Afghanistan: Afghanistan - A Human Resources Advisor

Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilians’ victims of marginalization and exclusion, or hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapses, by answering their fundamental needs. Our aim is to provide emergency relief to uprooted people in order to help them recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency.

The association leads in average 190 projects by year in the following sectors of intervention: food security, health, nutrition, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, water, sanitation, hygiene and economic recovery. PUI is providing assistance to around 5 million people in 20 countries – in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and France.

Find out about our history and values

Humanitarian situation and needs

Afghan mission is the oldest PUI mission, with first medical intervention launched in 1980 just after the Soviet Invasion. Since then, the country has mostly been in conflict, with both national armed groups and international forces, causing mass casualties and massive movements of population, within or out of the countries: out of the 30 millions in country population, 805.000 are registered as IDPs. 272.000 since January 2015, 3.703.000 Afghan refugees are registered in foreign countries (UNHCR, 2015).

Since NATO intervention in 2001, humanitarian assistance and development projects have reached unprecedented levels of funds and intervention in the country. In the 2012 Tokyo Conference, Afghanistan announced its road map toward self-reliance. However, great challenges remain to overcome. Security, social and economic development, good governance, and justice are, among other issues, essential pre-conditions in order to achieve the country’s ambitious objectives.

However, due to the raise of Armed Opposition Groups and the constantly increasing number of fights in the country, the security situation remains unstable: 2015 is the worst year since 2001 in terms of civilian casualties (11.000 officially recorded) and number of security incidents reported. Many attacks continue to claim lives among the Afghan population, and respect of humanitarian principles is a key stake (multiple violation including attacks on hospitals and health facilities) of the as the humanitarian access is more and more challenged (numerous incidents affecting the humanitarian community).

In April 2014, the Presidential poll marked the transfer of power from one elected president to another for the first time in the country’s history. The political transition coincides with a security transition as Afghan security forces have taken up security responsibility from international forces which withdrew at the end of 2014. Humanitarian stakeholders forecasted an increased level of violence, a rise in unemployment and criminality. Those most affected are IDPs, the war wounded, and the people living in contested areas. As a consequence of constant unrest and lack of economic perspectives, many people flee the country being to neighboring countries such as Iran or Pakistan, or to Europe (in terms of population, Afghan people are the second nationality represented in the migrants continuous flux to Europe according to Frontex Agency).

Thus, Afghanistan is today at crossroads, between increasing autonomy and development of infrastructures, within chronic vulnerabilities and complex emergencies to deal with: Armed Opposition Groups are constantly extending their territories, number of armed clashes and of casualties is constantly increasing, and natural disasters (such as the Earthquakes which affected the country over the past six months) are challenging the resilience of communities ( 8 millions people were assessed in food insecurity situation in 2015 according to Fewsnet)

Rebuilding and strengthening the health-care system is still a priority in Afghanistan, with the country-wide continuation of the implementation of BPHS (Basic Package of Health Services) and the EPHS (Essential Package of Hospital Services), initiated in 2003 and 2005, and the implementation of emergency responses.

Our action in the field

PUI strategy is to address the fundamental needs of the Afghan population in respect with all humanitarian principles. Indeed, Neutrality and impartiality are key principles to respect in order to enable humanitarian access to the affected populations.

PUI has a strong health expertise in the country that can be used as an entry point to implement an integrated approach to support the population to regain their most basic needs and also to their self-sufficiency. Indeed, such problems as malnutrition and undernutrition request a multi sectoral and comprehensive response in order to decrease the prevalence of the phenomenon.

Since the beginning of 2013, PUI in Afghanistan decided to start interventions on emergency preparedness and medical interventions for conflict-affected populations. With constant increasing of civilian casualties during from January 2014 to June 2015 (4.900 registered during the first 2015 semester), it is indeed crucial to have health staff prepared and equipped for mass casualties, and also to implement responses to population displacements.

Due to the violent recent history of the country and the constantly increasing number of security incidents in the country, PUI is developing an advocacy plan for development of PFA in the country, in order to support the development of such activity countrywide.

Click here for more information about our response to the crisis

As part of our activities in Afghanistan, we are looking for a Human Resources Advisor.

Under the supervision of the Head of mission and in close coordination with the Finance and Administration Coordinator, the HR advisor will provides support and take the lead on following issues :

Update the HR policy in accordance with the labor regulations in the country of operation, including development of pension plan for PUI national employees ;

Review the salary scale of the Mission for national positions as per needs and in coordination with other medical NGOs implementing activities in Afghanistan ;

Harmonization of the HR process on the mission.

Background information: Over the months and few years, the structuring of the Afghan state as led to multiple change in the regulation, including in the Labor Code and in the Human Ressources rules for organizations in partnerships with governmental agencies and ministries. This “new deal” is facing the challenge of implementing a global policy for provinces with different constraints realities. With the support of HR Department and HoM, some guidelines have been improved, but it revealed some inconsistencies between the law and PUI practices. At the same time, HR procedures have been developed at the base level and require to be capitalized in the internal regulation.and homogenized at mission level.

Objective: He/she supports the developing of PUI’s HR policy to the mission in accordance with the country of operation’s relevant legal framework (including fiscal aspects) and updates the internal regulation.

Background information: In order to remain competitive in HR recruitment and retaining with senior management staffs, salary scale must be reviewed and updated, based on some benchmark conducted by medical NGOs in November 2015.

Objective: He/She defines a new salary grid, based on the existing remuneration levels and wages paid by other organizations in the country, homogenize the allowances policy and gives the necessary support to its implementation.

• Set up of Staff representatives/ Delegate mechanism:

Background information: there is no Staff representative in the mission, which conducts to disorganized claims from the staffs and lack of follow up in the HR requests and confusion in the implementation of some measures. Therefore, it is necessary to establish proper canal of communication between managers and staffs

Objective: organizes the procedures and the process for election of staff representatives on each base.

Background information: linked with remote management and security constraints, some major concern exist about whistleblowing policy on the Afghan mission. We therefore need to define proper context related and relevant implementation guidelines of the wistheblowing policy such as defined in HQ.

Objective in close coordination with HQ team and according to the organizational wistheblowing poicy, defines guidelines for the implementation of the anti-corruption, anti-abuse and anti-fraud policy.

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Training and Experiences

Training:

HR Management

Professional Experiences:

Humanitarian

International

Technical

Knowledge and Skills:

Administrative management

Database salary management

Software:

Office Pack (especially Excel)

Languages

English is mandatory

French and/or other languages are a plus

Proposed Terms

Employed with a Fixed-Term Contract – 4 months

Starting date: August 2016

Monthly gross income: from 1 980 up to 2 310 Euros depending on the experience in International Solidarity + 50 Euros per semester seniority with PUI

Cost covered: Round-trip transportation to and from home / mission, visas, vaccines…

Insurance including medical coverage and complementary healthcare, 24/24 assistance and repatriation

Housingin collective accommodation

Daily living Expenses (« Per diem »)

Break Policy : 5 working days at 3 and 9 months + break allowance

Paid Leaves Policy : 5 weeks of paid leaves per year + return ticket every 6 months