They are one member of the larger Haiti security and analysis team and expected to work closely with counterparts.

Essential Job Responsibilities

OPERATIONAL SECURITY

• Understand the immediate and longer-term humanitarian programs and strategy. This position is expected to know and understand all program activities so they can contribute effectively.
• Update and implement MC’s security plan for all field locations and adapt it as needed to the environment. Monitor the compliance. Conduct training and briefings to staff as directed. Ensure all expatriates and new team members are provided a security briefing within the first 24 hours in service. Coordinate with HR on this.
• Learn and monitor the environment. Supervise the tracking and monitoring of incidents and trends across the country. Coordinate with counterpart security team members to understand larger trends and forecasting.
• Primary person responsible for all flash reporting and incident management.
• Conduct security assessments either in work locations either directly or remotely. Is responsible for maintaining updated risk assessments and security strategies.
• Work with SFPs, Program Managers, Heads of Offices, Director of Programs and CD on community acceptance messaging and other operational strategies.
• Help create an environment where all Mercy Corps programs and team members and business is conducted with professionalism, impartiality, accountability and other core principles required as a humanitarian agency.

SECURITY INFORMATION & ANALYSIS

• Prepare and contribute to reports and analysis relevant for MC Haiti’s programming.
• Provides the Haiti team with routine contextual analysis (written or in briefing) and forecasting to the conflict to the best extent possible.

SECURITY SYSTEMS & CAPACITY BUILDING

• Coach and mentor the Roving Security Officer to fulfill their role in security management, conducting assessment and other required work.
• Is overall responsible to ensure briefings and orientations to all new staff and visitors. Will ensure a training plan is in place and goals met.
• They will identify weaknesses in security or situational awareness with the entire Haiti team and support the different departments in remedying these gaps.

COORDINATION AND REPRESENTATION:

• Place high value on inter-agency coordination in security; encourage Mercy Corps field-level coordination in the NGO community. Seek opportunities for formal and informal cooperation;
• Develop a network of relationships with peers in the humanitarian community (UN, NGO, ICRC, appropriate governmental offices, etc)

Supervisory Responsibilities

Supervises the Roving Security and Safety Officer. Gives technical advisory to field security focal points

Accountability

Reports directly to: Director of Operations

Technical management line (dotted line) to: Regional Security and Access Adviser

Works directly with: Heads of Field offices, Director of Programs, Country Director, and Security Officer.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline, Master’s degree or equivalent in experience preferred.
• 3-5 years field experience in safety and security with a humanitarian or development non-governmental organization.
• Full professional proficiency in French and English required
• Formal security qualification or advanced security management training
• Demonstrated understanding of complex emergencies, related security concerns, and appropriate responses to such emergencies. Good context analysis skills.
• Experience of incident reporting, incident mapping, intelligence collation and analysis functions, set up and execution of an incident warning system, compilation of security reports and assessments
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching and ability to work with teams from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Excellent planning, coordination and reporting skills, with the ability to organize a substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities, and present complex information in succinct and compelling manner
• Competency in Internet and Microsoft Office systems including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and other database/mapping systems
• Experience living and working in the Americas region is preferred.
• Previous knowledge of the Haitian context preferred

Success Factors

The Safety and Security Manager will enable the Mercy Corps team in Haiti to more effectively provide development, early recovery and humanitarian relief to citizens with 1) speed 2) strategy 3) duty of care. A successful candidate will be able to follow and read the quickly changing context and enable the team to better plan and forecast. S/he will help senior leadership create an environment of a well-trained staff with contextual awareness. The Mercy Corps office and programs will be fit for purpose and with a culture of safety-mindedness across departments.

Living/Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Port au Prince (PaP), which is estimated at around 2.5 million people. Although infrastructure is fairly poor in the capital, comfortable housing with water and electricity are readily available. Living in PaP can be quite comfortable, although based on the fluctuating security context, movement can be restricted. There are many places to eat in all price ranges, as well as shops, and supermarkets which are comparable to a US supermarket. There is reasonable access to most consumer goods, although they can be expensive. Walking is not possible in most cases, however, weekend getaways to the mountains or the beach are an option, security permitting. Self-drive is permitted, however driving can be challenging and traffic is often very heavy. While security outside of PaP can be quite stable, certain parts of PaP continue to be an arena of violence and insecurity.

This position requires up to 50% travel by car and air to field offices in insecure environments. Outside PaP, travel can be challenging and somewhat unpredictable due to weather conditions and gang violence depending. Mercy Corps’ sub-offices experience variable levels of insecurity, with the situation closely monitored by the field teams and security actors. Mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. Internet is available in all Mercy Corps offices. Travel to field sites will be required where living conditions are clean and secure, but basic. There are a number of health services available with evacuation options for serious illnesses.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.