Executive director: Technical Centre for Disaster Risk Management, Sustainability and Urban Resilience in Southern Africa (DIMSUR)

The governments of Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and the Union of Comoros, which show similar vulnerabilities to natural disasters being neighbouring countries, established jointly the Technical Centre for Disaster Risk Management, Sustainability and Urban Resilience in Southern Africa (DIMSUR) in June 2013 with the goal of providing DRR, CCA and urban resilience technical assistance and building knowledge to address the needs of the Governments in alignment with the existing global Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and the related strategies of the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC).

With the purpose of facilitating the establishment and operationalization of the DIMSUR, the governments of the four countries involved requested the support of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) since the beginning of the DIMSUR’s inception process. In this context, UN-Habitat has assumed the position of Secretary ad interim and will be responsible for recruiting the initial core personnel of the DIMSUR. In order to reinforce the current team for the establishment of the DIMSUR, UN-Habitat Mozambique will recruit Executive Director ad interim, Technical Centre for Disaster Risk Management, Sustainability and Urban Resilience in Southern Africa (DIMSUR).

Function:

Under the overall guidance of the DIMSUR Executive Board (which is composed of the National Directors responsible for DRR and CCA from each DIMSUR Member State, the SADC DRR Unit, UN-Habitat, and representatives from the civil society and the academia) and with the direct support of UN-Habitat, the DIMSUR Executive Director ad interimwill lead the implementation of the DIMSUR activities, represent the Centre in different meetings and forums at different levels, establish and maintain contact with partners, support efforts to mobilize funds, facilitate recruitment of other members of the DIMSUR Secretariat, among other tasks.

Requirements:

• University degree in disaster risk management, sciences, engineering, urban planning or other relevant academic formation;
• At least 10 years of working experience in southern Africa with relevant knowledge of risk reduction, climate change adaptation and urban resilience issues;
• Good experience in project and team management, and strong research/academic background;
• Proficient knowledge of at least two of the DIMSUR official working languages (English, French and Portuguese), and knowledge of the remaining one.

NB: As per the recommendations of the Governments of the 4 participating countries of the DIMSUR, applicants from Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Union of Comoros or other country from Southern Africa are preferred for this position.