Consortium Lead

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC began work in Afghanistan in 1988, and now works with thousands of villages across twelve provinces, with Afghans making up more than 99% of IRC staff in the country. As Afghanistan struggles to recover from ongoing conflict and natural disasters, the IRC: works with local communities to identify, plan and manage their own development projects, provides safe learning spaces in rural areas, community-based education, cash distribution provides uprooted families with tents, clean water, sanitation and other basic necessities, and helps people find livelihood opportunities as well as extensive resilience programming.

Job Overview/ Summary

Consortium lead (CL) will lead the Building Resilient Communities for Sustainable Development in Rural Afghanistan project which will seek to promote the self-reliance and resilience of households and communities adversely affected by climate shocks by strengthening local adaptive capacities. The project is designed to enable individuals and households to move away from external reliance and towards meeting their basic needs independently and sustainably (self-reliance), while restoring communities’ ability to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from future shocks and stresses in a way that reduces chronic vulnerability (resilience). The consortium will gradually introduce relevant climate-smart activities to address food security and livelihood needs while seeking to mitigate or reduce protection threats and disputes over natural resources.

Working under the direction of the Deputy Director of Programs (DDP), the CL is responsible for overall project direction, including project implementation within the project framework, government policies and strategies, and in compliance with donor regulations, specifically in the areas of a) donor grant management b) quality and implementation c) day-to-day representation with donor agencies and local and international stakeholders, and d) Monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning.

This position will work closely and collaboratively with the different departments within the IRC Afghanistan, the IRC technical advisors (regionally and globally).

The CL will be based in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Major responsibilities

Project Management - Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation

● Provide overall leadership and management of project, ensuring strategically coherent project direction, well-managed growth, and compliance with IRC and donor regulations.

● Develop the consortium governance structure to promote equal and transparent decision-making process.

● Facilitate the consortium steering and implementation committee meetings and implement the agreed course of actions

● Act as a focal point for the consortium. Responsible for the representation of the consortium at external and internal events/ meetings.

● Ensure effective coordination and communication among consortium partners, steering and technical committees, and other stakeholders to ensure project outcomes are met.

● Continually seek out ways to build the capacities of the project team members, individually and collectively.

● Ensure that detailed, realistic and feasible project implementation plans are developed, and modified as needed, in collaboration with the Field Coordinators and Operations team.

● Coordinate with other members of the Senior Management Team on appropriate management, compliance and performance standards, as well as effective systems for budget management, knowledge management and risk management.

● Support project staff to collect, document and disseminate lessons learned and best practices, incorporating these into new activities.

● With project staff, develop effective and appropriate M&E plans, including methodologies and tools to strengthen the quality of data collection, analysis and reporting.

● Review M&E and accountability data with project staff to identify and address areas for operational improvement, revision and adaptation

Grants Management

● Coordinate with the Grants and Finance teams as well as the consortium partners to ensure sound budget management, expense control and timely contractual documentation.

● Lead Grant Opening and Grant Closing Meetings with all relevant partners and units and to ensure they take place on time.

● Ensure that the project team and partners review budget-vs-actuals reports on a regular basis; provide leadership and management support to ensure effective monthly grant review meetings.

● Mitigate any potential risk by collaborating with the Finance Department to ensure that programming staff fully understand financial and administrative processes involved in project budget cycles.

External Representation and Advocacy

● Develop a sound understanding of the project to be able to professionally represent the IRC to implementing partners, the government and donors;

● Assist the Deputy Director of Program in developing strong relationships with donors, assisting with visits and in the development of appropriate advocacy actions;

● Forge and maintain solid cooperation with partner organizations through regular communication, cooperation and, where appropriate, joint decision-making.

● Act as the focal point for project-related communication within IRC network

Staff Management and Development

● Provide guidance and supervision to project staffs, develop strong cooperation with operation and program staffs within IRC Afghanistan

● Create a supervisory environment focused on the achievement of team and individual results that emphasizes the importance of learning, productivity, accountability and openness

● Adhere to IRC's performance management system, providing regular, timely and thoughtful coaching, feedback, performance assessment, and professional development for all direct reports, while making sure that they do the same for their direct reports.

● Build capacities of project staff in key project management principles, tools and approaches and ensure that these new skills are utilized on the job.

● Manage recruitment, hiring and development of high-performing national staff to assume greater levels of responsibility.

● Provide leadership support for the successful implementation of and adherence to the

Key working relationships

IRC Afghanistan

● Country Director, Deputy Directors of Programs, Deputy Directors of Operations and Finance

● Other Afghanistan-based staff, including operations, finance, and grants

● Technical Advisors (based regionally and globally) and any roster staff required to support the project in Afghanistan

● In country grants team to support all compliance and reporting for partners

● Communications and Advocacy units to support any key messages at external meetings

● Global Security to support any risk analysis and mitigation

● Emergency Unit

Other partners

● Appointed representatives of Danish Refugee Council (DRC)

● Appointed representatives of Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

● Appointed representatives of Hand in Hand Afghanistan (HIH)

● Appointed representatives of Afghans4Tomorrow (A4T)

● Appointed representatives of New Way Social and Development Organization (NSDO)

● Appointed representatives of Afghan Development Association (ADA)

Requirements

● Bachelor’s degree in development studies, International Relations, Climate Change, Climate-smart Agriculture, Social Sciences or a similar field. Master’s degree preferred.

● Minimum 3 - 5 years of management experience working in a humanitarian, climate resilience, food security or development setting with a minimum of eight years of INGO program management experience.

● Experience in managing climate resilience, disaster risk reduction, rural development, natural resource management and experience working in partnership with local/ international organizations, is strongly desired.

● Previous experience managing large-budget programs. Familiarity with Swedish and Swiss government agencies is preferred.

● Proven ability to manage projects to completion on time, within budget, and with the anticipated results.

● Ability to respond to multiple priorities in a timely manner, producing high-quality outcomes.

● Demonstrated successful leadership experience with a multi-disciplinary team in a cross-cultural setting, including active mentoring and coaching. Strong leadership, motivational and team-building skills;

● Proven fluency in English s a must

● Experience in Afghanistan is strongly preferred. Experience in Badghis, Balkh, Ghazni, Herat, Maidan Wardak, Nimroz, Paktia, Zabul, and Kandahar preferred.

Professional Standards: Standards of Professional Conduct: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law

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