IRC’s Technical Excellence team is comprised of five teams or sector “Units” which have deep expertise in their respective fields: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health, and Violence Prevention and Response, as well as teams which provide measurement and finance/grant management support. Technical teams are also matrixed with a team that focuses on the quality and content of cross-sectoral programming in emergency responses.
IRC’s Technical Excellence teams offer five core services to IRC country programs and the wider organization:
1. Program Design: We support country and regional teams to design state of the art programming, incorporating the best available evidence, cost data, and expertise of what has worked elsewhere, with the knowledge that country teams, partner organizations and our clients bring to the table.
2. Quality Assurance: We partner with our measurement teams to design and drive the use of indicators to measure progress towards outcomes; we partner with regional and country teams to review program delivery progress and help address implementation challenges and adapt interventions to changed circumstances.
3. Business Development: We partner within and outside the IRC to design winning bids and identify winning consortia; we deploy technical expertise in public events and private meetings to position IRC as a partner of choice.
4. Research & Learning: We partner with our research lab to design cutting edge research to fill evidence gaps, and with country teams to learn from implementation such that we continuously improve our future design and delivery.
5. External Influence: We showcase the IRC’s programs, technical insights and learning in order to influence and improve the humanitarian sector’s policy and practice.
Technical Excellence is currently going through a change process called “Regional and Technical Alignment.” We are doing this to ensure that the impact of our programs and the influence of our ideas create meaningful change for people affected by crisis. This next phase of IRC’s commitment to program quality will more deliberately resource and link global thought leadership with practice on the ground. Updated Technical Unit structures will have new roles with clearer mandates. The Global Practice Lead is a new leadership role introduced by this change process.
Economic Recovery and Development Technical Unit (ERD TU)
The ERD TU is a dynamic team of more than 30 professionals responsible for supporting the development, implementation, and monitoring of client-centered economic wellbeing (EWB) programs. These include, but not limited to, cash and voucher assistance (CVA), agricultural & climate-resilient livelihoods, financial inclusion, and employment (including self-employment) promotion across emergency, recovery and resilience programming contexts. The TU’s technical assistance to this wide variety of programs ensures quality and use of evidence-based practices; promotes innovation, diversity, equity, and inclusion; and drives data-based management and decision making, with a focus on promoting local partnerships, to achieve positive change in people’s lives.
Job Overview
The Global Practice Lead (GPL) in Economic Inclusion is the organizational leader for enterprise development, employment and financial inclusion programming for the Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) department and is a core member of the ERD TU’s leadership team. They are responsible for devising and leading strategies to raise the quality, impact, and scale of IRC’s EI programming.
The GPL will ensure the scope, quality and relevance of global technical standards, including the generation and promotion of evidence in their technical area. The GPL will closely collaborate with Regional Leads, Technical Advisors, and Technical Coordinators in promoting technical best practice in CRRD programming. They will facilitate TU-led and high-impact strategic business development by providing excellent technical insights and developing and maintaining strategic relationships and networks. In line with the Economic Wellbeing (EWB) strategy, the GPL will lead strategic planning for the Economic Inclusion practice area. The GPL reports into the Senior Director, ERD TU, and will manage highly specialized enterprise development, employment and financial inclusion experts/specialists to lead the generation and use of evidence and best practices in TU-led strategic projects.
Major Responsibilities
Strategy, Program Design and Business Development
• Act as the organizational leader for CRRD in Economic Inclusion (EI) programming internally and externally
• Lead strategic direction and Delivery Planning for EI programming in line with the EWB strategy
• Responsible for identifying global areas of programmatic risk in EI programming and elevating issues to Regional Leads and TU leadership
• Collaborate with other GPLs to promote integrated program designs within ERD and across all IRC sectors that increase scale and deepen impact
• Lead Technical Unit led global business development for EI programming and support strategic project level proposals
• Lead coordination with AMU to drive fundraising from Public and Institutional donors and with ER to drive fundraising from Private donors to meet strategic priorities related to EI programming at IRC.
• Oversee TU-led strategic EI awards, working closely with regional Technical Advisors as applicable and the Grant Operations and Analytics Team
• Line manage global enterprise development, employment and financial inclusion specialists, TU-led Project Directors as applicable, and co-manage any shared staff with other GPLs.
