Partnerships Capacity-Building Manager

Background of Country and Emergency Response:

Months of escalating Russian hostility towards Ukraine have culminated in a concerted invasion of the country and the launch of military attacks across multiple cities in Ukraine, with a view to destabilize the country and provoke a change in government. Fleeing insecurity, Ukrainians are travelling west, with Poland establishing 8 reception centers along its border with Ukraine, for an estimated 1 million arrivals.

Between February 7-23, 2022, an IRC team undertook a scoping mission covering Poland and Ukraine to better understand the context, humanitarian and civil society landscape, and anticipated service gaps in the event of an escalation of conflict in Ukraine and consequent displacement into neighboring Poland. As of February 24th, the IRC has pivoted to an emergency response, and have identified partner agencies in Poland and Ukraine to facilitate immediate assistance that can be used where it is the most needed. Simultaneously, IRC/partners will launch a rapid needs assessment to better understand the humanitarian needs in both Poland and Ukraine and how IRC can complement partner response services either in breadth or scale.

Key working relationships:

• Position Reports to Partnerships Coordinator, Poland

• Position directly supervises: N/A

• Internal collaborations within IRC: Partnership Managers, Protection Coordinator, Economic Recovery and Development (ERD) Coordinator, Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) Manager; Protection Manager; Child Protection (CP) Manager;

• External collaborations to IRC: IRC existing and prospective partners

Specifically, the Partnerships Capacity-Building Manager will be responsible for:

1. Strategy and program approach

– Contribute to the stakeholder analysis process, including identifying local actors that offer capacity-strengthening services.

2. Partner capacity-building mapping and planning:

– Identifying and channeling requests for technical support/capacity building/training to partners based on different technical areas and gaps identified and highlighted through the partnership support plan

– Facilitate the collaborative development and delivery of the partner project support plan, ensuring that it appropriately addresses issues identified in the due diligence process, and coordinates with the relevant department for the timely, quality implementation of the plan.

– Ensure IRC understands partner capacity strengthening priorities and identifies opportunities and plans for IRC to support partner capacity strengthening efforts.

– Develop materials and processes consistent with best practices to address partner technical and organizational priorities, including designing and facilitating learning events, providing mentoring and coaching, facilitating peer learning, developing e-learning modules and videos, and utilizing other learning methodologies as appropriate.

– Identify opportunities for mentoring and/or coaching follow up activities at the partner organizational and individual levels. Arranging the logistics of trainings (in-person or remote), supporting with invitation of relevant stakeholders, identification of venue and transport (in collaboration with supply chain team), etc.

– Leading on procurement requests for translation services for technical resources and training material

– Identify areas for mutual learning between IRC staff and partners, so that IRC can learn from unique partner practices and innovations.

3) Program delivery:

– Promoting and applying the IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results system (PEERS). Contribute to building a strong understanding of PEERS throughout program teams, and to ensuring that IRC’s partnership principles, skills and approaches are applied by staff across programs and projects with partners.

– Supporting the Partnership Coordinator and partnership team in all relevant aspects of the IRC’s partnership policy (PEERS process), including due diligence, attending partner meetings, supporting monitoring visits, all the way through the finalizing close out procedures.

– Where appropriate, support partners in the development of proposal submissions.

– Support the Partnership Coordinator in the review of the performance of partners, of the IRC (including on the basis of partner feedback), and of the partnership, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, fostering ongoing partnerships beyond the sub-award project cycle.

4) Program quality:

– Ensuring alignment of partnerships and capacity-building opportunities with IRC response strategy, sub-sector approaches and interventions

– Engaging the relevant technical focal points into ongoing engagement with partners based on gaps/needs identified

Requirements:

– Language: Polish and English required; if possible, Ukrainian

– Bachelor of Arts or Science in Social Work, Gender, Human Rights, Social Science, Public Health, Humanities or another related field, desirable

– Experience developing and managing relationships and/or partnerships with external stakeholders

– Experience managing partner capacity assessment and capacity strengthening plans

– Excellent organizational skills

– Experience in working in NGO, preferably in the international humanitarian organization.

– Excellent communication skills

– Positive and professional attitude, including ability to lead and work well in a team setting

– High degree of flexibility and strong ability to organize work, meet deadlines, maintain composure, prioritize work under pressure, coordinate multiple tasks and maintain attention to detail

– Computer literate, including Microsoft Word and Excel

This position will be based in Warsaw, with occasional travel to Krakow, Lublin and other locations as necessary. As this is a fluid and rapidly changing context, the location of this position and length of assignment may change based on the needs of the program.