Democratic Republic of the Congo: Lead Technical Bid Writer

Application deadline: April 25th

BACKGROUND

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, the IRC helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future. In order to achieve this mission, the IRC is working to improve the safety, health, education, economic well-being and power of people in crisis-affected places, but particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized, so that we can narrow the stark inequalities that exist, including between men and women, and boys and girls.

Within the IRC, The Governance Technical Unit (GTU) is responsible for developing and overseeing the quality of IRC’s program portfolio of key interventions contributing to the Power of the people we serve, as well as to the governance aspects of service delivery that contribute to people’s safety, health, education and economic wellbeing outcomes. The GTU notably provides technical support to IRC’s country offices along with targeted support on program design and fundraising. Typically, governance programs will focus on:

• Empowering people affected by conflict to solve their own problems;
• Ensuring that the needs of all groups, regardless of gender, age or ethnicity, are taken into account within local decision-making processes, and that people understand and trust the processes by which decisions are made;
• Working to ensure that people in positions of power at community and government levels recognize that all members of society have equal rights that must be respected and realized;
• Supporting the capacity and systems of state and non-state actors to provide basic services to the people we serve.

IRC is also one of the largest providers of relief and development assistance in the Democratic Republic of Congo with an annual budget of approximately US$ 70 million and over 900 staff. In seven of DRC’s provinces, IRC implements programs directly or through partners in the sectors of health, governance & community development, women’s protection & empowerment, education, and emergency response through a network of nine field office and a range of institutional and community partnerships.

PROGRAMME SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES

IRC is planning to apply for funding from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to deliver component 1 of DFID’**Collective Action & Systems Strengthening (CASS).**

Collective Action & Systems Strengthening (CASS) is a seven year governance programme inclusive of three components:

• Component 1: Collective Action (CA): ‘the demand side’;
• Component 2: Systems Strengthening (SS): ‘the supply side’;
• Evaluation.

The intended Impact is “ The Congolese state is increasingly capable, accountable and responsive to the expressed demands of Congolese citizens .”

The expected Outputs are:

• Poor men and women are increasingly empowered to hold a legitimate Congolese state to account (Component 1);
• The policy development, planning and execution capability of the Congolese public administration is strengthened (Component 2);
• DFID DRC’s development portfolio is fully integrated, nationally, provincially and locally.

DFID defines CASS as a form of successor to six DFID governance programmes active in DRC between 2007 and today, among which the Tuungane Community Driven Development, which the IRC, in partnership with CARE, has been implementing to date.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

The Lead Technical Bid Writer will have the following responsibilities:

• Become rapidly familiar with:
  • IRC work on Governance, especially in DRC, and with a focus on IRC’s flagship governance programme in country (Tuungane)
  • DFID’s Terms of Reference of this tender
  • IRC culture and team, and partners, involved on this bid
• Facilitate discussions on the Program Approach/Bid Outline:
  • Actively part take in a design workshop, and,
  • In close collaboration with the Bid Manager and other members of the Bid Team, finalise: the conceptual framework for the proposed program; the outline for the proposal; the programme Theory of Change, logframe and other related design elements.

• Writing/Editing:

• Edit and Integrate technical inputs from bid team members and partner agencies into a coherent and high quality narrative;

• Support a cross-section of partners to compile/write their components through collaborative discussions, as needed;

• Write key technical sections of the proposal;

• Deliver quality product against a tight schedule;

• Ensure that the tone, content, and design of the technical narrative are coherent and correspond to the requirements stated in the Terms of Reference;

• Liaise closely with the Commercial Contracts focal point to ensure coherence between the technical and commercial narratives.

Expected deliverables:

• Detailed workplan for Technical Proposal according to timeline for ITT submission and inclusive of timeline for feedback and edits;
• Finalised Programme approach, Theory of Change and logframe for the technical approach;
• Technical narrative for the tender document incorporating feedback and edits.

QUALIFICATION CRITERIA

• A proven and successful track record writing substantial (e.g.multi-million) bids, preferably within the governance sector and in developing and conflict-affected countries;
• Experience working with DFID, or similar bilateral donors, including on commercial contract;
• Familiarity with issues around local governance, social accountability, civil society development programming or similar;
• An understanding of the institutional and political context in DRC highly desirable, with knowledge of local governance and decentralisation issues in post-conflict contexts, and of gender and inclusion strategies;
• Demonstrated ability for rapid analysis of very complex issues, and their translation into reader-friendly, consistent narratives;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, cross-cultural communication and ease in managing a multi -ethnic team;
• Outstanding planning skills with an ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines;
• Fluency in English and French (spoken and written);
• Excellent IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint);
• Postgraduate degree in international political affairs, international development or similar governance related discipline.

http://chm.tbe.taleo.net/chm03/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=IRC&cws=1&rid=13543