Organization: IFRC – International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Location: Addis Ababa
Grade: Mid level – D2, International Professional – Internationally recruited position
Occupational Groups:
Disaster Management (Preparedness, Resilience, Response and Recovery)
Emergency Aid and Response
Managerial positions
Closing Date: 2024-05-31
Organizational Context
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies (NSs). The overall aim of IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.”
IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.
IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.
Climate change is a central element of IFRC’s Strategy 2030 and Plan & Budget 2021-2025, which stresses the urgency to massively scale-up climate action in view of increasing disasters and climate-related impacts on vulnerable people. Early warning and early/anticipatory action are acknowledged as a critical component of this work.
In March 2022, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the launch of the Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative to spearhead new action to ensure that every person on earth is protected by early warning systems within five years. The EW4All initiative calls for new targeted investments to advance the four Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS) pillars: Disaster Risk Knowledge; Observations and Forecasting; Dissemination and Communication; and Preparedness to Respond to Warnings. IFRC leads globally on Pillar 4, Preparedness to Respond.
As of August 2023, IFRC is implementing the Water at the Heart of Climate Action (WHCA) programme, in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), a dedicated UN multi-partner financing mechanism to fund weather andclimate surface-based observations). The programme responds to the urgent need to accelerate and scale up water action to reduce the impacts of increasing water related risks and increase the climate resilience of affected communities through a combination of early warning and early action measures and integrated water management. It delivers against the goals of EW4All and implements EW4All in four-five countries around the Nile River Basin, starting with Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda – with Sudan TBC. Within the IFRC network, the programme brings together the IFRC Secretariat, Netherlands Red Cross (NLRC), Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and the NSs in each country. It will run from August 2023 to July 2028, with a total budget of EUR 55 million funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, including EUR 5 million for IFRC.
Job Purpose
The Regional Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) Coordinator will be responsible for regional project/grant management and coordination for Water at the Heart of Climate Action (WHCA) and other relevant EWEA related projects. The incumbent will support regional coordination among WHCA Alliance partners. The role will oversee regional capacity strengthening and technical support related to EWEA overall, in close coordination with NLRC providing technical support to NSs in the project countries related to anticipatory action. The incumbent will ensure regional alignment with EW4All, and promote scale-up and replicability of the project approach with other partners/donors regionally. The incumbent will be IFRC’s key focal point in advising IFRC country clusters/delegations and the NSs and liaising with the relevant personnel from the alliance/consortium partners on EWEA and EW4All related topics. The coordinator will be responsible for ensuring the quality of results and coherence with the consortium partners deliveries on the relevant technical focus areas.
The position holder will work closely with the global Early Warning Early Action Project Coordinator as well as with IFRC technical (DRR and resilience, WASH), finance, PMER, legal and knowledge and learning units, at regional and Geneva levels, along with implementing partners, in particular NLRC as alliance coordinator.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Project/grant management and coordination
Coordinate internal resources and third parties/consultants for the flawless execution of relevant projects.
Ensure that the project(s) are delivered on-time, within scope and within budget.
Ensure resource availability and allocation.
Formulate project annual and quarterly work plans and budgets, in close collaboration with the relevant IFRC Delegations and NSs, and relevant technical staff at regional level, and share with IFRC Geneva’s EWEA Project Coordinator.
Provide regional oversight of project implementation and project compliance against the relevant donor and IFRC procedures/policies and ensure achievement of targets as outlined in the project work plan.
Oversee risk management, in close collaboration with relevant IFRC regional and country staff.
Ensure the interests of the IFRC Secretariat are protected and well addressed by consultants or service providers hired under relevant grants.
Support recruitment of project staff in the region.
Support and be accountable for IFRC Delegations’ contracting with HNS.
Support and/or set up and coordinate project governance mechanisms and ensure effective coordination among WHCA Alliance and IFRC network partners.
Maintain regular contact with IFRC network country staff, project and other key stakeholders, including UNDRR, WMO, ITU and others.
Manage issues, troubleshoot problems and develop solutions related to overall project implementation. Report and escalate critical issues to management as needed.
Raise strategic issues with the IFRC Geneva EWEA Project Coordinator for decision/validation, including work plan modifications, budget modifications/reallocations and changes in target countries.
Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)
Monitoring and reporting
Participate in and contribute to quarterly or monthly project internal consultations on progress and any issues that may require decision at HQ level.
Conduct regular monitoring to ensure achievement of targets are in line with the annual work plan and budget; undertake periodic monitoring of project activities/financials of target HNS.
Put in place reporting arrangements to ensure that reporting requirements are met in a timely manner.
Collect and consolidate relevant inputs for narrative reports from all relevant colleagues/parties and submit to the IFRC Geneva EWEA Project Coordinator in a timely manner for endorsement and submission to the donor; ensure financial and narrative reports accurately reflect actual deliverables and milestones.
Ensure the integrity of financial and administrative procedures and the consistent application of IFRC rules and procedures related to project activities.
Gather and analyse data related to the project(s) at the national and regional levels and ensure high-quality data for internal and external needs.
Promote identification, documentation and synthesis of lessons learned and best practices for EWEA knowledge production, dissemination and replication.
Technical and programmatic support
Provide technical advice and assistance to target NSs on EWEA related activities and topics, across the Early Warning System pillars. In the context of WHCA, this will be done in close coordination with NLRC providing technical support to NSs in the project countries related to anticipatory action.
Ensure effective alignment between relevant projects and EW4All.
Guide and support relevant responsible parties (notably IFRC colleagues in the region and delegations; consultants/service providers; and if relevant NSs) for the implementation of their respective tasks.
Support the organization and facilitation of EWEA-related trainings and workshops in the region.
Partnership building and resource mobilization.
Initiate and cultivate partnerships with donors, government institutions, private sector, civil society, and other stakeholders to contribute to the achievement of project results and further scale-up.
Identify and work with key partners to ensure synergies with other programmes/initiatives and to avoid duplication of activities among actors.
Identify and seek out opportunities for mobilizing additional resources to scale up and replicate relevant projects.
Contribute to an effective, high quality IFRC team
Be accountable to the team leader by providing progress reports on results against objectives and risk analyses.
Be flexible in the work definition according to needs and targets and help to improve efficiencies and effectiveness within available resources.
Foster a customer service-oriented culture that values proactivity, continuous improvement, innovation, high performance, and cost effectiveness.
Foster a collaborative working environment.
Education
Required
University degree in climate change, disaster risk reduction or related field.
Preferred
Certification in business administration, project management or related field.
Experience
Required
At least 5-7 years of work experience in climate-smart disaster risk reduction, early warning early action or related work
At least 5 years of experience in project/programme management, grant management or related field.
Experience working in humanitarian or development sector, with developing countries especially in the Horn of Africa or Africa Region and/or with an international organisation.
Experience managing multi-country projects.
Experience managing and cultivating multi-stakeholder partnerships in the context of humanitarian and/or development programmes.
Experience working in an international or cross-cultural environment.
Preferred
Experience working in a RC/RC National Society and/or Federation/ICRC/Climate Centre.
Knowledge, Skills and Languages
Required
Project/programme management.
Knowledge of climate-smart disaster risk reduction and early warning early action, and ability to support such programmes.
Results oriented and demand driven individual, entrepreneurial, ability to lead in unprecedented and/or ambiguous situations.
Demonstrated leadership and management skills, including the ability to lead within a matrix management structure and utilise talent and experience of team members in a productive way.
Outstanding networking, representational, communication and negotiation skills. An ability to be proactive and persuasive.
Demonstrated track record in innovating, contributing to a learning culture, sharing knowledge and new approaches to engaging partners.
Energetic and enthusiastic individual, engaging, brokering and facilitating learning and dialogue among diverse groups.
Professional credibility, able to work effectively at all levels across the organisation.
Proven good judgment and ability to work with complete integrity and confidentiality.
High degree of discretion, tact and sensitivity in dealing with internal and external clients and stakeholders at all levels.
Ability to work within a multi-cultural, multilingual, multidisciplinary environment.
Fluent spoken and written English.
Preferred
Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic).
Competencies, Values and Comments
Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability.
Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.
Functional competencies: Strategic orientation; Building alliances; Leadership; Empowering others.
Managerial competencies: Managing staff performance; Managing staff development.