WPE Technical Advisor, Asia

Founded in 1933 at the behest of Albert Einstein, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping communities rebuild. The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation, creative partnerships, and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve. At work today in over 40 countries and 28 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted. The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian sector through implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence (TE) provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and share learnings to influence policy and practice. TE is comprised of five technical units: Economic Recovery and Development; Education; Governance; Health; and Violence Prevention and Response.

The Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) works to reduce people’s risk of violence, support their recovery, and promote transformative work for a future free from violence. The unit houses expertise in Child Protection, Protection and Rule of Law, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment to support women, children and other at-risk groups through violence prevention programs that help stop violence before it happens, and violence response programs that ensures lifesaving services for people affected by violence. VPRU has programs across over 40 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

The Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) team strives towards a vision whereby women and girls with their communities, work to create a world where they are valued and live free from violence, and can exercise their rights to promote their safety, equality, and voice. The team supports programs to adhere to minimum standards and good practice in the prevention of and response to gender-based violence and to meet the safety, health, psycho-social, and justice needs of women and girls survivors of violence.

POSITION OVERVIEW

As the WPE Technical Advisor for Asia, alongside another WPE TA, you are responsible for ensuring high quality technical assistance to one IRC region comprised of 6 country programs. You will promote and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to achieve high quality, high impact interventions that are informed by evidence and best practice, contextually appropriate, driven by client and partner voices, and widely inclusive.

Program Design & Business Development: You will support country programs to design winning submissions and generally position IRC for continued success in our technical domains:

• Support designated country programs’ proposal technical lead through participation in and/or facilitation of program design meetings
• Promote and support design collaboration with partners and clients
• Advise on program modalities, and strategic partnership development based on how we can best support, complement, and reinforce local systems
• Advising and/or providing hands-on support on assessments, including application and contextualization of technical standards
• Reviewing technical design quality, including alignment of narratives, log-frames, and budgets to IRC standards and outcomes

Implementation Support: You will support country program staff and other key stakeholders in implementing technical interventions:

• Support country programs and other stakeholders with the recruitment and training of technical coordinators
• Assess program quality and inform improvements, providing follow up support to country programs as needed
• Collaborate with country program colleagues to monitor and analyze key indicators to inform periodic review, program adaptation, and course-correction as needed
• Provide technical capacity strengthening through ongoing mentoring, coaching, and trainings with country program focal points

Knowledge & Learning: You will support continuous sectoral learning and IRC technical leadership:

• Document learnings from program activities and sharing takeaways and opportunities
• Share cross-contextual learnings with country program staff across the region
• Refresh the sectoral evidence-base in collaboration with global and regional staff to influence approaches
• Collaborate with other technical advisors within the region to promote integrated programming leadership
• Contribute to the delivery of WPE and VPRU strategic priorities
• Maintain currency with sectoral best practices through continual learning and development

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Success in this position requires an individual with expertise in designing and delivering technical assistance to GBV programs, and with a deep understanding of the cultural, societal, and political contexts in at least one of the regions where IRC operates.

Work Experience:

• A minimum of 6-8 years of relevant experience in implementing and/or managing GBV programs, with on the ground programmatic experience in a service delivery organization, NGO or comparable international agency required.
• Experience and familiarity with related donors, peer agencies and national contexts required, preferably in humanitarian and transitional, post-crisis contexts.
• Demonstrated expertise in technical program design, monitoring, and evaluation, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Strong organizational and time-management skills; proven ability to prioritize and deliver projects on time and independently.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate a dynamic, cross-functional, global team structure in a large multi-national organization.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong analytic problem-solving skills.
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office suite.
• Ability to manage and work through change in a proactive and positive manner.

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in GBV, gender, public health, social work, humanities, or a relevant field required. Master’s Degree preferred.

Language Skills: Excellent spoken and written English.

Key Working Relationships: This position reports to the WPE Senior Technical Adviser in VPRU, based in London. This position may potentially supervise occasional consultants and/or interns. Regular communication with other VPRU colleagues, Economic Recovery and Development, Education, Governance and Health Technical Unit staff, regional and country program teams, awards management and grants management staff, and other internal stakeholders.

Working Environment: Standard office working environment. This role may have some international travel up to 40% of the time. This role is based in one of the IRC office locations within Asia or in the international hub in Nairobi.