Senior Technical Advisor – Innovation and Mainstreaming

Job Description

Background/IRC Summary:

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’s vision is to lead the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence Unit (TE) provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice. TE is comprised of five Technical Units, all of which have deep expertise in their respective sectors: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health, and Violence Prevention and Response.

The Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) works to reduce people’s vulnerability to and support their recovery from violence and promote transformative work for a future free from violence. The unit houses expertise in the fields of Child Protection, Protection and Rule of Law, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE). WPE supports programs to adhere to minimum standards and principles of good practice in the prevention of and response to gender-based violence and to meet the safety, health, psycho-social, and justice needs of women, girls, and survivors of gender-based violence.

Programme Scope:

IRC is seeking a Senior Technical Advisor - Innovation and Mainstreaming to support a seven-year programme funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to improve prevention and response to violence against women and girls. The ‘What Works to Prevent Violence – Impact at Scale’ Programme will build on the success of its predecessor (‘What Works I’) to prevent and contribute to eliminating violence against women and girls (VAWG) by:

• Systematically designing, implementing, and rigorously evaluating a range of approaches to scaling up violence prevention efforts, translating proof-of-concept evidence into robust, largescale programmes and strategies.

• Designing, piloting, and testing new theory-driven violence prevention approaches (innovation).

• Strengthening long-term capability and capacity to deliver innovative, evidence-based violence prevention programmes across the programme’s grantees, the UK Government (principally FCDO), and developing country governments; and

• Using evidence to influence a more effective, scaled-up global response to end VAWG.

‘What Works to Prevent Violence – Impact at Scale’ is an FCDO-funded commercial contract and is part of a wider programme of research on VAWG involving two other components led by a research consortium.

The Senior Technical Advisor – Innovation and Mainstreaming will backstop and provide dedicated technical support and capacity development for Innovation and mainstreaming Project grants funded by the What Works 2 Programme that evaluate new theory-driven, approaches to prevention VAWG. Our Consortium defines innovation as the development and implementation of new or existing ideas with the transformative ability to contribute impact and create value at scale. Further the consortium defines mainstreaming as one form of scaling up VAWG prevention efforts through integration of effective interventions or components, into existing large-scale systems and infrastructure to optimize impact while ensuring it is cost-effective and easily replicable by policymakers.

When selecting projects for innovation funding, we will prioritise projects that:

• Support and invest in locally driven, feminist solutions, investing in those developed by southern-based WROs.

• Have a clear runway to scale either by reach or proportion of population covered.

• Build on evidence or show how the solution improves on current evidence or status quo.

Mainstreaming projects will be selected based on their ability to demonstrate following:

• Effectiveness

• Cost efficiency

• Scale and sustainability

• Enabling environment

The innovation areas prioritised for funding are:

• Preventing and responding to VAWG during and after conflict and crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic. How can scalable VAWG prevention interventions be adapted for contexts of conflict and crisis (including COVID-19) and post-conflict and disaster recovery, including to address the gender inequality and social norms that often drives violence?

• Effective responses for women and girls most at risk of violence: How can approaches targeted at the general population be adapted to reach women and girls most vulnerable to the highest frequency and worst severity of violence, including those facing multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination?

• Addressing violence against children and its links to violence against women to stop the transmission of violence across generations: What works to prevent children’s early exposure to violence, build their resilience, and disrupt cycles of abuse across lifecycles and generations?

• Getting to zero: The most effective interventions under What Works only reduced levels of VAWG and VAC by around 50%, leaving high levels of residual violence. What different combinations, intensities or duration of approaches might further reduce and end violence?

Mainstreaming projects will be prioritized based on

• Promising approaches in sectoral programmes, particularly education, social protection, and health, which focus on the prevention of VAWG (not response) with the potential for government to integrate into wider system

• Previous rigorous testing of the approaches in lower- and middle-income countries

• Partners open to close partnership with government, bilateral or multilateral institutions

• Main infrastructure programme costs (e.g., of education or social protection delivery cash transfer etc) are covered through existing external sectoral programme

• Partners are willing to work flexibly with What Works II to test the adaptation and integration of violence prevention elements in the design of sectoral programmes

Based in IRC’s office in Amman, the Senior Technical Advisor – Innovation and Mainstreaming will work collectively with 3 other Senior TAs and a team of Technical Advisors (TAs) to ensure the quality and coherence of technical assistance and capacity development across the What Works II Programme. She/he will report to the What Works Technical Assistance and Capacity Development Co-Leads who lead the entire technical assistance team.

