Senior Technical Advisor, Governance & Rights
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 works to aid in the development of societies in which people have the opportunity to realize their full potential and are supported by institutions and practices that are just, transparent, accountable, inclusive, and which promote and protect rights.
The IRC’s work on governance themes is focused on two primary areas: • Governance issues in and around service delivery processes; • Local governance and decentralization support.
The IRC’s Governance & Rights Technical Unit is charged with providing intellectual leadership and vision around these programming areas, quality technical support to field staff and partner agencies (often delivered in conjunction with colleagues from other technical units given the cross-cutting nature of governance themes), targeted support on program design and fundraising, developing innovative research and learning opportunities and public representation on governance-related policy and programming issues. The Governance & Rights Unit is looking to expand its governance team with the post of Senior Technical Advisor.
SCOPE OF WORK: The Senior Technical Advisor, Governance (or Governance STA), leads a team of three governance Technical Advisors (TAs) and reports to the Director of the Governance & Rights Technical Unit. There is a counterpart STA on Protection and Rule of Law, who leads another team of TAs within the Governance & Rights Technical Unit. The Governance STA is charged with managing the day to day work of the governance team, contributing strategically to the direction of the Governance & Rights Unit in close collaboration with the Director and other team members, building a portfolio of relevant, evidence-based and evidence-generating innovative programming and working to mainstream governance work with STAs and TAs from other technical units.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Leadership and management: • Provide strategic direction to, and supervise the work of, a team of governance TAs; • Mentor other team members on the STA’s areas of specialization and experience to ensure broad skill-sharing and capacity-building across the unit; • Contribute to the overall strategy and direction of the Governance & Rights Technical Unit, in collaboration with other STAs and team members; • Stand-in for the Director of the Governance & Rights Technical Unit as needed.
Policies, strategies and tools: • Lead the development of appropriate field-oriented briefing notes, strategy documents, guidelines, toolkits etc. on key governance themes and priorities, within the context of the IRC’s overall Program Framework and its Governance & Rights Framework; • Support the roll-out of the above-referenced documents, in conjunction with other technical units where appropriate, through the design and delivery of workshops, online and offline trainings, internal communications tools, etc.
Country-specific technical support: • Provide direct technical assistance to 3-5 country program teams; • Monitor and assess the direct technical assistance provided by other governance TAs to their country program teams; • Provide regular updates and recommendations to the Director of the unit on the supply and demand for technical support, funding coverage and proposed changes to country or thematic divisions of labor in the provision of technical support.
Program design and new business development: • Identify, in close collaboration with the Director of the Governance & Rights Unit as well as regional, country and other technical unit-based colleagues, opportunities for innovative programming and the funding of such programs; • Lead on the design of key programs and the writing of key proposals; • Provide oversight and guidance to governance TAs in their design, proposal-writing and fundraising efforts.
Research and learning: • Promote the use of available evidence in the development of IRC’s governance-related programming; • Collaborate with the IRC’s Research, Evaluation and Learning Unit to identify appropriate opportunities to generate new evidence around governance-related programming; • Stimulate a learning environment within the governance team and, in collaboration with colleagues from other technical units and teams, contribute to learning on governance issues across different disciplines.
Representation and public information: • Liaise with donor agencies on policy and funding issues related to governance programming; • Liaise with the academic, sister agencies and the policy community on governance themes; • Support in the production of donor or public-facing information about the IRC’s governance programming.
REQUIREMENTS: • At least 8 years field-based experience implementing or providing technical assistance on governance-related programs, ideally in multiple country contexts; • A proven track record in institution-strengthening programming, preferably in the domain of decentralized public administration; • Applied experience of governance work in health, education or other basic services an advantage; • Applied experience of contextual analysis tools (conflict analysis, political-economy analysis etc.) an advantage; • Graduate degree in relevant field, relevant PhD an advantage; • Excellent English verbal and written communication skills; • French and/or Arabic language skills an advantage; • Must be willing and able to travel up to 50% of the time over the first 12 months and up to 30% thereafter.
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