Crisis Analyst at International Rescue Committee

Requisition ID: req19677

Open to Expatriates: Yes

Job Description

The IRC’s Emergencies and Humanitarian Action Unit (EHAU) oversees IRC’s global acute 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 complicated 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.

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 Job Overview/Summary: 

The Crisis Analyst is a core member of the IRC’s Global Crisis Analysis team, which supports the IRC to understand – and thus respond better to – rapidly developing crises. She or he will focus on a specific crisis or set of crises at any one time, with an expected focus on Afghanistan initially, but responsibilities may evolve depending on external developments. The role works in close partnership with CRRD colleagues, other Global Crisis Analysis team members, Safety and Security and other colleagues across the IRC, to deliver analysis of the drivers and impacts of emergency situations. Her/his analysis will enable the IRC both to respond rapidly in new emergency situations and to deepen its understanding of the domestic and regional impacts of crises. 

 Major Responsibilities:

1. Provide analysis support to IRC humanitarian action 
   1. Monitor and assess trends in the political, security and socio-economic situation driving humanitarian crises, with an expected focus on Afghanistan initially.
   2. Provide regular, easy-to-understand written and oral analysis briefings to country program, regional and global colleagues.
   3. Coordinate with Program, Safety and Security and other colleagues to ensure analysis is guided by programmatic demands and is relevant to IRC’s programs, operational posture and risk management strategies.
   4. Support development and updates to scenario planning, particularly for relevant IRC country programs’ Strategy Action Plan (SAP) and SAP Implementation Plan.
   5. When agreed, deploy for around 10-14 days to provide in-person Crisis Analysis support.
2. Support the IRC’s Humanitarian Action work 
   1. Use ongoing tracking of developments to identify both risks to the IRC’s access and opportunities to increase access.
   2. Rooted in the IRC’s experience of humanitarian action, provide analysis of key obstacles to humanitarian access, including local/international policy constraints, conflict developments, environmental factors, and more. 
   3. Inform decisions about programmatic criticality by providing analysis of the risks/opportunities of both action and inaction. 
   4. Collaborate with regional Safety and Security teams and EHAU Humanitarian Access team to map key actors with influence over the IRC’s humanitarian access, with focus on Afghanistan initially. 
   5. Maintain network of internal/external contacts to complement IRC’s existing networks and ground truth analysis.
3. Provide leadership on Crisis Analysis for allocated crises, with a focus on Afghanistan initially
   1. Act as focal point for Crisis Analysis for Afghanistan and other crises as requested.
   2. Coordinate work with Asia region’s GIS Specialist and Global Crisis Data and MEAL Analyst to identify opportunities to deploy GIS, data analysis and satellite imagery to advise more qualitative analysis. 
   3. Collaborate with CRRD colleagues and provide technical support on Crisis Analysis.
   4. Collaborate with CRRD regional, country program, EHAU and Global Crisis Analysis colleagues to develop model for funding role after initial 12-month period. 
4. Contribute to external relations
   1. Collaborate with P&A colleagues to adapt/share regular analysis outputs to ensure global policy and advocacy, fundraising, communications and other external-facing teams are kept informed about developing situations. 

As required, provide briefings on crisis situations to key internal and external stakeholders, including leadership in New York, journalists, and donors.

Job qualifications

•  Education/experience: An undergraduate degree or equivalent proven experience.
•  Demonstrated skills and aptitudes:
• Experience of providing rigorous but timely and – most importantly – practically useful analysis of the linkages between conflict and humanitarian needs, particularly in Afghanistan. 
• Proven experience working in Afghanistan or region preferred.
• Aptitude for understanding complicated situations and ability to explain them in simple, relevant terms to non-expert audiences.
• Curiosity about humanitarian and global affairs, a detailed approach to understanding them, and humility given the difficulty of doing so. 
• Ability to quickly and accurately digest large amounts of qualitative information, identifying the most important details. 
• Other relevant skillsets and experience highly valued, e.g. mapping/GIS, early-warning systems, protection analysis, data analysis/management, advocacy experience, humanitarian access, etc. 
• Organized and structured approach to working. Ability to respond to multiple priorities in a timely manner, ensuring high-quality products are delivered in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent English-language writing and editing skills, including the ability to write clear and analytical prose.
• Ability to work collaboratively and sensitively with a diverse range of geographically dispersed colleagues.
• Strong dedication to the IRC’s mission, purpose and values.

Language Skills: Dari and/or Pashto fluency highly advantageous. Excellent English-language oral and written reporting skills important. Other language skills an additional advantage, particularly working-level competence In Arabic, French, Kiswahili, Portuguese and/or Spanish.

Working Environment: Some travel (30-50%) may be required, including to insecure field locations.