Governance and Systems Strengthening Coordinator

The IRC has been active in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2006 and has been implementing emergency response programs since then.

The IRC has four sub-offices in the North – Bocaranga, Kaga Bandoro, and Zemio and Ndele – in addition to a central office in Bangui. Since 2007, he has established close relationships with local communities, community leaders, local authorities, and other local and international stakeholders. Today, the IRC is one of the main humanitarian actors working in the prefectures of Ouham Pende, Nana Gribizi and Zemio, implementing programs in the areas of health, protection and women empowerment, child protection and the rule of law, as well as early recovery and development. The IRC has demonstrated its ability to successfully implement health and protection programs, improving beneficiaries’ access to health care and providing survivors of violence with safe and confidential services to help them recover and reintegrate into their communities. Technical expertise, logistical capabilities, knowledge and understanding of the local context have laid the foundations for expanding and deepening these services to reach more people and respond to emergency needs on a larger scale.

The IRC programs reflect the IRC’s guiding principles: capacity building, participation, partnership, protection and promotion of human rights, and holistic programming.

IRC has been working with local organizations since then. The organization is currently preparing to contribute to developing civil society organizations in country. It is currently looking for a seasoned candidate to fill up the position of Governance and System Strengthening Coordinator.

Job description

The IRC is seeking a Governance and System Strengthening Coordinator to lead its efforts to integrate system strengthening approaches across all sectors in the IRC to amplify the work being done to enable change at different levels, from better access to services and inclusive services within communities, to improve policies relating to the displaced and to provide more targeted and effective services from national and regional actors. This will require expertise to strengthen the capacity of people affected by conflict and crises to have a voice in how decisions are made in their communities; enable governments, civil society organizations, community representatives and the IRC to respond to their voices and provide effective and inclusive services; and promote communications between leaders and the people they represent so that actions are meaningful and lasting.

As such, the role will be responsible for providing technical expertise in systems strengthening, local governance, community engagement, conflict sensitivity, government and civil society engagement and peacebuilding in all sectors.

This position will be based in Bangui and will report to the Deputy Director of Programs.

The ideal candidate for this position should have strong knowledge and experience in local governance, systems strengthening, civil society strengthening, peacebuilding/social cohesion and civic engagement.

Key responsibilities

Strategic leadership

• Support the design of an integrated governance and system strengthening strategy in support of the Country Strategy (SAP-IP) CP.

• Collaborate with other Technical Coordinators in the country, to ensure an integrated strategy to achieve the objective of the Country Strategy

• Support the various national programs in carrying out context, political economy, and conflict analysis in order to identify promising entry points and better inform program design and implementation.

• Provide technical leadership and oversee the design and implementation of local governance, systems strengthening, civil society strengthening, peacebuilding and social cohesion and civic engagement activities.

• Contribute to the development of country office knowledge and capacity in systems strengthening, civil society strengthening, social accountability, conflict sensitivity and other related governance themes and support the integration of these themes in sectoral programs.

• Lead institutional assessments and contextual analysis in partnership with program teams and local stakeholders (e.g. conflict sensitivity analysis, political economy analysis, stakeholder analysis and service delivery assessments) and support the integration of continuous adaptation of the context into projects

• Liaise regularly with technical advisors of the Governance Unit on proposal development, programming, and implementation approaches.

Program Development and Technical Oversight

• Lead and oversee the development of proposals within the Governance and Systems Strengthening sector, including through the design, and writing of quality proposals, while supporting program development in other sectors and through brokering partners by integrating governance approaches into proposals and projects, where appropriate.

• Provide technical oversight of project implementation and governance and system strengthening activities by supporting implementation teams to develop their implementation strategies, procedures, work plans and donor requirements to achieve project deliverables.

• Manage and provide technical support to program staff, including through regular field visits, and develop their capacity through adequate training, mentoring and technical support to strengthen programs in all contexts.

• Assist in the development of annual program budgets and expenditure plans.

• Provide technical support to partners and teams in the field for the budgetary management of the program.

• Work with the Grants Unit to ensure all program activities are implemented in accordance with IRC and donor requirements.

• Work closely with the Grants and Partnerships team to plan and engage in capacity sharing with local partners, including the use of organizational capacity assessment, and strengthening plans.

• Provide technical support for the integration of governance and system strengthening indicators into project monitoring and evaluation frameworks and the use of context and conflict sensitivity indicators in close collaboration with the MEAL team.

• Ensure the integration of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion into programs.

Coordination and networking

• Represent IRC CAR in external forums related to governance.

• Actively develop and maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders in the CAR, including government actors, donors, UN agencies, international and local NGOs.

• Identify areas for advocacy in consultation with country leadership.

• Organize regular check-ins with other technical teams to identify challenges and provide integrated programming support.

• Coordinate programs and technical areas to strengthen joint project planning and implementation, ensure integration across sectors and improve program implementation.

• Coordinate with the Compliant Feedback and Response Mechanism team to reinforce implementation quality and potentially customer feedback and responsiveness.

Professional Relationship :

• Grants Unit,

• Technical coordinators for programs,

• Field teams, operations, and other support functions.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in development, politics, governance, economics, public administration, business administration, law or social sciences, international affairs or equivalent.

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in developing, managing, and coordinating governance programs in humanitarian or development contexts, preferably with an NGO.

• Previous experience and ability to conduct political economy and conflict analyses, stakeholder analyzes involving civil society and ministries.

Skills and competencies

• Strong program management skills, including evaluation, planning, budgeting, and monitoring skills.

• Strong experience in working in partnership with governments and civil society at different levels and diverse organizational stakeholders, developing and implementing appropriate and targeted learning and capacity-sharing activities.

• Technical skills in local governance, systems strengthening, civil society strengthening, gender equality, peacebuilding and social cohesion and civic engagement.

• Demonstrated strong proposal and report writing skills.

• Strong knowledge of standards for technical area/domain, business processes and workflow and tasks.

• Ability to work with multicultural and multidisciplinary teams.

• Excellence in oral and written communication skills in French

• A good working knowledge in English.

• Good organizational, interpersonal, time and people management skills.

• Relevant computer software skills (including, as a minimum, standard MS Office applications);

• Ability to plan work and work with minimal supervision and without compromising deadlines or quality.

Safeguarding: Strictly adhere to the IRC child and adult safeguarding policy and all other policies, including those relating to security and fraud prevention. In line with safeguarding, the IRC enforces policies on protection of beneficiaries/clients from exploitation and abuse, protection of children, Anti-harassment in the workplace, tax integrity and combating against reprisals.

Equal Opportunity Employer: The IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The IRC considers all applicants for employment based on merit without regard to race, sex, color, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

National Applicants Living Abroad: IRC strives to attract, motivate, and retain qualified national staff in our programs. We strongly encourage national or national diaspora candidates to apply for this position. If you are a national of the country in which this position is based and currently reside outside your home country and have more than two years of international work experience, the IRC has put together a package of support for taking up service in the country and attractive remuneration.

CV to be submitted in English or French.