Regional Program Officer

Job Description

Over the past 80 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC’s mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. The International Rescue Committee UK is part of the IRC global network, which has its headquarters in New York and London. The IRC is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster. Through 28 regional offices in cities across the United States, the IRC also helps refugees resettle in the US and become self-sufficient. The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve. The IRC is a tireless advocate for the most vulnerable.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU)

Established in January 2016, the Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global unit spanning New York, Washington DC, London, Bonn, Berlin, Brussels, Stockholm, Geneva, Nairobi and Amman. It has responsibility for identifying, securing and managing all funding from statutory donors. The Unit is organized into five teams: Strategic Partnerships, Program and Grant Support, Compliance and Policy, Business Development, and Training & Curriculum Design.

The AMU is a bridge between donors and country programs: providing expert technical advice to country teams, while maintaining high-level visibility to ensure general health of the regional portfolio. This unit ensures that donor compliance, policies and procedures are implemented consistently and supports all staff working across the award management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources. The unit operates within a matrix management system across the teams in the US and Europe, driving functional integration between all relevant units and staff, ensuring that AMU staff support IRC global strategy and priorities.

Crisis Response, Recovery and Development Department (CRRD)

The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development Department (CRRD) have a growing portfolio of humanitarian relief, post-crisis recovery, and development programs under their remit. This work focuses support in five key areas: ensuring safety from harm, improving health, increasing access to education, improving economic well-being and ensuring people have the power to influence decisions that affect their lives. In all these programs, there is a drive to address the unique needs of women and girls (who represent the majority of those displaced) – and the universal barriers they face.

CRRD works across 6 regions globally, including West Africa, East Africa, Great Lakes, Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The regional teams are the links between country offices and key HQ departments and aim to support each country program with everything from strategic planning, compliance, evaluation, finance and logistics, to visibility, business development and awards management.

Purpose of the Role

The Regional Program Officer (RPO) plays a vital role within the Regional Program Support Team (RPST) overseeing an award portfolio of humanitarian relief and post-crisis recovery programs. The RPO liaises with country programs, HQ departments and donor contacts to ensure high quality guidance and support to country offices throughout the award lifecycle. The role works with country offices to ensure compliance with donor rules and regulations and IRC systems and processes and leads on the review and submission of high-quality donor deliverables. The RPO represents the region and country offices to internal and external stakeholders and manages donor relationships.

Direct Reports:

1-2 Direct Reports: Two Regional Program Managers

Key Relationships:

East Africa Regional Team, East Africa Country Teams, all teams within AMU, CRRD, Global Supply Chain, Finance, Office of General Counsel, Technical Units, HR, IT.

Key External Contacts: Donor and partner points of contact as applicable per region

Key accountabilities and responsibilities

Awards Management and Compliance

• Oversee a portfolio of awards for the [Region Name] Region. Main donors in portfolio will include [List of key donors] but may also include other donors as assigned.

• Serve as the first point of contact for country office grants and partnerships teams and provide guidance and support on matters related to donor compliance and communication, project management (e.g. project cycle meetings), OTIS and partnerships (PEERS).

• Participate in in regular meetings with country offices to provide support and collaborate with country program teams on issues related to donor compliance, submissions of reports and other post award deliverables, and/or monitoring/awards management.

• Guide country offices in managing partnerships with local or international partners, ensuring that IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS) is being followed, review and process sub-grant/partnership agreements in alignment with PEERS, and coordinate with the compliance team in supporting compliant and effective partnerships as needed.

• Review agreements and lead negotiation of award terms and conditions with donor counterparts in alignment with internal processes.

• Guide country offices, in partnership with other relevant departments, in the development and submission of grant amendments/modifications, ensuring high-quality, compliant submissions.

• Supervise Regional Program Manager(s) in the review and submission of donor reports and other post-award deliverables, ensuring input from relevant technical and financial staff

• Provide support on private opportunities and awards management, in coordination with the Regional Support Manager and private fundraising team as assigned.

• Provide support to and monitoring of projects to ensure progress against objectives and compliance with donor guidelines and IRC internal requirements. Monitoring of awards can take the shape of monitoring visits, participation in project implementation meetings and other regular calls.

• Facilitate and build interdepartmental relationships to address country office needs and solve problems in relation to awards management, partnership management and compliance.

• Maintain a strong relationship with regional and AMU leadership and escalate issues of concern as needed

• Supervise direct reports in carrying out necessary functions as they relate to country program support

• Stay informed about programmatic issues and security and political developments in the region and how they might affect program implementation

• Coordinate with RPOs for other regions for information sharing and to establish a coherent program support and backstopping function between headquarters and the field.

• Travel to country offices to provide surge support and monitoring across the areas of programs, grants, and partnerships, including for gap-filling purposes as requested.

Proposal Development

• In collaboration with the Regional Program Development team, support business development in the region by providing effective proposal support, ranging from proposal management to comprehensive support and quality assurance for UN and non-European donors as needed.

• Provide quality assurance and quality compliance support on proposals; leading proposal development and coordination as needed. Ensure responsiveness to and compliance with solicitation documents and with IRC’s requirements.

• Review and advise on internal policy and donor requirements, budgets and supporting documentation for proposals in coordination with AMU and HQ Finance Department.

• Facilitate and/or participate in internal post-submission debrief sessions with country teams, technical units, regional team and other relevant stakeholders to collect lessons learned as needed.

• Maintain complete and accurate electronic files, including final submission packages and internal trackers, in coordination with the Regional Program Development team.

Donor Liaison and Representation

• Maintain contact with donors regarding updates, amendments, or key programmatic changes

• Liaise with donors on ongoing and future opportunities

• Represent IRC externally to donors and stakeholder networks, as appropriate

• Participate in representational visits, events and meetings as requested

Staff Management, Learning & Development

• Coach, train, supervise and mentor direct reports, including communicating clear expectations, providing regular and timely performance feedback, document/discuss performance issues if needed, and deliver high-quality documented annual performance reviews

• Ensure direct reports are trained on all relevant IRC processes and donor regulations

• Support direct reports in achieving annual objectives, acting as a trusted and accountable manager, mentor and professional resource, including promoting collaboration, enabling adequate resourcing and ensuring accountability

Capacity Building and Training

• Mentor and coach Grants and Partnership staff on IRC systems and processes to ensure capacity is built at country level.

• As requested, develop training materials and deliver training to IRC country program staff in coordination with the Directors of Awards Management and the AMU Training and Compliance team.

• In coordination with the Directors of Awards Management, develop and maintain work-processes and checklists for grant implementation and reviews, as well as record lessons learned

• Onboard new Country Office Grants and Partnership staff and new RPST members to assigned donors, policies and/or IRC processes.

Other

• Contribute to AMU and regional strategic priorities and initiatives

• Liaise with communications and external relations staff to inform IRC media products as needed

• Participate in special projects as needed and other tasks as assigned.

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications

• Five years of progressive work experience in award management or business development with donors such as USAID/BHA, the U.S. Department of State/PRM and UN agencies.

• Two years of international field experience highly desirable; familiarity with countries in the region preferred

• Project management experience preferred

• Financial analysis skills preferred

• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including experience in speaking on relevant issues with internal and external audiences

• Proven ability to effectively manage relationships (e.g., with internal actors, peers, donors)

• Effective people management skills: ability to lead staff and promote productivity in a pleasant work environment

• Proven ability to manage multiple and complex tasks and thrive under pressure

• Solid organizational and creative problem-solving skills: ability to be flexible and work well under pressure in a fast-paced multi-tasking team environment

• Good computer skills

• Strong written and verbal fluency in English

• Ability and willingness to travel internationally

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

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