Specific Responsibilities:

Oversee and Provide Technical Assistance on VAWG/VAC

• Oversee and remotely manage Technical Advisors based in the Middle East, North Africa or another region, as required.

• Oversee and coach individual TAs assigned to innovation project partners, to reinforce quality of TA and adherence to standards.

• Directly provide technical assistance on VAWG/VAC for the most complex or challenging projects selected for funding through the What Works II programme.

• Build collaborations with government, donor agencies and wider stakeholders in the countries the scale and innovation grants are operational to support implementation of the grants

• Lead WW2 dialogue with government to support efforts by partners implementing mainstreaming projects to get government buy in to sustain the investments by What Works Programme

• Support cross-programme, regional learning by leading a regional hub[1] for learning and ensuring that technical assistance is rooted in understanding of contextual considerations, including conflicts and humanitarian crises, for all project partners in the What Works II Programme.

• Facilitate and support thematic and regional Communities of Practice and an Annual Capacity Development workshop to share learning and expertise across partners and other experts engaging with the programme.

• Stay abreast of developments, trends and global best practice in VAWG/VAC and humanitarian action.

• Identify and contribute to the development of new tools and support research related to the What Works Programme as a whole and its funded projects.

• In collaboration with the Technical Assistance and Capacity Development Team, organise and provide virtual skill building workshops for TAs, ensuring that dedicated partner TAs are equipped to provide support in areas including gendered political economy analysis; policy, advocacy and influencing strategy support; social inclusion strategies; and Do No Harm and safeguarding assessments and implementation plans.

• As required, backstop TA provided to other project partners, particularly for projects scaling complex, normative change approaches and projects in conflict or crisis settings.

• Respond to the evolving needs of the innovation and mainstream projects as relevant, either directly or through an assigned TA

• As needed and appropriate, provide expert inputs into VAWG Helpdesk queries.

Leadership and Team Management

• Adopt a “listen first” approach to discussions, negotiations, and decision-making processes.

• Remain women and girls-centred and assess and mitigate risks to women, girls, and children at every stage of the What Works-funded projects, documenting this work carefully.

• Promote transparency and foster a spirit of collaboration and accountability throughout all TA engagement with project partners.

Communication and Coordination and Representation

• With members of the Programme Management Unit, represent the Programme to FCDO, other government officials and stakeholders, and partner organisations as needed.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: In IRC, the position will report into the Programme Director, and externally, this position will report to the What Works Technical Assistance and Capacity Development Co-Leads, who lead the entire technical assistance team.

Position directly supervises: None

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Regular communication with other What Works Programme staff, including the Senior Research Adviser

External: Close collaboration with the What Works Technical Assistance and Capacity Development team

Job Requirements:

• Education: Master’s/post-graduate degree in public health, social work, humanities, or other relevant field (or equivalent combination of education and experience)

• Work Experience: Minimum of 8 years of field based VAWG/VAC prevention experience (or another relevant sector) within humanitarian or international development settings. Minimum 5 years’ supervisory experience, supporting and cultivating high-performing teams delivering VAWG/VAC programmes in development and/or humanitarian programmes. Demonstrable experience providing TA and developing the technical capacity development of others. Experience working closely and managing relationships with external partners and stakeholders. Experience working with governments and donor agencies on systems change at international/national level. Experience of developing pathways for mainstreaming and integration of interventions on gender/health/social protection/education into government systems and programmes. Experience in technical tools and materials development, monitoring and evaluation, and research in relation to VAWG/VAC desired. Experience working in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) or supporting interventions in MENA. Experience working closely and managing relationships with external partners and stakeholders. Experience in technical tools and materials development, monitoring and evaluation, and research in relation VAWG/VAC desirable.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies: An ability to leverage a deep understanding of social inclusion to ensure the What Works Programme promotes approaches that are inclusive of the needs and rights of women, girls and children with diverse needs and experiences. Proven ability to operate in a complex organisation, across functions and work on own initiative as well as collaboratively as part of diverse teams. Ability to manage a complex and varied workload, and work under pressure.

Language Skills: Fluency in English required and fluency in Arabic and/or French highly desired.

Working Environment: Based on IRC’s regional office in Amman or Dakar with international travel, including to insecure environments.

All What Works staff commit to and uphold the Programme’s Feminist Principles throughout all aspects of their work.

All IRC staff are required to adhere to THE IRC Way Standards for Professional Conduct and the IRC country employment policies.

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Qualifications