Global Practice Implementation Support
• Responsible for drawing on evidence-based best practice to provide technical oversight of IRC’s global EI technical standards, methodologies, and tools
• Accountable for the development of a limited number of high-value tools and methodologies to better integrate cross-cutting issues into EI programs (e.g., gender equality, diversity and inclusion, climate adaptation, etc.).
• Accountable for establishing information and knowledge management systems that support Regional Leads and Technical Advisors stay up to date on global technical standards, methodologies, and tools
• Establish competency framework for EI and work closely with Regional Leads to identify competency gaps and drive capacity strengthening
• Accountable for ensuring Technical Advisors and Technical Coordinators have the tools and resources that are needed to measure EI programming
• Support Technical Advisors and Technical Coordinators with thorny technical problems, career planning support, and mentorship, as appropriate
Research, Data, Knowledge Management, and Organizational Learning
• Accountable for establishing and maintaining a Community of Practice and other channels for the EI practice area to ensure pro-active and inclusive management with sustained learning, development, innovation, and best practice sharing
• Coordinate with Regional Leads and Technical Advisors to lift up program learning for cross-sharing and incorporation into global best practice
• Guide research and evidence use efforts for EI, working closely with colleagues and leaders in Airbel, ERD TU, other technical units, and regional colleagues
• Provide technical inputs to EI-specific MEAL tools and methodologies, and support data interpretation in learning routines
External Influence, Relationships and Representation
• Act as a key strategic advisor to Policy & Advocacy, Research & Innovation, and External Relations teams on advocacy campaigns and priority policy and practice shifts related to EI programming
• Responsible for identification, development, and maintenance of strategic relationships and global partnerships with relevant stakeholders (e.g. donors, UN agencies, NGOs, research and educational institutions, private sector actors) in the EI space.
• Responsible for representing IRC in global enterprise development, employment and financial inclusion coordination mechanisms.
Key Working Relationships
• Position Reports to: Senior Director, ERD TU, CRRD Technical Excellence
• Member of ERD TU’s Leadership Team
• Direct Reports: 1-2 Technical Specialists, 1-2 MIPs with other Global Practice Leads
Key Internal Relationships:
• ERD TU Senior Management Team
• ERD TU’s Deputy Director, Enabling Areas Leads (Research, MEAL, Policy & Advocacy) and other Global Practice Leads
• ERD Regional Leadership team across 6 regions, and regional Technical Advisors
• Policy Solutions, Advocacy Influence, and Systems Change Global Teams
• CRRD Senior Management Team and Leadership Group; Regional Leadership Teams
• Global leaders in Heath, Education, Violence Prevention & Response, and Governance Units
• Global HQ and AMU, EHAU, Airbel, IPP
• Key External Relationships: INGO counterparts; UN Agencies, Public and Private Donors
Desired Experience and Skills
• Established or growing recognition as an expert, at regional or global level, with a minimum of 10+ years of progressive experience of designing, leading and implementing programs, with 7+ years in enterprise development, employment and financial inclusion programming
• Demonstrated experience leading programs in fragile/humanitarian settings and across the humanitarian development nexus.
• Strong track record of driving uptake of evidence-based practice
• Demonstrated experience in sectoral strategy design and planning
• Experience with sectoral policy and advocacy efforts and campaigns for change (as relevant)
• Excellent communication, influencing, and storytelling skills
• Excellent management and leadership skills including coaching, mentoring, and performance management
• Demonstrated ability to identify and convert business development opportunities for self and staff
• Demonstrated ability to influence across a wide range of diverse stakeholders internally and externally
• Demonstrated ability to shape the vision and agenda within the domain area they are working
• Ability to work, manage, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment; outstanding business acumen, critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills required
• Superb inter-personal, written and verbal communication skills with ability to collaborate across countries, cultures, and departments
• Track record of scaled innovations preferred
• Fluency in English required; Arabic, French and/or Spanish also strongly preferred
• Ability to travel globally up to 25% of the time, occasionally on short notice
Education: Master’s degree in social, economics, or development studies and/or related fields or an equivalent professional experience background is required. Sound training on the use of data and research evidence for programmatic decisions and rigorous analytic skills are an advantage.
Compensation:
Posted pay ranges apply to UK-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirement
