Myanmar: Deputy Director, Program

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, integrated environmental health, 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 Sport, Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and Agriculture. IRC works in several states, primarily focused in the most marginalized areas of the country, including Rakhine, Chin, Kayin, Mon, Kachin, and Kayah States.

SCOPE OF WORK:

IRC in Myanmar operates an annual portfolio of $15 million, through the implementation of 15 grants country-wide funded by 10 different international donor agencies and private foundations. In addition, IRC prioritizes partnership with local civil society organizations, and currently manages over 19 sub-grantees. This is likely to increase significantly should there be ongoing USAID funding for a Learning and Empowerment project that currently implements through over 40 partners. 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, operations and strategic levels within the country program.

The DDP supervises seven senior program staff including Grants, which includes a cascade total of over 300 program staff located throughout the country in 12 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;

· Work very closely with the Country Director to ensure that there is a comprehensive approach to the country program strategy, donor and HQ/Regional relations

· Maintain regular communication and collaboration with the HQ based technical advisors (there are 5 core focal points, and approximately 5 additional technical counterparts) through skype calls to ensure technically sound programming is achieved through support

· Support PD&G Coordinator and technical leads to ensure the design and development of new programs that is relevant and technically sound and cost efficient.

· 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 Deputy Director Operations, Finance Controllers (national and international), PLE D CoP Country Director, and DDP.

· Provide support and collaboration to Tat Lan Program Director as well as the Project for Learning and Empowerment CoP and Deputy CoP (based in Myanmar);

· Support the program leads in the piloting or development of initiatives developed in HQ eg Client Responsiveness, Gender Mainstreaming, and Context Adaptability.

Management & Program Implementation:

· Oversee and provide guidance around the collection, analysis and dissemination 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

· Review and ensure that quality proposals, reports and information are being delivered from the country office.

· Coordinate programs to ensure technical and program support across sectors;

· Within the SMT ensure that security, procurement, HR and financial processes are supportive of quality programming;

· 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, donors and HQ.

Staff management:

· Supervise the Humanitarian Coordinator for Rakhine, Governance and Rights, Program Design & Grants Coordinator, Women’s Protection & Empowerment, Emergency Response Coordinator, the national Health Director and the TatLan project director.

· Consistently review and restructure as required and depending on context, departments when necessary, appropriate, in consultation with HR, SMT, and relevant technical advisors. This with a focus on nationalizing positions whenever possible.

· Monitor and evaluate staff progress toward assigned tasks and agreed objectives and provide appropriate and timely feedback to staff regarding their performance;

· 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, OCHA, UN-Donors ( 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, fluid, 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 a limited accompanied post.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.

http://chm.tbe.taleo.net/chm03/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=IRC&cws=1&rid=14944