This position can be based in Geneva, Yaounde or Dakar. However, limited additional locations may be considered.
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 units (TE) provide technical assistance to IRC’s country programme staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice. TE is comprised of 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).
The position will be based within the Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU)’s Strategy and LearningTeam which focuses on the development and testing of innovative programme models and approaches; the generation of evidence through research and learning; and evidence-based advocacy to influence policy and practice in the field of violence prevention and response.
Position Summary:
The Adolescent Girls (AG) Technical Advisor (TA) will be responsible for providing technical support for a 36-month French Development Agency (AFD)-funded grant titled “Feminist Solidarity Fund for Girls’ Education” (FSF). Through this project, the FSF Consortium (a partnership between Doria Feminist Fund, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR), and Urgent Action Fund-Africa (UAF-Africa). will support a range of feminist civil society organisations (CSOs), Women’s rights and Women led organisations (WROs/WLOs) and youth organisations, working across 7 countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Nigeria) and/or at a regional level to accelerate gender equality in and through education.
Gender equality initiatives include:
• CSOs providing direct support to girls and their families to remove individual-, family- and community-level barriers to education.
• CSOs working directly with schools and other sub-national institutions to improve the quality of support for adolescent girls in school as well as access to education for out-of-school girls.
• CSOs conducting research and/or advocacy to advance the rights of girls, including access to education.
• CSOs working directly with the most marginalized subgroups of adolescent girls (e.g. those that have experienced violence, living through multiple crises, or marginalized because of their gender identity and sexual orientation) who are less likely to be engaged in education programs.
The Adolescent Girls TA will guide the program design, provide direct technical support, and technical capacity strengthening to implement, measure and continuously improve the proposed project in close collaboration with the FSF Education Technical Advisor.
This is a primarily a field-facing position with the central responsibility focused on program quality. The Technical Advisor’s specific responsibilities are as follows:
• Provide technical leadership to ensure a shared regional approach, as well as context-appropriate adaptation, for program design, innovation, influence, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning for the FSF project;
• Support consortium partner staff to undertake FSF activities, ensuring that they are aligned with the project strategies which include contextualizing gender equality in education outcomes and including interventions chosen based on best available evidence;
• Support consortium partner staff to review CSO applications and provide guidance on the development of criteria for selection of CSOs, with a focus on barriers to access and retention of adolescent girls to education;
• Support and provide guidance to the research partner, as appropriate, in relation to Gender equality and understanding the specific barriers faces by adolescent girls to education;
• Provide support to ensure proposed activities are responsive to client needs and preferences based on sound context and gender analysis;
• Document and share cross-context learning internally (with country program staff) and externally (in relevant meetings, conferences, etc. in national, regional, and global fora);
• Contribute to relevant communication materials such as fact sheets, briefs, papers, and presentations that can be disseminated and used for influence at the national and global level;
• Provide technical inputs for internal and external reports, as needed;
Key Working Relationships:
Position Reports to: FSF Project Director in VPRU
Work closely with the FSF Education Technical Advisor
Job Qualifications:
• Education: Master’s/post-graduate degree in gender studies, international development or relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience is required. Participate in ongoing training courses and share knowledge and skill sets within the unit.
• Work Experience: A minimum of 3 to 5 years of implementing and/or managing large education, or gender equality and girls’ empowerment programs, is required, within a humanitarian or international development setting, as are at least 1—2 years acting in an advisory capacity on women’s protection/ child protection/ gender equality programming.
• Experience in technical tools and materials development, monitoring and evaluation, innovation, and research in relation to women’s protection/ gender equality is highly desired.
• Experience working in adolescent girls programming. Experience in strategy development and working across sectors or disciplines is highly desired.
• Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:
• Demonstrated expertise in program design, monitoring and evaluation, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action. Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience working directly with partners through a consortium is highly desirable.
Language Skills: Fluency in English and French is mandatory.
Working Environment: Up to 40% travel may be required. This position will be based in one of the preferred locations stated above. However, other locations can be considered for the right candidate.
All IRC staff are required to adhere to THE IRC Way Standards for Professional Conduct and the IRC country employment policies.
