The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

BACKGROUND

IRC’s Crisis Response, Recovery & Development department (CRRD) leads and delivers the IRC’s work in crisis-affected contexts around the world. In FY24, we served over 36M crisis-affected people with high quality humanitarian programming. This was achieved by over 16,000 staff across 350 office in 40+ countries, working to deliver more than 600 individual grants and contracts and an annual budget in excess of $830M. 

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) is responsible for identifying, securing and managing all funding from public institutional (government and multilateral) donors for the IRC. AMU is a bridge between donors and the IRC’s work on the ground. The team leads donor engagement, provides expert technical advice to colleagues delivering our services around the world, ensures consistency and compliance with donor policies and procedures, and manages associated risk. The unit also supports all IRC staff working on awards from public donors and partnerships. 

The West and Central Africa Region (WACAR) supports effective, efficient, and high-quality programming by strengthening capacity around client outcomes, program quality, strategic positioning, and business development for IRC’s country offices in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon and CAR, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria.

The Purpose of the Role

The Program and Awards Officer (PAO), supervised by the Senior Program & Awards Advisor (SPAA) and working in close collaboration with the Program Development & Award Advisors, supports IRC country programs in their efforts to ensure successful implementation of institutional donor award requirements and reporting, ensuring basic compliance, accurate financial information, strong partnerships support, and good quality narratives on program outputs. This position will work across donor portfolios in the WACAR region. 

 

Key Working Relationships:

Reporting to the Senior Program & Awards Advisor, the PAO  will work closely with Country Program Grants and Partnership teams, and regionally based colleagues, as well as with other Program Development & Awards Advisors, and across all teams within the Awards Management Unit, Crisis Response Recovery and Development Department, and other key departments within IRC.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Award Management and Compliance (60%)

  • Support PDAAs in the WACAR region with awards management tasks, producing high-quality donor deliverables, and general oversight of the IRC’s institutional donor portfolios in supported country programs.
  • Review of narrative and financial reports, collaborating with and ensuring input from relevant colleagues.
  • Support Program Development & Award Advisors and the country programs they support with budget realignments and award amendments/modifications, where necessary.
  • In collaboration with Program Development and Award Support colleagues, track and document lessons learned from finalized projects and ensure they are fed into the Business Development team.
  • Stay informed about programmatic issues and security and political developments in the region and how they might affect program implementation.
  • Maintain relevant team trackers and project reporting schedules.
  • Support country offices in maintenance of IRC’s award management system, OTIS, supporting awards teams to ensure that all IRC internal documentation and processes are followed, including support to internal project code updates as needed. Onboarding of country program Grants staff on OTIS as needed.
  • Maintain strong, collaborative relationships with country Grants and Partnerships teams, the Regional Program & Awards Support team, AMU, and other departments to ensure consistent use of IRC partnership tools, support donor compliance, and facilitate effective communication through established protocols.

Partnerships 20%

  • Support PDAAs and the Grants and Partnerships teams of the WACAR region in developing, reviewing, approving and implementing their Partnership Agreements in accordance with IRC’s internal processes, policies and procedures. 
  • Provide administrative and compliance support on partnership agreements across the region, supporting the Program Development and Awards Advisors (PDAAs) and Country Programs in partnership agreement reviews and completion. 
  • Complete the Donor Check and Compliance Approver reviews and approvals in alignment with PEERS policy and established internal thresholds. 
  • As agreed with PDAAs, provide first-line advisory support to CP teams on contractual/compliance components of PEERS, coordinate with OGC to review MOUs and Collaboration Agreements and facilitate communication between OGC and CPs.
  • Assist country offices with use of the IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS) – orient Grants and Partnership teams on relevant sections of PEERS to guide their actions and decisions. 
  • In collaboration with Program and Award Support colleagues, track and document lessons learned from Partnership efforts and processes, and feed these into the development of future tools or trainings in support of PEERS implementation within the CPs. 
  • Support country offices in maintenance of subawards across IRC’s award management system (OTIS) supporting CP teams to ensure that all IRC internal documentation and processes are followed
  • Support with the onboarding of country program Grants and Partnerships staff on PEERS as needed.
  • Maintain regional Partnership files in collaboration with the Regional Program and Awards Support team.

Capacity Building and Training (10%)

  • Assist in the development and maintenance of work-processes and checklists for awards management, subawards implementation and reviews.
  • Contribute to the development of training materials and facilitate/co-facilitate both online and face to face trainings on PCM Partnership and PEERS, as needed.

Other Responsibilities (10%)

  • Provide coverage for key grants and/or partnerships functions remotely and in-country as requested, to assist with short-term gaps and emergency support.
  • Provide short-term cover when Program Development and Awards Advisors are absent, supported by their line manager as needed.
  • Scheduling and note-taking for team meetings and for regular meeting routines with country programs and other stakeholders, as agreed with supervisor.

  • Additional duties in addition to the core job role will be discussed with supervisor as appropriate:

PERSON SPECIFICATION 

Experience and/or Qualifications:

Diversity of relevant experience is welcomed for this role. For example, experience may come from a mixture of paid and/or volunteer work, internships, transferrable skills from another industry, a gap year, etc. 

Essential 

  • A good general understanding of institutional donors and their requirements, for example DG-INTPA, SIDA, GFFO, BMZ, FCDO, AFD, UN etc. (knowledge of all is not required).** 
  • Good understanding of humanitarian aid and development programming.**
  • Experience writing, reviewing and/or editing narrative and financial reports.**
  • Excellent verbal and written English and French language** 

Skills: 

  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills 
  • Ability to work collaboratively and communicate effectively as part of a diverse team 
  • Ability to efficiently multi-task and manage deadlines effectively 
  • Solid organizational skills, including prioritization of tasks
  • Excellent attention to detail 
  • Ability to work with colleagues successfully and effectively in a multi-cultural environment
  • Both a great teammate and an independent performer in a fast-paced environment 
  • A flexible work attitude and a desire to contribute to the culture of a supportive, highly engaged team
  • Good IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel)
  • Willingness to travel

Recruitment Process

The process for this role will be as follows:

  • Screening call online with HR
  • Written Assessment 
  • Panel interview online 

The IRC is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Compensation: (Pay Range: £44,500 - £47,000) Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget.  Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.


 

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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