Senior Advisor/ Global Lead on Innovative Financing

Programme & Policy

Overview

Lead innovative financing initiatives and develop partnerships to support refugees and communities.

You have:

• Advanced degree in economics, business administration, finance, social sciences or other relevant specialization, or a combination of other fields of study and practical work experience
• Demonstrated experience and achievement of results in managing partnerships and projects
• Experience in social impact financing initiatives from various sectors
• Understanding of the humanitarian and development sectors and social dynamics in contexts affected by forced displacement
• Strong interpersonal skills to establish and develop relationships within DRC and with external stakeholders
• Ability to adapt to various functions and challenges in an innovative environment
• Excellent communication skills to present complex technical and financial information

Contract

This is a DRC - National contract. More about DRC - National contracts.

DRC is looking for a dynamic, ambitious and experienced partnerships lead for our innovative financing portfolio to lead our ambitions to have new types of funding, new financing instruments and new partnerships create positive impact for refugees and communities affected by displacement.

Who are we?

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is Denmark’s largest, and a leading international NGO - one of the few with a specific expertise in forced displacement. In 40 countries 9,000 employees protect, advocate and build sustainable futures for refugees and other displacement affected people and communities.

About the job

The work stream on innovative financing is anchored in the Programme Innovation and Business Engagement Unit within the Division for Programmes, Policy and External Relations. The work stream seeks to develop partnerships, programs and projects to bring in new types of financing and deploy new business models that complements- and goes beyond traditional grant financing. In addition to the Global Lead, two regional specialists in our East Africa and Middle East regional offices also focus on this portfolio.

Through the past two years DRC has developed its framework for innovative financing and initiated several pilot initiatives and partnerships. These include an impact finance partnership, the ‘Refugee Investment Fund’, to support companies that positively impact refugees and host communities; innovative deployment and use of financial guarantees to enhance financial inclusion of refugees; and scoping of the possibilities for social impact bonds to enhance economic inclusion of refugees. Further, we are now setting out to explore other initiatives, in particular how new financing partnerships and business models can support our green transition.

In the Program Innovation and Business Engagement Unit we are a small team on a mission to expand the knowledge and deployment of innovative initiatives across the organization, and innovative financing initiatives and partnerships is an essential part of this mission. While having a global outlook and work with a wide range of partners and DRC colleagues across the organization, the Global Lead will also become part of this small but highly motivated, dynamic and mutually supportive unit.

Main duties and responsibilities

Going forward, the Global Lead will be responsible for advancing and further developing existing initiatives and scope and launch new ones within the innovative financing field, in collaboration with a wide range of partners and colleagues across the DRC organization. The day-to day tasks will vary, while the long-term focus and objective is clear: to increase DRC’s use of innovative financing initiatives and partnerships in support of our mission and Strategy 2025.

The role involves everything from developing and managing partnerships with private foundations, institutional donors, investors, finance specialists and other technical experts to managing projects and supporting organizational development and learning. There are some fixed tasks and much flexibility to shape the future direction of the role and organization in this field.

In the first 3 – 6 months, we expect the candidate to focus on the following tasks:

• Get familiar with DRC as an organization, the strategic priorities, team and closest collaborators globally, regionally and in country operations.
• Manage existing commitments with external partners, incl. ongoing projects. In particular this includes the flagship initiative, The Refugee Investment Fund, a multi-partner initiative to channel investments and technical assistance to companies that create positive impact for refugees and host communities. This involves leading DRC’s engagement with project partners, incl. our impact finance partner, funders and investors for the fund; build systems and structures to manage DRC’s engagement across the two regional offices and country operations involved; and manage the project cycle.
• Manage DRC’s participation in multi-stakeholder alliances related to refugee investing and innovative financing in the humanitarian and development sectors.
• Review the existing framework, partnerships and strategy for innovative financing and related partnerships, and lead a process to define the direction and priority actions and partnerships for the coming years for this portfolio in collaboration with the regional specialists, the head of unit and other stakeholders.
• Establish and manage an effective coordination structure between the global and regional levels of the organization to ensure synergies across the global and regional portfolios, jointly develop multi-region or global initiatives, build capacity across the organization to engage in innovative finance project development and partnerships, ensure internal DRC learning and build awareness among external stakeholders and the public on DRC’s innovative financing initiatives

The longer-term focus and tasks will include managing multi-year engagements such as the Refugee Investment Fund and leading the cross-organizational structure and community of practice for innovative financing and related tasks. Further, the long term view will to a large degree be shaped by the review of the innovative financing framework and strategic direction defined in the first 6 months, and so the candidate will be able to significantly influence the future focus of this position within the overall long term objectives.

About you

As this is an emerging field for DRC and the sector more broadly, we do not expect candidates to have worked in directly comparable positions.

The role combines a strong partnerships focus with project development and project management, organizational development, coordination and learning. A combination of experience in managing diverse and innovative partnerships and projects; insights into the innovative financing field for non-profits; and ability to lead and coordinate strategy and work of teams across a complex organization are key words for this position.

The financial elements of innovative financing initiatives and the projects managed under this portfolio requires ability to develop and analyze budgets, and an interest in working with partners and colleagues to further develop new business models for DRC to engage in new innovative financing initiatives.

You may come from a background in project development and partnerships management, project cycle management, from a technical point of view, have advisory or consulting experience, or some combination of such backgrounds. In building DRC’s portfolio and approach to innovative financing we draw on experiences and partnerships from the fields of impact investment, financial inclusion, social enterprises, private sector development, multi-stakeholder alliances, public and non-governmental sector innovation, civil society business models and others.

We therefore invite candidates from all such fields who are motivated by the opportunity to develop innovative initiatives for the benefit of refugees and host communities to apply.

You may combine some of the following key qualifications:

• Advanced degree in economics, business administration, finance, social sciences or other relevant specialization, or a combination of other fields of study and practical work experience
• Demonstrated experience and achievement of results in managing partnerships and projects
• Experience in social impact financing initiatives, whether in the private sector, philanthropy, public funding/investment sector, social enterprise, civil society organization or other entity
• Understanding of the humanitarian-, development-, social sector field of innovative financing
• Understanding of the dynamics shaping humanitarian needs and development challenges in contexts affected by forced displacement
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish, maintain and develop lasting and productive relationships within DRC and with external stakeholders at both technical and senior management/executive levels
• Ability to step into a variety of functions depending on the opportunity and challenge, embracing the ebbs and flows of an innovation work stream with few established procedures and practice and competing priorities across the organization
• Excellent communication skills and ability to present technically demanding narratives and financials in a way, level of detail and style that is calibrated to the intended audience, incl. when targeted to stakeholders not familiar with the technical specifications of innovative financing initiatives

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies:

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

Demonstrating integrity: You act in line with DRC’s vision and values.

We offer

Contract length: Permanent

Workplace: DRC HQ, Copenhagen, Denmark, is preferred, but we are open to consider remote work or a base in one of our regional/country offices. Please indicated preferred place of work and any flexibility in this regard in your application.

Salary and conditions according to DRC policies, depending on the place of work and other terms and conditions

Application process

All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English.

Applications sent by email will not be considered.

Closing date for applications: 18 May 2022

Due to the urgency in filling this role, we will conduct interviews on a running basis.

You are welcome to contact Morten Hoegnesen at [email protected]

for more information about the position (application should not be sent to this address).

If you have questions or are facing problems with the online application process, please use our job support at drc.ngo/jobsupport.

For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website drc.ngo.

Apply now

Potential interview questions

Added 4 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: drc.ngo