Deputy Director Programs

BACKGROUND:

 

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a private, non-political, non-profit, non-religious organization with its global humanitarian relief tasks for more than 80 years since 1933. Today, the IRC continues to bring swift emergency relief and development to the vulnerable and the displaced people in more than 40 countries.

 

The IRC has been working in Myanmar since May 2008, initially supporting emergency response and early recovery interventions for communities affected by Cyclone Nargis. Since then, IRC has responded to natural emergencies as well as conflict, such as ethnic violence, hand is engaged with communities through their recovery and rehabilitation. Over the years, IRC has broadened its portfolio to include health, water and sanitation, livelihoods, and social development programs and aims to employ a holistic approach.  The IRC is committed to a long-term presence in-country with the aim of improving the well being of vulnerable populations living the hard-to-reach areas.  Currently IRC works with the Ministries of Health, and of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. IRC works in several states, primarily focused in the most marginalized areas of the country, including Rakhine, Northern Shane, Chin, Kayin, Mon, Kachin, and Kayah States.

 

SCOPE OF WORK:

IRC in Myanmar operates an annual portfolio of $14.2 million, through the implementation of over 15 grants country-wide funded by 12 different international donor agencies. In addition, IRC prioritizes partnership with local civil society organizations, and currently manages over 14 sub-grantees. The Deputy Director – Programs (DDP) provides overall guidance and support to the IRC Myanmar program, ensures appropriately designed programs, quality funding applications and the M&E strategy implementation;  leads the country team in developing systems to ensure quality program implementation; ensures internal coordination at program and strategic levels within the country program.

 

The DDP supervises six senior program staff (sector and deputy sector coordinators/program managers) and the Program Design & Grants Coordinator (Grants Unit), which includes a cascade total of over 300 program staff located throughout the country in nine different field offices. The DDP works closely with the Regional Unit, Technical Units and Headquarter staff based in London, Bangkok, New York and Nairobi.  The DDP reports to the Country Director.

 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

 

Program Direction & Coordination: 

 

• Support and oversee the implementation and revisions of the Country Strategic Action Plan 2015 – 2020 for IRC’s outcomes health, power, safety, economic well-being, and gender;
• Provide support and collaboration to Tat Lan Program Director and Tat Lan Coordinator as well as PLE CoP and Deputy CoP;
• Lead the development and implementation of program initiatives and pilots in partnership with HQ and Technical Units; such as the Context Adaptability; Client Responsiveness; and Menstrual Hygiene, etc;
• Lead the development of new working groups, sub-units, etc such as partnership capacity building Initiative; South East Coordination, etc which means financial management, scheduling, objective setting and chairmanship;
• Maintain regular communication and collaboration with the HQ based technical advisors (there are 5 core focal points, and approximately 5 additional technical counterparts) through bi-monthly, regular skype calls and joint setting of annual workplans/ToRs;
• Support PD&G Coordinator and technical leads to ensure the design and development of new programs that is relevant and technically sound;
• Maintain relationships with implementing partners, donors and NGO community to leverage IRC’s experience and capture opportunities for leadership within the humanitarian & development community;
• Ensure IRC’s participation at different sectoral working groups and other coordination meetings ; and leverage IRC’s global and in-country experience;
• Contribute to build IRC Myanmar’s disaster preparedness and emergency response capacity, as appropriate to country context, needs and operational capacity; 
• Actively participate and take initiative within Senior Management Team composed of DD Operations, Finance Controller, Tat Lan Program Director, Country Director, and DDP.

 

Management & Program Implementation: 

 

• Oversee and provide guidance the collection and analysis of program information (qualitative and quantitative) to inform all stages of the project cycle to increase shared learning internally and externally
• Oversee the grants and M&E department; and ensure the program implementation in managed through the development of work plans, spending plans (BvA), procurement plans, donor communication with regular BvA meetings, report review and other needed grants meetings
• Ensure all programs are achieving all programmatic outputs according to approved work plans, log frames etc
• Coordinate programs to ensure technical and program support across sectors;
• Coordinate with Operations Coordinator and Finance Controller to ensure that security, procurement, HR and financial processes are supportive of quality programming;
• Provide guidance to the program team regarding tools and strategies to ensure that programming is based on input from communities, a thorough understanding of the context, and technical best practices;
• Work with senior program staff to ensure that up to date information is used effectively for advocacy and for the development of new programming;
• Liaise with all field offices on programming issues to ensure smooth communication, coordination & knowledge flow;
• Coordinate visits, (donor, TA, HQ, etc) and support field staff in preparing and conducting these visits as necessary;
• Ensure regular communication and productive relationship with implementing partners.

 

Staff management:

• Supervise the head of department for Health, WASH, Humanitarian Response, Governance, and Safety, PD&G Coordinator, including dotted line/strategic supervision of Women’ Protection & Empowerment; Humanitarian Health Coordinator;
• Initiative and oversee restructuring of departments when necessary, appropriate, in consultation with HR, SMT, and relevant technical advisors;
• Monitor and evaluate staff progress toward assigned tasks and agreed objectives and provide appropriate and timely feedback to staff regarding their performance;
• Monitor and highlight staff who are underperforming, discuss with CD and develop plans of action for improvement or exit;
• Support the identification of key promising staff within the country program and contribute to capacity and career development  & retention plans;
• As a member of SMT, represent program staff concerns and perspectives.

 

 

REQUIREMENTS:

• Relevant degree (Bachelors) in development studies, social sciences, or other relevant field
• At least seven years work experience in international humanitarian/emergency contexts

• Background in situation analysis, needs assessments and program implementation

• Experience with USAID, OFDA, UN-Donors (– like UNOPS, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNFPA), ECHO/EC, DFID, AusAID, and private funding sources
• Ability to independently organize work and prioritize tasks.
• Team leadership and supervision experience and skills

• Experience supervising a multi-national staff in a complex, insecure emergency setting
• Additional qualities: Ability to multi-task, handle pressure well, improvise and adapt to transitions
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, strong interpersonal skills
• Proficient in MS Office, MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint
• Demonstrated experience in proposal development, preparation of logical frameworks, budgets and grant management

• Security training advantageous
• Interest and willingness to develop an understanding of the local politico-socio-economical context

 

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The DDP position is based in Yangon, Myanmar with frequent travel (approximately 30%) required to project field site locations in rural areas of the country and approximately 1 -2 international trips per year. This is an limited accompanied post. 

Please follow this link to apply: http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=a2F0cmluYW1pbGxlci4zODcyNC40ODEwQGlyYy5hcGxpdHJhay5jb20