Technical Specialist IVAP

Description

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 offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

Background

IRC has been working in Pakistan for over 30 years, and manages and delivers large complex programs to meet needs in health, education, protection, environmental health and livelihoods for displaced, poor & conflict-affected communities. IRC works in partnership with local government and non-governmental organizations and currently works in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces.

Scope
The Technical Specialist is responsible for providing technical backstopping to IVAP Project. There are up to 1 million people currently displaced within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, North-west Pakistan due to conflict. IVAP was initiated in 2010 to fill a critical information gap regarding the situation of these conflict IDPs. Over the years, IVAP has been focusing on: 1) informing the humanitarian community of the needs, locations and numbers of IDPs; 2) profiling each family on the basis of vulnerability to allow for targeting of assistance. IVAP identified the needs of IDPs, including their needs in displacement, their intentions to return to their origin locations, and their needs upon their return to their place of origin. It proactively communicated these findings widely amongst humanitarian partners in KP so as to ensure an appropriate humanitarian response. 

Under its strategic framework for the next three years, IVAP envisions that “Humanitarian responses in Pakistan are driven by harmonized data and targeted towards the priority needs of the most vulnerable displacement-affected persons”. IVAP is setup with a mission “To consistently provide timely, actionable, reliable and accessible profiling data on the needs and vulnerabilities of displacement-affected persons to government, humanitarian and development actors; to increase the utility of family-level data from different sources through the development of a data exchange system; and, to promote a more collaborative data culture through advocacy, capacity building and technical support”.

Purpose:

IVAP database stores vast amounts of information which requires data analyst(s) to transform the data into readable form and analysis friendly. This would require use of quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. The purpose of the job holder will be to consult and advise on the development of the system to meet project, stakeholder and organizational requirements. To sort and aggregate data, develop statistical models and present the findings to the key decision makers. The job holder will be primarily responsible for the production of high quality analytical bulletins, factsheets, reports, information dashboards and material for sharing with wider humanitarian community.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical

• Provide strategic and technical direction to IVAP
• Develop methodologies for sample surveys
• Analyze IVAP data and information and present in internal and external meetings at PDMA, FDMA, and ICCM and other relevant forums
• Work with IVAP team in the maintenance of live database and data analysis
• Participate in the development, implementation and review of IVAP database needs and solutions
• Perform in depth analysis of the existing systems, both manual and automated, and develop solutions to unspecified system requirements and or capabilities.

• Guide IVAP team on technical aspects of the project

• Contribute in building capacity of staff and external stakeholders on technical aspects
• To participate and assist with all best value and impact assessment/reviews requested by the management team.

Networking

• Proactively liaise with humanitarian partners (UN, NGOs, government, clusters, donors) to widely share and promote the use of IVAP data
• Collaborate with Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and OCHA on regular basis to improve use of technology and produce harmonized and coordinated data.
• Use IVAP data to explain concurrent issues faced by the displaced population at relevant forums.
• Develop the information required to manage the relationship of the key partners, employ in the decision making and leverages information for the best use of humanitarian community.

REPROTING TO:

The position reports to the Deputy Director Programs

Position Requirements

• University degree in Social Sciences; Master’s degree preferred
• Thorough knowledge of research methods in the social sciences
• Minimum 3 – 5 years experience in humanitarian work
• Successful experience in coordinating humanitarian assessments
• Knowledge of SPSS and statistical principles
• Experience in protection programming preferred
• Strong skills in communications, networking and advocacy essential
• Strong capacity building skills
• Capacity to work in a fast paced environment and produce results under challenging conditions
• Experience working in Pakistan and/or the region is preferred
• Willingness to work in a challenging security environment, spending at least 50% of the time at sub-office
• Experience in project design

• Excellent communication skills (written and oral), cultural sensitivity, flexibility, ability to improvise and work as a team player.
• Lead with commitment, integrity and accountability to the “IRC Way” – Global Standards for Professional Conduct