Cash Transfer Programming Manager at Kenya Red Cross Society

Position summary

The Cash Transfer Program Manager will support Red Cross /Red Crescent National Societies in the region to build up their expertise in cash delivery and preparedness, contributing to their organisational development as leading national humanitarian organisations. The staff will be a technical specialist responsible for coordinating and developing bespoke training and coaching while ensuring coordination and participation with technical leaders in the field. This is an exciting opportunity to be a core part of ensuring that a Red Cross/Red Crescent National Society has the knowledge, skills and experience as well as the institutional capability to:

Respond rapidly and at scale using cash transfers to meet relief needs of affected people and/or deliver long term support to vulnerable people, respecting their choice and promoting their dignity.

Participate in the improvement of the coordination of cash assistance in their country, as well as advocacy and collaboration with the Government as auxiliary role

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Kenya Red Cross Society, Uganda Red Cross Society and Ethiopia Red Cross Society to complete a cash preparedness self-assessment to document its current operational readiness, capacity and gaps in implementing cash assistance for emergencies rapidly and at scale, and identify priority areas for capacity building.
• Support the National Societies with the development and implementation of the Cash Preparedness Plans of Action (including budget) ensuring that procedures and processes are created in consultation with the relevant NS departments and maintain a cross-sector approach.
• The Plan of Action should be based on the self-assessment and might include:
• development of SOP’s in consultation with the relevant NS departments, cash feasibility studies, analysis of payment mechanisms within the country, market assessment in key disaster affected areas and development of pre-agreements with key financial service providers as part of preparedness actions, based on the previous analysis.
• Undertake capacity building in cash assistance through face to face trainings, simulation and ‘learning by doing’ exercises, as well as remote and face to face coaching. These will cover training of National Societies staff and volunteers at national HQ and branch levels and looking at peer to peer engagements across those NS’s selected where synergies align.
• Support the NS to use the IFRC “cash in emergencies toolkit “and adapt some of the tools to their context and procedures, as well adapt some of the tools to resilience intervention programming.
• Work with the NS to integrate cash assistance programming into relevant guidelines, procedures and policies.
• Support the NS to explore ways to integrate cash assistance in preparedness into its existing contingency plans and preparedness/readiness processes. The NS should be able to mount a scalable and rapid cash based intervention to meet immediate needs and mainstream cash through forecast based action, recovery and resilience programming.
• Support the engagement of the NS in coordination fora and help them identify areas of collaboration with external key stakeholders, UN Agencies, International NGOs, Private and Academic Sector, to ensure the cash transfer programming is coherent, has an added value, and is appropriately harmonised with the wider cash assistance system in country.
• Advocate to the NS leadership to institutionalise cash assistance programming in preparedness and Forecast-based Financing understanding the NS needs, challenges and opportunities.
• Support the NS to develop its own communications and advocacy capacity in cash in Forecast-based Financing and preparedness.
• Support them to participate in the improvement of cash coordination in the country and the region, and leverage their auxiliary role with the Government.
• Monitor available financial resources to deliver the agreed cash activities for the country programme.
• Document the cash assistance in preparedness and Forecast-based Financing process and any experiences in cash assistance that might be of interest to the wider RCRC Movement.
• Draft case studies and project factsheets to profile the work of the NS, highlight good practices and lessons learnt and to guide and inform future NS cash transfer programming. Share and disseminate cash assistance news, documentation an training opportunities that exist within and outside the Movement.
• Identify potential areas of knowledge sharing among NS in the region and with other organisations in the country.
• Potentially support other cash preparedness initiatives in the region, through providing technical support to staff linked to the cash preparedness work conducted in the other countries.

Desired Competencies

• Post graduate level of vocational or technical qualification within a specialist technical or professional field relevant to response or recover programming including cash and markets
• Technical training in disaster preparedness, response and recovery
• Acquaintance with Federation DM tools (FACT, RDRT, ERU, VCA, PECT and others)
• Working knowledge of French, Spanish or Arabic desirable

Essential Competencies

• Technical/professional knowledge within the areas of cash and markets with an emphasis on the ability to design and implement cash assistance interventions and/or market assessments and market based interventions
• Solid understanding of the international humanitarian sector with a focus on integrated programming, participatory planning, and local institution capacity building, with knowledge of appropriate gender, equity and diversity programming approaches.
• Knowledge of designing training and outreach strategies and materials.
• Understanding of the key issues relating to delivering cash at scale and skills to address them
• Proven skills of managing and coaching teams in multi-faceted projects, including mentoring, coaching, training and building the capacity of national and local staff and volunteers
• Highly developed analytical and communication skills and ability to assimilate and process information for wide-ranging audiences.
• Proven analytical and programme design skills and the ability to think strategically while under pressure
• Proven skills in operational planning, budgeting and reporting for an emergency response that included cash assistance.