Senior Regional GEDI Advisor- People and Culture at International Rescue Committee

Job Overview/Summary: 

• Reporting to the Regional People and Culture Director, the Sr GEDI Advisor will lead transformational activities and inspire change across the region by challenging existing practices, creating space for bottom-up learning and influence. As GEDI advisor, you will be responsible for supporting the P&C team, regional and country teams in implementing the IRC GEDI action plan, guiding regional colleagues and country offices in applying intersectional feminist principle in all operational policies and practices. You will lead the implementation of GEDI learning strategy in the region and leading office-wide initiatives to spark internal culture change and a universal understanding of equal practices for the workplace.
• This is an exciting opportunity to advance IRC feminist commitments across our people, operation, and program delivery efforts by supporting our staff and leaders to embed feminist practices in their roles, the workplace, and within their teams.
• We are looking for a creative, solution-driven gender equality, diversity, and inclusion expert with deep experience in translating feminist principles into organizational practices and policies to reach impact at scale.

Strategic leadership

• Serve as the thought partner, to regional and country leaders to ensure we deliver on the GEDI Action Plan and ensure the same is reflected and resourced in country SAP and SAP IP.
• Ensure feminist principles are embed in IRC core regional people and culture policies and process.
• Lead on piloting and scaling up GEDI flagship programs that have proven impact on IRC staff and provide technical support to strategic GEDI initiatives as needed.

Technical support

• Provide technical support to regional P&C functions in the development and implementation of more equitable people policies and practices.
• Partner with Country and Regional Leaders to devise and implement the best contextually relevant solution to drive achievement of IRC’s Leadership Diversity Goals.
• Partner with Regional teams to provide ongoing support to the Country program offices in developing and leading activities to strengthen inclusion and belonging of underrepresented and marginalized staff.
• Collaborate with regional and country Safety and Operations teams to develop and deploy GEDI sensitive initiatives within their respective sectorial areas (e.g.: inclusive Safety and security Risk Assessment; facilities, IT, etc..) and build adequate GEDI capacities withing their team.
• Work with regional and –where needed- country People and Culture , Safety and Security, Safeguarding partners to address context-specific GEDI gaps and challenges.
• Experience in crafting and implementing regional and sub regional strategies according to organizational priorities, considering a variety of country contexts.
• Provide technical support and ongoing coaching to country GEDI staff.

Learning and staff engagement

• Lead all aspects of the delivery of the GEDI learning strategy and curriculum in the region including creating and or adapting and delivering GEDI learning.
• Mobilize and support Employee groups (including Women at work groups) and community of practice (including GEDI Champions) as agents of change in the cultural transformation.
• Work with Employee group to strengthen their role and their representation in the Global GEDI Council.

Key Working Relationships

• Direct Reporting: Director GEDI global policy
• Co supervision/ Management in Partnership: Regionnal People and Culture Director
• Internal: People and culture Partners, safety and security, country Directors,
• External: IRC Organizational Partners, Feminist network. Gender and D&I focused organizations.

Job Requirements

• Education: Graduate degree or years in additional work experience

Work Experience: 6 + years of related experience that includes:

• Direct experience leading and influencing organizational partners to adopt feminist principles as core to all organizational processes, policies, programs, and activities.
• Experience in leading and supporting change management to embed an inclusive work culture.
• At least 3 years in the humanitarian and/or international development sector.
• At least 3 years of experience in one or more countries in the East Africa Region and a good understanding of the country context .
• Experience in building communities of practice.

Demonstrated Skills And Competencies

• Deep commitment to and knowledge of strategies to advance gender equality diversity and inclusion in different organizational contexts and equal participation in the workplace.
• Demonstrated experience in applying intersectional feminist lenses to one or more of the following areas: Employee life cycle, Safety, and security, Learning and development, leadership development, HR operations, workplace infrastructure, workplace culture.
• Demonstrable understanding of how power dynamics affect organizations and the ability to amplify the voices of individuals from under-represented groups.
• Experience in designing and delivering GEDI training.
• Excellent communication skills, and ability to engage all levels of staff and leaders.
• Able to work independently and efficiently in a dynamic and fast-paced multifaced environment.
• Ability to work effectively and with impact through matrixed relationship and to engage, inspire to action, and influence people outside of direct reporting lines.
• Understands the importance of operating with a regional mentality and models cultural sensitivity.

Language Skills

• Excellent spoken and written English.
• Proficiency in at least one other language spoken in the region (French, Arabic, Spanish, Swahili, etc.)