Senior officer, floods resilience global partnership

City/location:

Geneva

Organization:

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Background:

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian network, reaching 150 million people each year through its 187 member National Societies. The Organisation acts before, during and after disasters and health emergences in order to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people. Our work is guided by seven fundamental principles (humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality) and by Strategy 2020, which voices our collective vision and determination to move forward in tackling the major challenges that confront humanity in the present decade.

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian network, reaching 150 million people each year through its 187 member National Societies. The IFRC acts before, during and after disasters and health emergencies to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people.

The IFRC has a decentralized structure: five zone offices (each with several regional and country offices reporting to it) covering the globe and responsible for frontline delivery through National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, backed by the secretariat based in Geneva. The IFRC`s secretariat focuses on setting norms, standards and guidance, ensuring consistency, coordination and accountability for performance, knowledge sharing, and influential representation with global level partners. It is organized in four Divisions: Programme Services, National Society and Knowledge Development, Humanitarian Values and Diplomacy, and Governance and Management Services.

The post lies within the Community Preparedness and Risk Reduction Department in the Programme Services Division. The post is also part of the global secretariat community preparedness and risk reduction team consisting of people around the globe who share global accountability and responsibility for implementing Strategy 2020 (S2020) in the area of community preparedness and risk reduction. Three global reference centres - Climate Change, Disaster Preparedness, Livelihoods - are closely affiliated with the Community Preparedness and Risk Reduction team. Furthermore it is expected that the position will work closely with the Strategic Partnership Unit where the overall management of the partnership with Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) resides.

Purpose of position:

To implement the Zurich-IFRC five year global floods resilience partnership, which seeks to deliver effective community flood resilience programmes at scale and contribute to shaping the flood resilience agenda of policy and decision makers as well as donors.

To combine Zurich's risk expertise with the Red Cross Red Crescent community presence and experience at the community level in order to develop and implement effective disaster risk solutions.

Description of key duties and responsibilities:

Support to the Global Floods Resilience Partnership:

Provide overall coordination and technical support to global and country level aspects of the Zurich-IFRC partnership while ensuring consistent coordination between Zurich and the IFRC Geneva secretariat, its zones, regional and country offices, National Societies and the wider international and humanitarian network
Develop technical operational guidance for the roll out of the Partnership including any required templates and processes for program development (e.g. narrative and logframe, budget, staffing plan and JD's, community identification criteria, reporting templates and schedule, M & E plan, etc.)
Organize and participate in global coordination activities, including annual planning meetings and other events as required
Liaise with financial and grants management staff to ensure optimum efficiency of donor funds, effective budgeting and financial controls, transfers and maintenance of compliance
Contribute to the global operational research and knowledge management agenda on floods resilience and disaster risk reduction by positioning the partnership internally and externally, and pro-actively promote and present the learnings, outcomes and impact
As programming is scaled up, identify key country bottlenecks with planning and implementation of programs and ensure that these are highlighted for countries in advance of proposal and budget development
Ensure global coordination, positioning and reporting on the partnership including with relevant stakeholders as well as internal and external fora

Support to National Societies and IFRC country-level Partnership programming:

Provide coordination and technical support both remotely (e-mail and phone) and through in-country missions based on requests including for activities concerning project design, gap analysis, proposal development, project implementation, monitoring and evaluation and narrative and financial reporting
Support coordination, roll out, monitoring and evaluation of project activities; participate in initial and final project review meetings and ensure that projects are implemented according to the approved proposal, budget and timeline
Work with National Societies and IFRC country-level staff to develop resilience and disaster risk reduction training plans, training manuals, data collection forms, volunteer job aids, and assist with training implementation
Support National Societies and IFRC in the use of the VCA toolkit, including participating in in-country training when needed
Promote National Society participation in existing country-level coordination structures (e.g. country coordination platforms for disaster risk reduction)
Work with National Societies and IFRC country-level staff on improving the quality of data collection, analysis and management, and on the use of data for improving project implementation quality and impact
Plan and implement operations research projects with National Societies and IFRC regional and zone staff focused on areas of interest within the Zurich-IFRC partnership (e.g. enhanced hazard and risk analysis)

Support to strengthen the Partnership's country-level coordination:

In coordination and collaboration with Zurich global and country level offices, work with National Societies and IFRC in-country to build and/or strengthen relationships with key stakeholders including those from government, private sector, civil society and international organizations in order to:

Promote the use of DRR coordination platforms;
Share information on best practices and lessons learned;
Advocate policy recommendations around DRR and floods resilience;
Facilitate access to additional resources to further scale up programming.

Ensure National Society and IFRC capacity to measure the costs, benefits and impact of floods resilience programming
Ensure regular updates and high-quality narrative reporting and documentation and disseminate them, as appropriate, to different stakeholders.

Duties applicable to all staff:

Actively work towards the achievement of the Secretariat's goals.
Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross Red Crescent principles.
Perform any other work related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager.

Position Requirements

Education:

University degree in the field of applied science related to disaster risk
Relevant post graduate qualification/technical training in disaster risk management (or equivalent experience)

Experience:

5 years experience of working for the Red Cross/Red Crescent, preferably at country and community level or 5 years experience of working for a humanitarian aid organisation in developing countries on disaster risk reduction or resilience programmes
At least 8 years professional experience in disaster risk reduction or floods resilience
Experience of managing global partnerships, preferably with the corporate sector
Experience of management and supervision of staff would be preferred
Experience of proposal and report-writing, developing and managing a budget would be preferred

Knowledge and Skills: