Emergency Response Team Partnerships Coordinator

Job Description

Languages: Must be fluent in speaking and writing English and one of the following languages: French, Arabic, Spanish

The IRC Emergency and Humanitarian Action Unit supports the IRC’s global vision of serving people affected by emergencies, including in the hardest-to-reach communities, with quality, responsive humanitarian aid. We aspire to ensure programs that are properly resourced, locally led and always designed and delivered in partnership with local organizations and communities. Members of the IRC’s Emergency Response Team are specialized professionals ready to deploy to emergencies to support existing partners or country programs in their emergency response, or to initiate a new program in crisis zones.

Job Overview/Summary

Working in partnership with local civil society, government and private sector actors is fundamental to the IRC’s mission to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their futures. Civil society, government, and private sector actors closest to crisis are the main agents of response and recovery. We contribute to greater impact and scale, and more sustainable outcomes, when we partner with local actors. Our commitment to being a feminist and anti-racist organization that promotes diversity, equality and inclusion requires that we champion and resource leadership and action that comes from the communities in which we work. This is equally true in acute emergencies. We continue to express solidarity by standing with communities impacted by conflict and crisis and delivering direct aid where needed. But we also want to partner more, and better, in emergencies. We know that our work is more effective when we are guided by partners on what value we can add to existing capacities and systems. We seek to share power and space with partners more often, and ensure that partners access a bigger share of our program spend.

The Emergency Partnerships Coordinator on the Emergency Response Team (ERT) represents an exciting opportunity to advance IRC’s strategic commitment to partnering in emergencies. This role will be a thought-partner and direct support to regions and countries working on the intersection between emergency preparedness and partnerships (see non-deployment responsibilities); and will be responsible for ensuring consistent collaboration with partners, and promoting and modeling effective partnerships with local actors (see deployment responsibilities).

The Emergency Partnerships Coordinator will work under the direct supervision of the Director of Strategic Initiatives in EHAU, and in close collaboration with ERT country directors, Senior Technical Advisors, Regional Emergency Directors, and program coordinators.

Deployment responsibilities:

The Emergency Partnerships Coordinator will lay the groundwork for effective partnerships by working alongside teams to prioritize and establish equitable partnerships, and to integrate partnership considerations into emergency response plans and strategies. When deployed, this will include:

• Facilitate stakeholder analysis and support informed decisions in each outcome area as to how IRC can best ‘add value’ supporting, reinforcing and complementing local actors and systems.

• Co-facilitate and guide partner mapping and selection processes to identify new partners as part of emergency readiness and response, including to identify women-led and women/girls serving organizations.

• Promote and apply the IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results system (PEERS), ensuring that IRC’s partnership principles, skills and approaches are applied by staff across programs and projects with partners.

• Collaborate with response leadership and technical coordinators to establish and build principled partnerships that prioritize collaboration on strategy, program design and delivery and capacity sharing

• Coordinate and co-lead Partner Identity and Background Review (vetting) processes and partner's Project Capacity Review (PPCR) processes.

• Facilitate the collaborative development and delivery of the partner project support plan, ensuring that it appropriately addresses issues identified in the due diligence process, and coordinate with relevant departments for the timely, quality implementation of the plan.

• Collaborate with technical coordinators to integrate technical capacity sharing approaches, including how IRC can learn from local partners, and to resource support needs.

• Promote and facilitate collaborative project management, including timely and effective partner program, finance, and compliance review and reflection (monitoring), and work with the Technical Coordinator to address any project performance issues.

• Facilitate systematic partner feedback on IRC’s management of the partnership relationship, including the documentation of, and response to partner feedback.

• Work collaboratively with partners and IRC staff to constructively resolve any issues that may arise.

• Provide regular feedback to the emergency response leadership and/or SMT, incorporating input from technical coordinators and operational leads as appropriate.

• Promote and identify ways for continual learning between IRC staff and partners.

Non-deployment responsibilities:

When not deployed, the Emergency Partnerships Coordinator will contribute to learning and strengthening partnership tools and processes, and will work with Regional Emergency Directors and country and regional partnerships focal points to support strategic emergency preparedness and readiness work with country programs. This will include:

• Support delivery on the emergencies strategy for the organization. FY22 priorities include:

o Integrating partnership into standard emergency processes and systems;

o Capacity strengthening of EHAU and other relevant staff on partnership tools and processes specific to emergency readiness and response;

o Engaging with regional partnership leads and Regional Emergency Directors to design and move forward innovative partnership concepts with country programs and/or at the regional level.

• Foster ongoing learning, honest dialogue and reflection to strengthen partnerships and to promote IRC values and adherence to IRC policies.

• Liaise with other stakeholders across the organization seeking to advance the IRC’s partnership ambition, to ensure that emergency-specific learning and progress feed into the continued development of PEERS and broader organizational change management, dialogue and practice.

Job Requirements and Competencies

• At least three years of program and/or grants experience with NGOs in emergency settings.

• Strong understanding of partnership principles (equality, transparency, results-oriented approach, responsibility and complementarity).

• Demonstrated experience communicating and planning with partners in a way that builds trust and mutual understanding.

• Excellent communicator with technical writing ability in at least two languages – English, French, Arabic, Spanish – is required.

• Proven track record in working with teams, excellent interpersonal skills, positive and professional attitude, ability to lead and work well in a team setting and with multiple partners.

Qualified candidates residing in any location where the IRC operates are encouraged to apply.

EHAU strives to build a diverse and inclusive team at all levels who as individuals, and as a group, embody our culture statement creating a working environment characterized by critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity for us to achieve our aspirations as a unit and deliver the best possible services to our clients.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality. 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

Narrowing the Gender Gap: The International Rescue Committee 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 flexible hours (when possible), maternity leave, transportation support, and gender-sensitive security protocols.

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