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 UK is part of the IRC global network, which has its headquarters in New York and London. The IRC is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief, relocating refugees and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster. Through over 20 regional offices in cities across the United States, the IRC also helps refugees resettle in the US and become self-sufficient.

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.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU)

Established in January 2016, the AMU is a global unit with staff based in Bonn, Berlin, New York, London, Nairobi, and Bangkok. It has responsibility for identifying, securing, and handling all funding from statutory/government donors. The unit is organised into five pillars: Strategic Partnerships, Programme and Grant Support, Compliance and Policy, Programme Development, and Training.

The AMU is a bridge between donors and the field: providing expert technical advice to the field, 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 grants management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources.

The unit operates within a matrix management system across teams in Germany, the US and the UK, driving functional integration between all relevant units and staff, in collaboration with the Senior Vice President AMU, Vice President AMU, and the Senior Vice President for Europe in relation to overarching issues with European donors.

The Purpose of the Role

The IRC is looking for external roster members to support existing country programmes. The Regional Grants Advisor (RGA) plays a vital role within a regional team that supervises a specific region. The RGA focuses primarily on the successful implementation of IRC donor award requirements and reporting, ensuring basic compliance, accurate financial information and good quality narratives on programme outputs. The RGA must also build and ensure good and professional working relationships with donors. RGAs will work closely with the Regional Grants Directors to strengthen the capacity of field offices to manage, implement and report on Grants. RGAs will also represent IRC to policy makers, donors and other audiences.

Key Working Relationships

• Reports to relevant Regional Grants Director
• Regional, country office, and technical unit team members
• Other AMU colleagues to ensure coordination and information sharing

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Grants Management (60%)

• Manage the grants portfolio for a particular region and other portfolios as is relevant and necessary
• Review and provide substantive feedback on reports; consulting with and ensuring input from relevant technical and financial staff
• Support budget realignments and grant amendments/modifications
• Support on private fundraising proposals
• Maintain day-to-day communication with donors
• Monitor projects to ensure progress against objectives and compliance with donor guidelines
• In coordination with the compliance team, guide country offices in managing partnerships with local or international partners, ensuring that IRC’s sub-award management policies are being followed
• Assist country offices with ad-hoc queries on donor compliance issues. Refer non-routine and high level compliance matters to the RGDs and Compliance team
• Assist the compliance team in advocating with donors for manageable and reasonable rules and regulations
• Ensure lessons learned from finalised projects are fed into the programme development team
• Stay informed about programmatic issues and security and political developments in the region and how they might affect program implementation
• Ensure country programmes follow internal IRC policies and procedures (e.g. OTIS, PEERS)
• Travel to provide additional support to or cover short-term gaps for grants teams in the field. Travel decisions will be taken after consultation with line manager with due consideration given to regional priorities and workload management

Capacity Building and Training (20%)

• Provide best practice advice related to grant management
• Develop training materials and carry out training of IRC field staff on donor rules, as required and in coordination with RGD and AMU Staff
• In coordination with the RGD, develop and maintain work-processes and checklists for grant implementation and report review, as well as record lessons learned

Coordination and Supervision (20%)

• Maintain a strong relationship with the Regional Director and Deputy Regional Director and other regional staff
• Maintain a strong relationship with the AMU Deputy VP and all AMU pillars to ensure the use of all templates, guidance, policies and procedures established by AMU
• Maintain a strong relationship with field grants teams offering regular support
• Liaise with support departments and other teams outside of AMU as needed in order to provide the best support to country offices
• Supervise where relevant a Regional Grants Assistant in carrying out necessary functions as they relate to country program support and donor liaison
• Coordinate with the Program Officers in NY and RGAs for other regions for information sharing and to establish a coherent program support and backstopping function between headquarters and the field.

Qualifications

Requirements

• Degree, preferably in a subject related to IRC’s work (International Relations, Refugee or Migration Studies, Development Studies, Public Policy) or equivalent experience
• Experience with and a good understanding of European institutional donors and their requirements. Understanding of UN or U.S. donors a plus
• Good understanding of humanitarian aid and development programming
• Experience in working at a distance and supporting field-based staff
• Experience writing, reviewing and editing narrative and financial reports and excellent attention to detail
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a diverse team and manage a varied workload Good financial management and budgeting skills
• Ability to analyse and synthesise information
• 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 an independent performer in a very fast paced environment
• A flexible work attitude and a calm manner
• Ability to work on own initiative
• French, Spanish, German or Arabic language skills desired
• International work experience in a developing country a plus
• Good IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel)

The deadline for applications is midnight between Monday 2 December and Tuesday 3rd December 2019

Interviews will take place on 10th December 2019

IRC-UK is committed to equality of opportunity and non-discrimination for all applicants and employees. IRC-UK seeks to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce regardless of gender, race, religious belief, nationality, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability. IRC-UK welcomes applications from all candidates, including refugees who have the right to work in the UK.