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.
IRC’s Emergencies & Humanitarian Action Unit
The IRC’s Emergencies & Humanitarian Action Unit (EHAU) oversees IRC’s global emergency preparedness and response activities. The mission of the EHAU is to expand and improve IRC’s ability to help affected communities survive in acute emergencies and hard to reach contexts by investing in people, systems, and solutions to complex humanitarian challenges. The EHAU team achieves this mission through ongoing rigorous risk analysis, investing in capacity strengthening of frontline humanitarians, partnership with local actors, offering collaborative support and technical assistance to teams working in emergencies and hard to reach places, and deploying and supporting world class emergency response staff as they help people affected by acute crisis situations.
Job Overview
The Senior Technical Advisor (STA), Emergency MEAL will sit within EHAU’s Quality in Emergencies (QiE) team, comprised of MEAL and sectoral experts working on violence prevention and response, education, health and cash in acute emergency contexts. The team is tasked with ensuring the delivery of high quality, integrated emergency response programming as well as the development of resources to support such implementation by country team staff, emergency response team staff, partners, and other stakeholders.
The STA will work closely alongside and report to EHAU’s Director of Strategy & Measurement to ensure EHAU’s ability to develop and meet its assessment, monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning commitments, as set out in the IRC’s Strategy100 as well as multi-year Strategy Action Plan for Emergencies and Humanitarian Action. Central to this is the harmonization of MEAL efforts across EHAU’s Emergency Response Team-led and existing country program emergency responses. They will serve as the primary MEAL focal point for response support as well as provide leadership to priority MEAL initiatives such as the development of fit-for-purpose, easy to use toolkits and guidance to support the response teams’ ability to develop data informed response plans, set-up of feedback and monitoring mechanisms as well as design and facilitate learning exercises. They will also be instrumental in contributing to the systems that allow EHAU and the wider IRC understand the scale and quality of our responses at a global level.
Major Responsibilities:
Direct Response Support
• Manage the coordination and backstopping of ERT / EST MEAL Co deployments aimed at building or reinforcing MEAL systems in new emergencies (in both existing country programs and new start-ups).
• Ensure close coordination and liaison with Regional Measurement Advisors in deployment planning and eventual handover of a response.
• Ensure response teams meet minimum standards for MEAL in new response start-up (as outlined in the Emergency Roadmap).
• Onboard MEAL Coordinators and other relevant response members to the SAP reporting requirements and support forward planning around data collection or learning exercises, as relevant. Develop materials to support this onboarding, including one-pagers.
• Ensure appropriate budget resourcing in both direct and partner-led projects.
• As required, deploy to support MEAL start-up in complex or large-scale emergencies (max 20% of time and maximum 6 weeks for single deployment). This is inclusive of, but not limited to, responsibilities such as:
o Leading a multi-sector needs assessment
o Setting up feedback and monitoring mechanisms
o Recruiting and onboarding new MEAL Coordinators
o Advising and training IRC and/or IRC partners on emergency MEAL tools and resources for emergency preparedness, early action and response, as needed.
• Participate in QiE Leadership Team weekly calls to address response level updates and questions.
Strategic Reporting and Analysis
• Serve as the QiE focal point for Emergencies and Humanitarian Action SAP response metric reporting which speak to response quality and scale, including for quarterly and annual reporting. Work closely with MEAL Systems Advisor on data/information storage of response metrics, including in Airtable.
• Seek new or improved ways to increase the efficiency of our work and to leverage existing data collection to help IRC understand the quality of our emergency response work.
• Prepare analysis and visualizations to help QiE understand and speak to the impact and process of our work.
Guidance, Tools and Learning
• Contribute to maintenance of MEAL in emergency resources, tools and guidance for use by both IRC colleagues and partners.
• Project manage the review and update processes of tools and guidance, as needed. Including the finalization of the MSNA pilot and toolkit.
• Co-lead, alongside the Director Strategy & Measurement, the roll-out of new tools in collaboration with the rest of the EHAU MEAL team.
• Contribute to further building out the QiE knowledge management database, in collaboration with the Director Strategy & Measurement and the MEAL Systems Advisor, and proactively consider ways to analyze and share trends and learning within.
• Stay abreast of initiatives within the IRC, such as IMPACT, PCM, Evidence to Action, Partnership in Emergencies, Data Toolkits, and Best Use of Resources, to ensure coherency and the achievement of joint objectives – as for all members of the EHAU MEAL Team.
• Participate and contribute to MEAL training for EHAU, regional, and relevant country programs.
• Contribute to the learning agenda in emergencies, including by working on guidance notes, leading or coordinating learning exercises, and feed into routines around learning data collection, dissemination and accountability.
Team Culture and People Management
• Provide day-to-day line management of the ERT / EST MEAL Coordinators, ensuring they maintain high performance, collaborate effectively and are accountable for quality of work.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with EHAU colleagues and continually promote a culture of partnership and collaboration.
• Cultivate and maintain a positive, inclusive, safe and caring work environment, while additionally setting an example of ‘One IRC’-way of working within the team, EHAU and the wider organization.
• Advance efforts across EHAU to promote gender equality, diversity and more inclusive practice across our programming and our ways of working.
• Engage in effective power-sharing practices and ensure colleagues have the knowledge, support, and power to do their work with autonomy.
Key Working Relationships
• Position reports to: Director Strategy & Measurement
• Position directly supervises: Emergency Response Team MEAL Coordinators
• Indirect Reporting: Emergency Surge Roster MEAL Coordinators, when deployed
• Other Internal and/or external contacts: Close working relationship with EHAU MEAL Team, Quality in Emergencies team (from leadership through to Emergency Response Team deployees), Regional Emergency Directors, Regional Measurement Advisors, and country office colleagues responding to emergencies.
REQUIREMENTS:
• A university degree in a relevant subject area (statistics, data management, international programming, public health, economics) or related experience.
• Proven experience working on MEAL in emergency contexts, including in the design and implementation of rapid multi-sector needs assessments. Experience in new start-ups highly desirable.
• Strong data analysis and data story telling skills.
• Experience in the design and facilitation of learning exercises along with uptake of recommendations.
• Proactive, highly organized and interest in thinking outside of the box.
• Flexible and interested in advancing team goals.
• Familiarity with the principles of MEAL as they are applied in emergency settings, and ability to think creatively and pro-actively about their adoption.
• Experience setting up and managing beneficiary feedback mechanisms and multi-sectoral monitoring systems.
• Experience with mobile data collection tools (particularly via Kobo or Commcare).
• Knowledge of data visualization tools (particularly PowerBi), preferred.
• Experience developing technology solutions for humanitarian programming, preferred.
• Experience and competency in moderate statistical analysis and reporting preferred.
• Language skills: Excellent oral and written English language skills required. Proficiency in French, Spanish or Arabic an advantage.
EHAU strives to build a diverse and inclusive team at all levels who as individuals, and as a group, embody our culture statement creating a working environment characterized by critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity for us to achieve our aspirations as a unit and deliver the best possible services to our clients.
The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, 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
Narrowing the Gender Gap: The International Rescue Committee is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including flexible hours (when possible), maternity leave, transportation support, and gender-sensitive security protocols.
Compensation:
Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.
US Benefits:
We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.
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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