Regional Rehabilitation Specialist – East Africa Regional Division

Job Description

Job Summary

East Africa region faces multiple challenges: armed conflicts and insecurity, population displacement (refugees and internally displaced persons), epidemics and public health issues, food insecurity and famine, and various protection incidents. These factors exacerbate the vulnerabilities of people with disabilities and marginalized groups. Regional Rehabilitation Specialist open role.

East Africa is home to approximately 3.8 million refugees, representing 10% of the world’s refugees but faces growing challenges in terms of resources and integration.

Ongoing crises in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia are exacerbating displacement.

In this context, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) implements humanitarian and development actions aimed at improving access to essential services, strengthening community resilience, and promoting inclusion. HI’s interventions focus on several areas: physical and functional rehabilitation, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), inclusive education (and EI in emergencies), protection, food security and humanitarian mine action (including clearance, victim assistance and risk education). HI’s approach is based on community participation, promoting a “do no harm” policy, and seeking to achieve a lasting impact that promotes human dignity and inclusion in humanitarian action.

HI has around 350-400 employees in this region, with a budget of €20 million.

As part of its commitment to continuous improvement, HI has embarked on a process of regionalization and decentralization of its operational governance, with the aim of bringing decision-making closer to local realities. This change is accompanied by greater pooling of resources, harmonization of practices, and increased efforts to ensure programmatic consistency across its various areas of intervention. By early 2026, the program teams will work closely and in an integrated manner within a strengthened regional space to maximize the impact, responsiveness, and relevance of actions carried out as close as possible to the populations concerned.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

Responsibility 1: TECHNICAL EXPERTISE.

1.1. Leads sector strategy and contributes to regional and global strategic thinking:

• Provides sector-specific technical input to the regional operational strategy (StratOp) in line with the global technical strategy (StraTech);
• Leads the development and monitoring of the regional rehabilitation sector strategy and ensures its implementation in the various countries where it is applied;
• Contributes to synergies and promotes integrated programming approaches with other sectors, based on strategic and operational priorities and standard projects;
• Supports HI’s technical assistance (TA) strategy to help development actors, as well as public and private service providers, become more competent.

1.2. Provides technical support to projects in accordance with global technical standards and frameworks in its area of expertise

• Develops and contextualises rehabilitation technical guidance and specific tools (including contextual analysis, needs assessment, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, etc.);
• Provides advice and technical support to a portfolio of projects in development, emergency and protracted crisis contexts, through the rehabilitation (senior) technical officers;
• Supports programs in designing strategies aligned with a Nexus approach and prepares for emergency responses;
• Integrates and promotes HI’s cross-cutting approaches: disability-gender-age (DGA) marker, conflict sensitivity and protection integration in its interventions.

1.3. Ensures technical quality control and monitoring.

• Carries out technical monitoring missions in the field to support teams and partners through training assessments, internal audits, team coaching, etc.;
• Develops, applies and adapts quality control tools and frameworks (project reviews, checklists, dashboards) defined by headquarters, alerts the THOP and reports any problems or needs for adaptation of the technical reference framework in terms of quality;
• Provides technical support to national teams during key phases of the project cycle (design, implementation, evaluation);
• Recommends project adjustments in response to possible contextual changes (e.g. humanitarian crises).

Responsibility 2: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

2.1. Provides strategic technical monitoring:

• Monitors regional dynamics and multi-stakeholder initiatives to anticipate opportunities for collaboration and tracks trends in the rehabilitation sector in relation to national and regional contextual developments.
• Analyses internal strengths and weaknesses, considering the institutional ecosystem, and ensures that proposals are aligned with strategic frameworks and donor requirements.
• Contributes to the strategic monitoring of relevant calls for proposals at regional level.

2.2. Develops strategic partnerships:

• Identifies opportunities for partnerships and/or consortia with development and humanitarian actors, research institutes and multilateral organisations within the overall framework of the Stratech;
• Supports teams in developing strategic partnerships with local, national and international organisations according to needs and technical complementarities, and within the framework of HI’s strengthened commitment to localising aid.

2.3. Supports the development and drafting of new project proposals:

• Provides technical support to national teams in drafting concept notes and proposals, ensuring the technical quality of intervention logics, results frameworks and budgets;
• Leads or contributes to the drafting of concept notes and proposals;
• Supports and/or develops technical assistance (TA) offers to support and strengthen the capacities of partners and development actors.

2.4. Represents HI in external coordination and advocacy forums:

• Actively participates in relevant regional sectoral groups (clusters, alliances, inter-institutional groups);
• In collaboration with the Institutional Funding Division (IFD), identifies potential donors (private and institutional), networks, partners, NGOs and advocacy groups in line with HI’s technical and strategic vision, and ensures the development of technical and strategic links.

2.5. Contributes to technical visibility and external communication:

• Supports the organisation’s technical visibility through presentations, publications and participation in regional and national events or workshops, with the aim of strengthening HI’s recognition and credibility within its sector;
• Produces content (capacity statements, project sheets, thematic fact sheets) to promote HI’s approaches and positioning within its sector to an external audience.

Responsibility 3: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT / LESSONS LEARNED.

3.1. Coordinates a knowledge management system and promotes research and innovation initiatives:

• Designs participatory tools and processes to document field experiences (case studies, lessons learned, innovations) and identifies lessons learned through recommendations from evaluations;
• Leads transnational learning workshops and actively participates in global communities of practice (CoP);
• Contributes to the drafting of analytical reports, technical notes and capitalisation documents, and ensures their internal and external dissemination;
• Facilitates reflection and the development of innovative thematic outcomes, ensuring that issues related to gender, disability, climate change adaptation and digital transformation are meaningfully integrated into programming.

3.2. Supports and ensures capacity building for technical and non-technical staff (managers, technical officers, etc.) in accordance with the framework defined at the global level:

• Participates in the recruitment (“Responsible” for technical test and technical interview) and validation of technical positions within projects and at country level;
• Ensures the integration of new employees so that they become familiar with rehabilitation priorities and objectives;
• Conducts training needs assessments in collaboration with field teams;
• Contributes to staff capacity development through the implementation and monitoring of a capacity building plan, including training and coaching mechanisms, to promote continuous learning in line with HI’s professional competency frameworks.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POSITION:
The security situation in the region varies from country to country, with some areas affected by tensions or travel restrictions, particularly in Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. Appropriate risk management mechanisms are in place to ensure the safety of teams.

Educational Qualifications, Experience, & Skills Required

• Master’s degree in the relevant field;
• At least 7 years of relevant professional experience in the sector;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and support for technical teams in the field;
• Strong written and oral communication skills, suitable for high-level external representation;
• Experience in strategy and project management in the sector;
• Ability to develop public relations/communication and represent the organisation to various stakeholders (donors, networks, ministries, local authorities, technical services, etc.).

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