Job Title: Women’s Protection and Empowerment Technical Advisor- IRC

Background/IRC Summary:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence Unit (TE) provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice.

TE has three central objectives that we work towards:

1)    Guide program design to achieve outcomes by incorporating the best available evidence

2)    Build technical capacity of country program staff to implement, measure and continuously improve programs

3)    Influence the IRC, peer agencies and donors to use proven interventions and generate new evidence to achieve change in peoples’ lives

TE is comprised of five Technical Units, all of which have deep expertise in their respective sectors: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health, and Violence Prevention and Response.

The Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) works to reduce people’s risk of violence, support their recovery, and promote transformative work for a future free from violence. The unit houses expertise in the fields of Child Protection, Protection and Rule of Law, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment to support women, children and other at risk groups through violence prevention programs that help stop violence before it happens and violence response programs that ensures lifesaving services for people affected by violence. VPRU has programs across 35 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

The Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) team strives towards a vision whereby women and girls with their communities, work to create a world where they are valued and live free from violence, and can exercise their rights to promote their safety, equality and voice. The team supports programs to adhere to minimum standards and principles of good practice in the prevention of and response to gender-based violence and to meet the safety, health, psycho-social, and justice needs of women, girls, and survivors of gender-based violence.

Specific Responsibilities:

This is a full-time position. The WPE Technical Advisor (TA) will spend at least 80% of their time delivering technical assistance remotely and in-country (as permissible with COVID-19 restrictions) to country program colleagues in Cameroon, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali. The remaining time is spent on influence, advocacy, research and internal initiatives, as required by the team’s overall strategy. The Technical Advisors’ specific responsibilities are as follows:

Guiding program design:

• Support country program staff to design programs and projects, ensuring that they are:

o   Responsive to client needs and preferences

o   Based on sound context and gender analysis

• Help define approach to teaming/ partnering with other organizations
• Support selection of indicators for country programs

Engaging in business development:

• Review technical quality of proposals, including review of technical activities and ensuring alignment to IRC’s outcomes. When necessary, write technical narrative of proposals
• Provide input on budgets required for project delivery
• Engage with donors and do outreach in support of country programs

Building technical capacity of country program staff to ensure ongoing program quality and innovation: 

• Share cross-context learning with program staff across the regions
• Conduct technical training and ongoing technical coaching for country program staff, including on IRC outcomes, theories of change, evidence and indicators
• Review and share program-specific tools / resources / curricula and work with Technical Unit specialists to contextualize and adapt global and country-specific materials

Influence the IRC, peer agencies and donors to use proven interventions and generate new evidence:

• Participate in working groups, inter-agency task forces and academic conferences that focus on women’s protection and empowerment and/or relevant issues
• Present IRC research findings across contexts and relevant conferences
• Help country programs in designing/implementing research on the impact of the Women’s Protection and Empowerment projects developed in-country

Contribute to Strategy and Tool Development:

• Work with members of the VPRU towards achieving the unit’s strategic priorities, including the development and roll-out of VPRU programming models in selected country programs
• Contribute to the development of new program areas or approaches for Women’s Protection and Empowerment          

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:  Senior Technical Advisor for Women’s Protection and Empowerment

Position directly supervises:  N/A

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal:  Regular communication with education, violence prevention and response, health, economic recovery & development, governance, research, evaluation and learning, and gender equality technical unit teams. Close relationships with regional and country program teams.  Interacts with IRC internal departments, including business development, external relations and advocacy departments, to keep them informed of program activities.

External:  Serve as IRC and WPE representative in outside regional and global meetings and academic fora with donors, other non-governmental organizations, inter-agency groups and foundations as requested by the Senior Technical Advisor and/or the Deputy Director.

Job Requirements:

Education: Master’s/post-graduate degree in public health, social work, humanities or other relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.

Work Experience: A minimum of 6-8 years GBV program management experience is required, preferably within a humanitarian or international development setting. Experience in technical tools and materials development, monitoring and evaluation, and research in relation to education is highly desired.  Experience in strategy development and working across sectors or disciplines is highly desired.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies: Demonstrated ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action, and experience leading on program design, monitoring and evaluation. Must have strong and effective communications skills, and the ability to present a broad array of information to inform and influence diverse audiences in multi-cultural environments. Demonstrate commitment and capacity to renew and maintain standards with best practices in the field.

Language Skills:  Fluency in French and English required;

Working Environment:  Up to 40% travel may be required.          

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Equality, 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.

To apply: https://rescue.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/1/home/requisition/27747?c=rescue