This position is currently open to only IRC staff

BACKGROUND

Over the past 80 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild. 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.

The International Rescue Committee is a global network with its headquarters in New York. The IRC is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief, relocating refugees and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster.

The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve. The IRC is a tireless advocate for the most vulnerable.

IRC UK
IRC UK is part of the IRC global network, which has its global headquarters in New York. Our team in the UK works to raise profile, deliver policy and practice change, and increase funding to help restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Since 2021, IRC UK has also provided integration services directly to refugees in England, a programme that is rapidly growing.

In Europe, the IRC also has offices in Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, Geneva and Stockholm.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU)

Established in January 2016, the Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global department with the responsibility for identifying, securing, and managing all funding from statutory/government donors.

The AMU is a bridge between donors and country programs: providing expert technical advice to the country teams, while maintaining portfolio-level visibility to ensure consistency and compliance, and manage risk. This unit ensures that donor compliance policies and procedures are implemented consistently, and supports all staff working across the award management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources.

The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department

The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department has a growing portfolio of humanitarian relief, post-crisis recovery, and development programs under their remit. This work focuses support in five key areas: ensuring safety from harm, improving health, increasing access to education, improving economic well-being and ensuring people have the power to influence decisions that affect their lives. In all these programs, there is a drive to address the unique needs of women and girls (who represent the majority of those displaced) – and the universal barriers they face.

The CRRD works across 6 regions globally, including West Africa, East Africa, Great Lakes, Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The regional teams are the links between country offices and key HQ departments, and aim to support and provide advice to country programs with a range of issues from strategic planning, business development to compliance, awards management and partnerships management.

The Purpose of the Role

The Program and Award Officer supports the Program and Award Advisors and country programs in their efforts to ensure successful implementation of IRC European donor award requirements and reporting, ensuring basic compliance, accurate financial information and good quality narratives on programme outputs.

Scope and Authority

No direct reports

Key Working Relationships

Reports to Program and Award Advisor. Works closely with Director Award Management, all Regional Program and Award Support team members, and across all teams within Awards Management Unit, Crisis Response Recovery and Development Department, Global Partnerships and Philanthropy, and other key departments within IRC.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Award Management and Compliance (60%)

• Support the Program and Awards Advisors and country programs in the management of the European award portfolio for IRC's Middle East & North Africa region (MENA).
• Review of narrative and financial reports, consulting with and ensuring input from relevant staff.
• Support budget realignments and award amendments/modifications, where necessary.
• Support monitoring projects to ensure progress against objectives and compliance with donor guidelines.
• Assist the country offices with use of the IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS) – working with partners.
• Assist country offices with ad-hoc queries on donor compliance issues.
• In collaboration with Program and Award Support colleagues, track and document lessons learned from finalised projects and ensure they are fed into the programme development team.
• Inform and refer high level compliance matters to Program and Award Advisors, Senior Program and Award Advisor, and Director, Awards Management, MENA for consultation with the Compliance and Policy team.
• Stay informed about programmatic issues and security and political developments in the region and how they might affect program implementation.
• Maintain all trackers and 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 T1 updates as needed.
• Onboard awards staff on OTIS as needed.
• Handle hard copy document processing, timely signatures and courier services.
• Maintain award files in collaboration with Program and Award Support team.
• Keep IATI data up to date for FCDO and DMFA, on a quarterly basis, and for other donors as required.

Coordination (20%)

• Maintain a strong relationship with the regional team members – reporting on a regular basis and copying them on relevant communications through an established communications protocol.
• Maintain a strong relationship with all AMU teams and other departments to ensure the use of all templates, guidance, policies and procedures established by AMU, and for participation in AMU work groups or work streams, as needed.
• Maintain strong relationship with country program awards teams offering regular support on reporting and compliance issues, in coordination with Program and Award Advisors.
• Assist with the organization and note taking of conferences, workshops and meetings as requested.
• Liaise with support departments and other teams outside of AMU as needed in order to provide the best support to country offices.

Capacity Building and Training (10%)

• Assist in the development and maintenance of work-processes and checklists for award implementation and report review.
• Assist in the development of training materials and facilitate trainings.

Other Responsibilities (10%)

• Provide coverage for key program/support functions remotely and in-country as requested, to assist with short-term gaps and emergency support.
• Provide short term cover when Program and Award Advisors are absent supported by their line manager as needed.
• Attending internal (and where appropriate external) IRC trainings as available on donor, compliance and awards management, PEERS, or other relevant subjects to the role.
• Support Program and Award Advisor with IPP awards, as needed.
• Additional duties in addition to the core job role will be discussed with supervisor as appropriate:

oBeing the first point of contact for country programs

oSupport with negotiation of contracts

oTaking a lead on developing training

oFocal point for regional donors on certain awards

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Understanding of European institutional donors and their requirements, experience working with European donors preferred

• Understanding of humanitarian aid and development programming
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a diverse team and manage a varied workload
• Ability to multi-task and work to tight deadlines
• Excellent communication skills including active listening and verbal and written English
• Solid organizational skills, detail oriented, ability to multi-task and prioritize tasks, and to learn quickly
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, the ability to successfully and effectively liaise with people within and across departments in a multi-cultural environment
• Both a team player and independent performer in a very fast paced environment
• A flexible work attitude and a calm manner
• Fluency in English
• Good IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel)

Experience:

• Experience writing, reviewing and editing narrative and financial reports and excellent attention to detail

The deadline to apply is Thursday 24^th October 2024.

IRC UK strives to be an equal opportunities employer. IRC UK is committed to equality of opportunity and to non-discrimination for all job applicants and employees, and we seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce regardless of gender, race, religious beliefs, nationality, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.

IRC UK welcomes applications from all candidates, including underrepresented groups and refugees who have the right to work in the UK.

IRC UK will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable adjustments to participate in the job application and/or interview process, and for essential job functions if appointed to a role. Please contact us if you may need such adjustments.

If you have any questions or need assistance with the online recruitment process, please contact the IRC UK HR team at applications@rescue-uk.org

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