Country: Germany
Closing date: 05 May 2017
Background/ IRC Summary
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 29 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. Economic well-being is one component of that work and one of five core outcome areas for the IRC's work. The IRC delivers labor market integration projects and support in small business start up and management.
The IRC has been responding to the refugee crisis in Europe since June 2015, initially on the Greek island of Lesvos and today across Greece and the Balkans, providing support to Middle East and North Africa refugees who have been stranded by recent border closures or who are at risk of exploitation from smugglers. Alongside the delivery of emergency response programs, IRC is starting to deploy technical resources to support European governments and civil society organizations in the longer-term process of integration for refugees. These efforts build on IRC's long experience working in the US on resettlement and integration.
Germany received more than 1.1 million asylum seekers since the start of 2015, and is now facing the challenge as it works to address the short and long-term needs of asylum seekers across the country. The IRC has identified opportunities to provide technical assistance through tools, training, technical expertise, and interaction with organisations in Germany. This is a new approach for the IRC and will draw on a strong foundation of expertise across the organization. IRC currently implements a range of Economic Recovery and Development programs internationally across 20 countries and provides employment and enterprise startup services in 29 resettlement offices across the United States. These program models, tools and resources will serve as the basis for developing new approaches across Europe. .
Job Overview/Summary
The Livelihoods Specialist will provide strategic direction as well as business development and program implementation support to the IRC's Economic Recovery and Development (ERD) programming portfolio as it develops in Germany. S/he will be responsible for the overall quality of implementation and will work extensively with a wide range of external partners as well as closely coordinate with other aspects of IRC's work in Germany.
The Livelihoods Specialist will be responsible for providing a range of support to local organizations to implement labor market integration and business start-up/self-employment projects that meet the specific needs of refugee job seekers and entrepreneurs, such as skills mapping, vocational language training, work readiness training, qualification preparation, financial literacy, etc. The Livelihoods Specialist will leverage IRC's global experience in integrating refugees into gainful employment or self-employment and support local government officials as needed in identifying barriers and possible solutions for successful integration. The Livelihoods Specialist will be expected to travel approximately 30% of his/her as needed throughout Germany.
Responsibilities
- In coordination with the regional team, HQ and country management support the development of program design and proposals relating to ERD programming
- Conduct outreach, establish and manage partnerships with civil society and state entities in the livelihoods arena.
- Adapt and contextualize as needed IRC's global theories of change and tools around work readiness, jobs skills training and business start-up materials with support from ERD Technical Unit
- Provide overall project management and capacity building support to all ERD projects specifically focused on supporting local organizations in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of quality refugee labor market integration and self-employment programs.
- Train and provide ongoing support to staff in partner organizations.
- Share IRC's expertise and learning with a wider audience through participation in relevant coordinating fora, presentations at conferences, etc.
- Work with project staff to analyze and reflect on monitoring and evaluation data to continually inform and refine/course correct the overall project design and implementation
- In coordination with regional team, HQ and country management support writing of reports, lessons learned documents and other communications materials related to ERD programming in Germany
- Support business development and proposal writing as needed.
- Support the IRC Germany country management to develop strong relationships and raise IRC's profile with specific donors as well as local government authorities.
- Support IRC Germany country management to continue to develop country program strategy
- Other duties as assigned.
Key Working Relationships:
Position Reports to: Deputy Country Representative
Position directly supervises: Not Applicable
Other Internal and/or external contacts:
Internal: The position includes close liaison and work with colleagues across all IRC departments, especially the ERDtechnical unit (International and US programs), advocacy and communications teams; and the International Programs Department.
External: The position includes relationship-building with partner organizations, oversight of vendors and consultants for special projects
Job Requirements:
- German Diplom or Master's degree in Social Work, Social Pedagogy, Business Administration or related field.
- At least three years of experience managing and/or advising on labor market and/or business start-up projects, ideally in a refugee context or serving marginal and vulnerable groups
- Strong knowledge of the German labor market regulations and laws
- Deep familiarity with the main state and civil society actors in the livelihoods arena
- Experience in training and facilitation
- Experience in event organization/coordination
- Excellent public speaking skills
- Excellent communication skills, cultural sensitivity, flexibility, ability to improvise, team player
- Strong knowledge and experience with project start up and management
- Experience with proposal development preferred
- Fluency in spoken and written English and German required
- Proficiency in a language relevant to refugee communities a plus, such as Arabic or Farsi
- High level of tolerance for ambiguity
Working Environment: A standard office work environment is provided within an existing IRC office. Regular travel across Germany will be required.
How to apply:
Please follow this link to apply: http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=a2F0cmluYW1pbGxlci40MDc4OS4zODMwQGlyYy5hcGxpdHJhay5jb20