Jobs at International Rescue Committee

The Deputy Regional Director will oversee program design and implementation in IRC’s country programs in the East Africa region. S/he will be an ambassador for organizational priorities and goals to these country programs and supporting country programs to implement IRC’s Strategy 2020.

Exercising the delegated authority of the Vice President, the DRD provides a range of strategic, programmatic and operational management support to country programs and regional colleagues. A key function of the role is to navigate and influence the organization on behalf of the country programs. The DRD will travel regularly to country offices to provide management support, including exceptional management of specific issues as required, and to monitor program quality and strategy delivery. A significant portion of the DRD’s time will be spent on business development activities, regional representational activities, Strategic Plan monitoring, and staff mentoring.  

Key responsibilities
 
Strategy

• Work closely with the Vice President  to ensure that the IRC’s global strategy is understood and guides decision-making throughout the region.
• Drive institutionalization of the Outcomes and Evidence Framework, IRC’s program design tools.
• Facilitate and amplify IRC Strategy 100 ambitions at the country level. In particular, promote and facilitate the use of cash/voucher assistance and equal partnerships in the country programs.
• Support delivery of country-level strategy action plans (SAPs). Facilitate and coordinate regional participation in global strategy discussions, initiatives and pilots.
• Oversee implementation of SAP monitoring mechanism and review process, including leading annual SAP reviews and reporting.
• Build consensus around a common vision of what shared success in the East Africa looks like, including developing and tracking appropriate indicators.

Leadership & Coordination

• Supervise and mentor direct-report staff, including communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely performance feedback, and leading documented semi-annual performance reviews.
• Provide leadership to increase country programs’ coordination, collaboration, communication and harmonization of programming.
• Oversee and champion complex, multi-country projects.
• Drive seamless coordination between programming and operations and across sectors and outcomes, with the objective of improving the quality of IRC programs and impact on the people IRC serves. 
• Facilitate close and efficient coordination of regional staff’s support to the country programs, and with headquarters departments on common programming, operational and funding issues.
• Coordinate with regional INGOs, Donors and UN representatives in Nairobi, ensuring that IRC remains a key partner in coordination mechanisms hosted in Kenya.

Innovation & Program Quality 

• Manage the region’s relationships with the Technical Units (TUs), and support TU-country program collaboration to optimize impact on program quality within and across country programs.
• Strengthen the region's readiness to respond to new emergencies in line with global IRC emergency response and preparedness guidelines.
• Facilitate sharing and learning across countries, and support country programs to incorporate learning from other regions into project design and operations management.
• Coordinate the region’s engagement with Airbel, IRC’s R&D lab.
• Engage the regional team and country programs in on-going context analysis to ensure IRC programs are continually adapted to the evolving contexts across the region.
• Ensure that programs are designed and implemented in support of IRC’s vision of cost-effective, outcomes-driven and evidence-based interventions that are responsive to the local context and the priorities of our beneficiaries. 
• Where applicable support country teams to adopt and use industry-standard remote management practices and maximize program quality and controls. 

Business Development & Partnerships

• In coordination with the IRC’s Awards Management Unit, provide focused business development support to country programs, building country capacity to win multi-year and high value projects.
• Take go/no-go decisions regarding pursuit of regional funding opportunities. In coordination with Country Directors, engage in strong regional-level representation with governments, donors, international and local NGOs. 
• Ensure timely submission of competitive, responsive and high-quality proposals that align with country priorities identified in Strategy Action Plans, and support country program colleagues in negotiations with donors.
• Oversee the design and implementation of IRC’s work in partnership to support and build capacities of local civil society and other key stakeholders, positioning IRC as a valued INGO partner.
• Participate in shaping policy positions and advocacy messages pertaining to the overall humanitarian situation and IRC’s response in the East Africa region.  
• Advise country programs in networking and alliance-building activities, promoting cross-sectoral engagement with the private sector, universities, research institutions, and other potential “non-traditional” partners. 
• Support the development of country business development plans which marry the priority outcomes identified in each country SAP with the priorities of existing and new donors.
• Supervisory responsibilities:  Director, Awards and Management (DAM), Regional Measurement Advisor (RMA), Regional Emergency Director (RED), Project Director Re:Build. 

Key working relationships

• Internal: Vice President East Africa; East Africa Country Directors and teams; other East Africa regional staff; HQ and UK colleagues in various departments; Technical Units (TU);
• External: Donors; NGO representatives; UN officials; and Media

Qualifications and experience

• 7-10 years in senior program management roles, with several of these being in an international NGO.
• Post-graduate qualification or equivalent relevant experience in a relevant discipline.
• A diverse background in programs, with strong understanding of M&E, strong analytical skills, and experience leading strategic planning processes.
• Demonstrated ability to influence peer agencies, local government and community leaders to work effectively towards a common and agreed upon result.  
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate and implement best practices and processes affecting multiple technical specialties to achieve rapid, consistent and high quality outcomes.
• Demonstrated expertise in representation and negotiations, resulting in securing significant new opportunities for the organization.
• Highly-developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching. Must be able to give direction from a variety of management styles and roles.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently with limited supervision. 
• Strong commitment to the IRC’s mission, purpose and values.
• Previous experience with IRC is desirable.

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Job Description

Reporting to the Project Director, the Research Evidence, and Learning (REL) lead will be responsible for the development and oversight of all the research, learning, and evidence generation activities taking place in the GAVI REACH project in four countries- Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Ethiopia. The REL lead will be responsible for the developing of the project’s research and learning agenda, collaborating closely with the Consortium partners. Specifically, the lead will influence and impact the following key project areas; develop the project’s research and learning strategy; coordinate research and evidence generation; lead documentation and dissemination of project learnings in implementing countries; and develop knowledge content to inform programming, advocacy, training, and support learning strategies. The lead will ensure that the Project’s research, evidence generation and learning are in line with GAVI terms and conditions, and that IRC achieves its deliverables in the GAVI REACH project and maximizes impact in reaching Zero Dose Children and missed communities it the target locations. The REL lead will also take an active role in adaptive management through active participation in stakeholder, learning and work planning meetings, as well as contribute to the development of GAVI REACH project’s communication strategy and various communication products for sharing internally and externally through various platforms.

Key tasks
 
Generation of Evidence and Learning.

• Lead the coordinating and documentation of project learning and evidence generation for key internal and external audiences, including for donor reporting and advocacy work.
• Collaboratively with the project technical team and consortium member, design the project’s research and learning agenda (goals and objectives), workplan and the required methodology to achieve these
• Provide capacity strengthening of consortium staff to enable them to collect, analyse and generate evidence 
• In collaboration with the project MEAL Coordinator and Technical Lead,  provide support to country teams to implement integrated program monitoring activities with a focus on effectiveness and outcome reporting and reflective processes.
• In collaboration with MEAL Coordinator, Consortium research partners and Country teams, design Innovative and participatory learning methodologies and tools to assess outcomes and impact of the project.
• Effectively document evidence emerging from program monitoring and evidence generation methodologies
• Support effective utilization of the IRC’s project cycle meeting approach as a mechanism for program learning 
• Lead the technical support and implementation of all evaluations, assessments, surveys and project learning activities 
• Respond to project needs; foster high standards and practices for quality data, analysis, and reports. 
• Represent IRC in the REACH Consortium Evidence and research group and ensure IRC’s meaningful contribution to these processes 
• Identify and support the development of relevant evidence and analytical skills including practical use of mobile technology methods for staff in order to build organizational capacity for impact monitoring and assessment.
• Contribute to the development of project’s communication’s strategy; support drafting and dissemination of various project advocacy products (such learnings, publications, research findings, reports, briefs, factsheets etc), and dissemination.

Coordinate GAVI REACH project research 

• Lead the coordination of all research that is part of the GAVI REACH project 
• Identify and support the development of relevant research and analytical skills including practical use of mobile technology methods for staff in order to build organisational capacity for impact monitoring and assessment.
• Work with the Research and Evaluation Unit to identify strategic partnerships with academic and research institutions to enhance overall country program MEL capacities and collaborations (using IRC’s PEERS methodology)
• Represent IRC in relevant external meetings and engage with the with various stakeholders to increase the capacity of the country programs and project to effectively demonstrate results and learning
• In Collaboration with the MEAL development and finalisation of REACH project narrative reports including the “Stories of Change” for submission to GAVI and ensures they are of required quality and are timely.

Other

• Conduct any other duties assigned to support REACH project management
• Take up any other role as assigned

Qualification and experience

• Education: University degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistics, Research, Data Science, or related studies

Experience:

• At least 7 years’ Experience in managing and delivering a range of evidence and learning products including Database development and management.
• Experience in data collection tool using mobile data collection systems such as Commcare, KoBoCollect or any ODK system
• Experience and skills in public health research, knowledge management, dissemination of lessons and evidence.
• Proficiency and experience with mobile data collection such as ComCare, ODK Collect is vital as well as proficiency with Microsoft Excel, SPSS, STATA or other similar software. Knowledge of PowerBi, or GIS software tools are additional assets. 
• Advanced quantitative or mixed methods research skills, including ability to review and critically appraise data and empirical literature.
• Proven ability to transfer knowledge to diverse audiences through training, mentoring, and other formal and non-formal methods together with presentation and reporting skills are a strong asset.
• Confirmed ability to lead, mentor and empower a small to a medium professional team. 
• Self-motivated with good organization, and planning skills, including prioritizing work and multi-tasking.

Willingness to travel to various field-level offices (40%).

Skills and Abilities:

• Excellent interpersonal and time management communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Ability to develop and utilise appropriate methods and tools to support high quality evidence and Learning analysis. 
• Well-developed skills in managing and delivering a range of research and development projects, including effective and efficient resource allocation. 
• Ability to work remotely and independently
• Ability to work under own initiative with a proactive approach to problem solving. 
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to engage a range of diverse audiences, stakeholders, and partners. 
• Strong people management skills, including developing and motivating direct reports, colleagues and consultants. 
• Proven skills in writing for and speaking to a range of audiences to ensure impact, including making empirical data accessible for different audiences, and in using different channels and media.
• Strong interpersonal skills, self-motivated and result-driven, with ability to effectively build and manage networks and relationships for program promotion and issue-resolution
• Ability to independently and proactively work as a team member with minimum day-to-day oversight

Desirable Knowledge and experience

• Experience in delivery of large evidence syntheses (e.g., literature reviews and systematic reviews). 
• Advanced knowledge and experience of a range of analytical and evaluation techniques, including impact evaluation. 
• Proven track record in delivering research projects to meet funders’ requirements, including to time and quality expectations, within budget. 
• A clear understanding of project management processes and the importance of clear project/ performance management frameworks. 
• Experience in developing research proposals and publications

Proficiencies:

• Active listening and effective communication.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving.
• Professionalism and work ethic.
• Receptive and Resilient.
• Positive Interpersonal interactions