The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.
The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian sector through 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 (TE) provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and share learnings to influence policy and practice. TE is comprised of five technical units: Economic Recovery and Development; Education; Governance; Health; and Violence Prevention and Response. There are also three supporting units: Measurement, Grant Operations and Analytics, and Program Quality Support.
The Economy Recovery and Development Unit at the IRC
The Economy Recovery and Development (ERD) Unit is one of IRC’s five Technical Units alongside Health, Education, Violence Prevention and Response, and Governance. Technical Units provide support to our country programs in the design, delivery, quality assurance and continuous learning for programs advancing the outcomes areas the IRC supports and driving thought leadership around those areas of work.
The ERD TU is a dynamic team of more than 30 professionals responsible for supporting the development, implementation, and monitoring of client-centered economic wellbeing (EWB) programs. These include, but not limited to, cash and voucher assistance (CVA), agricultural & climate-resilient livelihoods, financial inclusion, and employment (including self-employment/enterprise development) promotion across emergency, recovery and resilience programming contexts. The TU’s technical assistance to this wide variety of programs ensures quality and use of evidence-based practices; promotes innovation, diversity, equity, and inclusion; and drives data-based management and decision making, to achieve positive change in people’s lives.
POSITION OVERVIEW
As the ERD Technical Advisor and Regional Focal Point for Asia, you are responsible for ensuring high quality ERD technical assistance to the IRC country offices and regional projects in the Asia region, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand. Additionally, the ERD TA and Regional Lead will support and line manage the regional technical advisors to deliver high quality, effective technical assistance to IRC Country and Regional programs. You will act as the regional focal point in Asia for the ERD TU and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to achieve high quality, high impact interventions that are informed by evidence, data, and best practice, contextually appropriate, driven by client and partner voices, and are safe, inclusive, and promote equal outcomes for clients.
Staff management, learning, and development
• Line manage a high performing team of at least 2 ERD regional Technical Advisors, to design and support ERD programming across the region, and generate evidence and learning for local and global strategies
• Responsible for ensuring TAs maintain core knowledge and expertise and apply global best practices to their work across health sub-sectors
• Work closely with Regional and CRRD HQ People & Culture colleagues to devise strategies of attracting, onboarding, developing, and nurturing diverse regional technical staff at the Advisor and Coordinator levels, and ensuring an inclusive work environment. In collaboration with the DRD, Regional and CRRD HQ P&C, and Global Practice Leads, plan and implement professional development for staff ensuring targeted learning.
**Program Design & Business Development:**You will support and oversee regional business development in our technical domains, and ensure the design of winning submissions, to deepen donor understanding of IRC’s work in the region, and particularly single-country opportunities together with Technical Advisors and others as relevant
• Substantially contribute to the development of proposal theories of change and log frames
• Support the Asia regional and in-country technical lead in analyzing relevant information including available M&E and client responsiveness data, to prepare for design meetings/conversations
• Advise on program modalities and strategic partnership development based on evidence, scale considerations, and how we can best support, complement, and reinforce local systems
• Advise on and/or provide hands-on support on assessments, including application and contextualization of technical standards
• Participate in project design meetings for all relevant proposals (remotely or in person)
• Review and validate design meeting decisions around technical design quality, including alignment of narratives, log-frames, and budgets, to IRC standards and outcomes
• Promote and support design collaboration with partners and clients
• Promote and support gender equality and diversity inclusion throughout project design
Implementation Support: In conjunction with existing Technical Advisors, you will facilitate and support country program staff and other key stakeholders in implementing technical interventions:
• Support country programs and other stakeholders with the recruitment and training of technical coordinators
• Assess program quality and inform improvements, providing follow up support to country programs as needed
• Collaborate with country program colleagues to monitor and analyze key indicators to inform periodic review, program adaptation, and course-correction as needed
• Provide technical capacity strengthening through ongoing mentoring, coaching, and trainings with country program focal points
**Knowledge & Learning:**You will facilitate continuous sectoral learning and IRC technical leadership:
• Increase quality of technical collaboration across the region by fostering cross-regional dialogue with other regional technical teams
• Lift up program learning for sharing across the region and to inform global strategic direction of ERD Global Practice Areas
• Share cross-contextual learnings with country program staff across the region
• Collaborate with the Quality in Emergencies team and Emergencies and Humanitarian Action Unit (EHAU) counterparts during emergency classifications to support country programs to assess, design and implement high quality programming in acute emergency situations
• Collaborate with other technical advisors within the region to promote integrated programming leadership
• Refresh the sectoral evidence-base in collaboration with global and regional staff to influence approaches
• Contribute to the delivery of the Economic Wellbeing strategic priorities
• Maintain currency with sectoral best practices through continual learning and development
**Key Working Relationships:**This position is dual reporting line to Deputy Director, ERD TU and to the Deputy Regional Director, Asia. This position may potentially supervise occasional consultants and/or interns. Regular communication with other ERD TU staff, regional and country program teams, awards management and grants management staff, and other internal stakeholders.
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
Success in this position requires an individual with expertise in designing and delivering technical assistance to ERD programs, and with a deep understanding of the cultural, societal, and political contexts in at least one of the regions where IRC operates.
Work Experience:
• A minimum of 6-8 years of relevant experience in implementing and/or managing economic recovery and development programs, with on the ground programmatic experience in a service delivery organization, NGO or comparable international agency required.
• Progressive experience of managing multi-location technical programs and teams with strong management and leadership skills including coaching, mentoring, and performance management
• Experience and familiarity with related donors, peer agencies and national contexts required, preferably in humanitarian, post-crisis, or climate impacted contexts.
• Demonstrated expertise in technical program design, monitoring and evaluation, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action.
• Demonstrated experience in managing high performing technical advisory staff, fostering an inclusive working culture, and with strong people management skills
Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Strong organizational and time-management skills; proven ability to prioritize and deliver projects on time and independently.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate a dynamic, cross-functional, global team structure in a large multi-national organization.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong analytic problem-solving skills.
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office suite.
• Ability to manage and work through change in a proactive and positive manner.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics, business or international development or any relevant field required.
Language Skills: Excellent spoken and written English is essential. Proficiency in an additional languages spoken in the region is highly preferred.
Working Environment: Standard office working environment. This role may have some international travel up to 40% of the time. This role is based in one of the regional locations in Asia. Other IRC locations may be possible.
Standard of Professional Conduct: The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.
Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.
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