Our vision, our mission and our work are all defined by one goal – ending extreme poverty, whatever it takes. We believe that no-one should have to live in fear that they won’t have a home to sleep in or enough food to feed their children. For over 50 years we have been working with the world’s poorest people to transform their lives.
Today we are a team of over 4,400 highly skilled and dedicated professionals from 50 countries who share an exceptional depth and diversity of experience. We want committed, values driven staff to join our HQ team and are currently looking for a fluent French speaking Partnership Adviser to be part of our Strategy, Advocacy and Learning (SAL) department.
Concern offers in-house management and leadership courses and tailored organisation-wide learning opportunities both in-person and online. We are committed to providing our staff with the skills needed to excel in their jobs. All employees are required to undertake training in equality, diversity and inclusion; the Code of Conduct; and safeguarding, along with any other training required for the role.
Our culture is values driven and friendly. A global engagement survey conducted in 2022, responded to by 3,577 of our staff, showed that 89% of our staff would happily recommend Concern as a great place to work and 94% are proud to tell people that they work for Concern.
Our Irish office is located in Dublin 2 and we are currently working a hybrid model (50% remote working) and offer flexi time.
The job: To support Concern country offices to develop strong, equitable partnerships with local actors, especially civil society organisations, in line with Concern’s commitment to localisation.
This will entail supporting country offices to (i) strengthen their internal capacity to work in partnership with a range of local actors, (ii) strengthen the capacity of local organisations and iii) support the development of tools and systems to aid working in partnership for effective delivery of services to communities.
This will be achieved through direct and remote support to country offices along with documenting and sharing best practice and new developments in this area of work, to enhance cross-organisational learning.
Job location:
- Dublin or locations where Concern has an office (more information here).
- If based in a Concern operational country, pay scale will be benchmarked for that country.
- Candidates must be legally entitled to work in Ireland/UK or any other Concern operational country at the time of application.
The role will incorporate up to 30% travel.
If you join us, this is what you will be doing:
Supporting Country Offices to:
Develop strategic partnerships:
- Assess country office’s internal capacity to work in partnership with local civil society actors and provide necessary training and accompaniment to teams to strengthen this capacity.
- Develop, update and the roll out of country programme partnership strategies and partnership related strategic approaches and tools (including partner capacity development plans) in alignment with Concern’s Partnership Policy, to ensure a harmonised approach to programming with partners.
- Map, identify and select local partner organisations.
- Reflect and adapt – assuring and improving the quality of Concern’s partnerships with local organisations.
- Facilitate participatory and mutual capacity assessments with local organisations, in line with international best practice and supporting approaches to ensure capacity support and/or organisational development plans are budgeted for and implemented.
- Support change management processes required to implement Concern’s Localisation Strategy.
Programme Design, Monitoring and Evaluation:
- Ensure local actors are involved, as equal partners, in all stages of programme and proposal design – including decision-making.
- Develop tools and templates for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes developed and implemented with local partners, ensuring quality and accountability.
- Work with Concern’s M&E and Digital Data Gathering teams to strengthen data collection and presentation, to monitor Concern’s support to local partners and their programmes.
Documentation and Learning:
- Contribute to Concern’s learning on equitable partnerships by assessing progress, analysing results and documenting this for sharing across the organisation.
- Contribute to annual reports on Concern’s progress on its work with local partners.
- In coordination with other advisers working on partnership, develop and disseminate guidance for country teams on working with local partners.
- Contribute to an online database (guidance, materials and tools) on partnership, through engagement with staff in the country offices and within other head office directorates.
- Stay abreast of sectoral learning and discussion on partnerships and localisation and ensure country offices are aware of these.
- Carry out training and information sharing workshops and webinars as appropriate.
Representation/Networking:
- Support country programmes to establish and maintain relationships with Partnership specialists in other NGOs, institutions and with professional groups.
- Provide information on Concern’s Partnership and Capacity Strengthening work for other INGOs, IOs and donors, if requested.
Skills you will bring:
Essential:
- At least five years’ experience (of which at least three in fragile and conflict-affected contexts) that includes working with, or for, local organisations as partners or supporting country programmes working through a partnership model. (Experience working in West and Central Africa with local partners and supporting civil society strengthening programmes would be a distinct advantage.)
- Experience facilitating participatory, mutual organisational capacity assessments and developing support plans.
- Experience of capacity strengthening and mentoring staff on partnership principles and approaches.
- Experience developing practical guidance and templates for staff and partner organisations, to ensure quality programming and effective project management.
- Demonstrable understanding of the key challenges of working in fragile and conflict-affected contexts including working towards both humanitarian and development objectives.
- Ability to work at a professional standard in both French and English.
- Excellent staff and partner facilitation and training skills.
- Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills.
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills and ability to operate as part of a team.
- Ability to work independently.
- Ability to communicate complex information clearly and in an accessible format.
- Excellent presentation skills.
You will report to the Senior Localisation and Partnership Advisor and will work with other SAL Technical Advisers, Desk Officers in the International Programmes Directorate and key Country Office staff.
This is a fixed term (two years) contract with the possibility of extension. The salary, at band 5, will depend on location and pay scales for that country:
For example, the salary if you were based in Dublin would be from €54,500 to €62,286.
How to apply
We encourage all eligible candidates, irrespective of gender, ethnicity and origin, disability, political beliefs, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status to apply to become a part of the organisation. Concern is against all forms of discrimination and unequal power relations and is committed to promoting equality.
If this role sounds right for you, please apply with your CV and cover letter on our website at Concern Careers | Partnership Adviser (French Speaking). We will respond to every applicant. Please be aware we may offer positions before the closing date.
If you have any concerns about our recruitment process and need assistance – for example if you have a visual impairment or are neuro-divergent – please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Important information:
Concern has an organisational Code of Conduct (CCoC) with three Associated Policies; the Programme Participant Protection Policy (P4), the Child Safeguarding Policy and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Policy accessible here. These have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behavior expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and Associated Policies as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Concern Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the content of both the Concern Code of Conduct and the Associated Policies and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these policies. Additionally, Concern is committed to the safeguarding and protection of vulnerable adults and children in our work. We will do everything possible to ensure that only those who are suitable to work or volunteer with vulnerable adults and children are recruited by us for such roles. Subsequently, working or volunteering with Concern is subject to a range of vetting checks, including criminal background checking.
During this job application, you will provide Concern with your personal data. Concern takes its responsibilities towards this personal data very seriously and is committed to complying with all relevant data protection legislation. You have certain rights under data protection legislation. For more information on how to exercise those rights please visit www.concern.net/about/privacy
