Partnership Coordinator Ukraine (for Ukrainian nationals only)

Contract

This is a Professional contract (NRC) contract. More about Professional contract (NRC) contracts.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. We work in crises across more than 31 countries, providing emergencies and long-term assistance to millions of people every year. We stand up for people forced to flee, advocating their rights. NORCAP, our global provider of expertise, helps improve international and local ability to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from crises. NRC also runs the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva, a global leader in reporting on and advocating for people displaced within their own country.

Employment with NRC may lead to employment in or deployment to Regions, Countries, Areas or Offices that may be host to considerable health, safety and security risks. NRC takes this very seriously and we have procedures in place to reduce known risks, but will never be able to take away all risks.

NRC is an equal opportunities employer and aims to have staffing diversity in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, nationality and physical ability.

All NRC employees are expected to work in accordance with the organization’s core values dedication, innovation, inclusivity, and accountability. These attitudes and believes shall guide our actions and relationships.

Background: The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been present in Ukraine since 2014, helping more than 700,000 people with food, shelter, water, sanitation, and legal assistance. Rapid change of situation in February 2022 during which whole Ukraine became affected by the conflict required significant scale-up of emergency programmes. NRC’s humanitarian interventions are based upon its programming expertise in the Core Competencies of Shelter & WASH, Information Counselling, and legal Assistance (ICLA), Camp Management (CCCM), Protection from Violence, Livelihoods and Food Security (LFS), Education; as well as a large Cash programme to vulnerable conflict-affected people. The level and intensity of the crisis in Ukraine remains high and humanitarian and protection needs are overwhelming. NRC Ukraine works with local partners to extend its access to people in need and to build the capacity of local institutions and actors for longer-term sustainability. To work in partnership most effectively, NRC Ukraine is strengthening its internal systems and developing standard operating procedures for partnership management as well as revising NRC’s existing partnership handbook. Working with partners requires inputs across NRC teams, from Finance, M&E, Programmes, Logistics, and others; effective partnership management will require greater internal coordination and leadership.

This role requires a diverse set of skills including an understanding of partnership programming in emergency and protracted crisis, ability to operationalize strategies and the ability to collaboratively make use of partnership tools and guidance. The successful candidate will be a strong networker with the ability to explain and share knowledge with a wide range of stakeholders.

1. Role and responsibilities

The Partnerships Coordinator is responsible for partnership management and capacity strengthening/sharing with partners at the Country Office level (and Area Offices as needed) in close coordination with the Specialists, Area Programme Managers, Project Managers and Finance. Partnership Coordinator will keep partners informed of relevant donor compliance regulations, reporting deadlines, NRC procedures and will support partners with compliance and facilitate capacity sharing. This role is critical in achieving quality programming through effective partnerships management, capacity sharing and support.

The following is a brief description of the role.

Generic responsibilities 1. Ensure adherence to NRC policies, handbooks, guidelines and donor requirements; 2. Support overview and maintenance of projects implemented with Partners at the country office level, including providing helpdesk support to partners on compliance with NRC and donor requirements; 3. Maintain relations with a range of partners and work with the partnership team to identify local civil society groups for potential partnerships and collaboration with NRC; 4. Represent NRC as the main focal point with partners at the country level on partnerships related and general issues and ensure timely and consistent communication flow between partners and NRC; 5. Work with programme team to support mainstreaming safe and inclusive programming (SIP), and do-no-harm into projects and activities; 6. Strengthen NRC's response to prioritize country advocacy and protection issues together with partners both within the country and internationally; 7. Play an active and strategic role in the humanitarian community to strengthen the advocacy and protection response together with partners in accordance with the NRC country strategy; 8. Provide timely and context specific information to internal and external stakeholders; 9. Other duties as assigned by the Line Manager.

Specific responsibilities These responsibilities shall be adapted to the particularities of the job location and context, phase of operation, strategic focus, and type of intervention. This section shall be revised whenever a new employee is hired or the context changes significantly.

Partnership management:

• Support and coordinate the development of new partnership and support with management of existing partnerships;
• Provide input to the development and implementation of NRC Ukraine overall strategy and operational methodology for engagement with public, private, and civil society stakeholders;
• Act as focal point for contracting and sub-granting issues to NRC’s partners at Country Office level (and Area Offices as needed);
• Coordinate organizational assessment and vetting of potential partners as per NRC Partnership handbook
• Coordinate the development of project implementation agreements between new partners and NRC and support Area Offices in this task with technical guidance
• Support and facilitate communication and coordination between NRC and partners;
• Ensure that NRC’s partners adhere to NRC requirements and ensure smooth project implementation by providing the necessary support from NRC to the partners;
• Participate in ensuring a structured and consistent approach to partnerships in line with the Country Strategy and Partnership Strategy;
• Coordinate with the Advocacy, Media and Communication team for visibility of partnership in Ukraine, and update on the profile of the programme by reflecting stories and project achievements;
• Keep track of and facilitate PCM meetings for projects implemented with partners (Project Opening Meetings, Review Meetings, Project Closure Meetings) and ensure that all mandatory internal documents are in place (internal logframe, internal budget, procurement plan, work-plan and M&E matrix); and actively follow up on outstanding related partnership issues;
• Responsible for ensuring a structured approach to partnerships, including the development of tools for identifying, assessing, capacity building, monitoring and evaluating partnerships;

General Administration:

• Ensure all key project and partnership documents are filed, updated, and maintained as per the NRC Ukraine’s filing and information management systems;
• Support the Partnership Unit to ensure correct and up-to-date maintenance of Partnerships Tracker;
• Assist the Partnership Unit as necessary, including representation and attendance at meetings as required, and coordination with teams to follow up on agreed action points.
• Maintain tracking of planned, active and closed partner projects in electronic and hard copy, ensuring all documentation in place as per the NRC Ukraine’s filing and information management systems;
• Contribute to the exercise of mapping of local potential partners and maintaining relations with existing partners. Partnerships Compliance and Capacity sharing:
• Be familiar with and support partner compliance with NRC internal and donor requirements and; Support monitoring of partner’s compliance to NRC’s and where applicable to specific donor’s requirements;
• Work actively with the protection, Safe and Inclusive Programming (SIP), finance and logistics units to facilitate strong mainstreaming of core NRC principles and procedures across operational partners;
• Provide support from the Partnership Unit for capacity strengthening to partners in cross–cutting issues (M&E, Finance, Procurement) and operational good practices together with NRC technical leads;
• Lead on needs assessment for trainings and partner organizational development to enhance the effectiveness of partners performance in achieving their goals and objectives;
• Lead on the development of a tailored capacity development plan and SIP action plan with each partner taking their particular needs and capacity into consideration;
• Lead on the identification of capacity development needs and coordinate systematic capacity sharing process between NRC and partners and vis-versa by coordinating with technical NRC programme staff and external consultants and ensure that partners are receiving the necessary technical, organizational and institutional support needed. This could include organizing of training, seminars and workshops by NRC or external consultants, coaching and mentoring;

2. Competencies

Competencies are important in order for the employee and the organisation to deliver desired results. They are relevant for all staff and are divided into the following two categories:

1. Professional competencies These are skills, knowledge and experience that are important for effective performance.

Generic professional competencies:

• 3-5 years of experience in working in a humanitarian/recovery/human rights or development contexts;
• University degree combined with relevant professional background;
• Knowledge of humanitarian principles;
• Experience in managing and implementing programs in humanitarian contexts;
• Ability to work independently and proactively;
• Ability to prioritize work given multiple competing deadlines.
• Fluency in English, Ukraine both written and verbal

Context specific skills, knowledge, and experience:

• Solid understanding of the Ukrainian civil society
• Documented/proven results related to the position’s responsibilities, particularly in partnerships relations and/or grants management and/or general coordination
• Excellent networking, coordination, training and facilitation skills
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
• Ability to work under pressure, independently and with limited supervision
• Excellent interpersonal skills, pro-active, self-motivated
• Excellent attention to detail, organisational skills and discretion with confidential information
• Previous experience from working in complex and volatile contexts is an asset;
• Previous work experience with partners or grant management is desirable
• Background in NRC thematic area’s (e.g. ICLA, Shelter, LFS, Protection, Education etc.) is an asset

2. Behavioural competencies

These are personal qualities that influence how successful people are in their job. NRC’s Competency Framework states 12 behavioural competencies, and the following are essential for this position:

• Managing resources to optimize results;
• Managing performance and development;
• Working with people;
• Empowering and building trust;
• Analysing;
• Influencing;
• Handling insecure environments.