Officer, Water and Climate

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies (NSs). The overall aim of IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.

Job Purpose

Climate change is a central element of IFRC’s Strategy 2030 and Plan & Budget 2021-2025, which stresses the urgency to massively scale-up climate action in view of increasing disasters and climate-related impacts on vulnerable people. Early warning and early/anticipatory action are acknowledged as a critical component of this work.

Part of the new Health and Care Strategy: WASH is Pillar 3 and becomes GLOBAL WASH SERVICES.  

We deliver GLOBAL WASH SERVICES through 5 focus areas: Cholera, One WASH, Climate Action and Adaptation, Hygiene Promotion, and URBAN. This position directly supports the IFRC WASH strategic direction, in which global vision is: ‘To ensure that universal, equitable and affordable access to WASH services, from emergency response to sustainable development, is achieved as a human right and one that impacts positively upon health, dignity and wellbeing’.

As of August 2023, IFRC is implementing the Water at the Heart of Climate Action (WHCA) programme, in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF, a dedicated UN multi-partner financing mechanism to fund weather and climate surface-based observations). The programme responds to the urgent need to accelerate and scale up water action to reduce the impacts of increasing water related risks and increase the climate resilience of affected communities through a combination of early warning and early action measures and integrated water management. It delivers in four countries around the Nile River Basin, starting with Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda. Within the IFRC network, the programme brings together the IFRC Secretariat, Netherlands Red Cross, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and the National Societies in each country. It will run from August 2023 to July 2028, with a total budget of EUR 55 million funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands.

The Water at the Heart of Climate Action programme is an example of innovative funding and partnership that is supporting coordinated, complementary cross-pillar scale-up at the country level. The aspiration of this program is to serve as a blueprint that can be expanded and replicated in numerous countries, aiming to achieve the necessary scale and impact.

To allow the successful implementation of this innovative programme a greater interaction and coordination between Units and teams need to happen at all the levels (WASH and Climate, Environment and Resilience Unit DRR and Resilience Teams).

Under the guidance of the WASH and Climate Lead, the Officer, Water and Climate, will be responsible for providing technical global oversight in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of Climate Action program for the Water component and supporting effective technical liaison with the alliance/consortium partners. This role is the technical focal point for Water at the heart of climate action programme for the WASH unit and will liaise closely with the DRR and Resilience team. 

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Ensure quality technical advice and resources to support effective Water at the heart of climate programming.

• Support the implementation and communication plan, project monitoring, evaluation and reporting strategy for relevant projects at the global level, including developing and maintaining an indicator tracking table, in close collaboration with relevant country/regional staff and global technical staff.
• Participate actively to quarterly or monthly project internal consultations and any issues that may require decision from the IFRC Geneva WASH Team.
• Support the implementation and communication plans of global/Geneva-level project work plan and budget.
• Conduct regular monitoring to ensure achievement of targets are in line with the annual work plan and budget, that project implementation at all levels complies with the approved project Standard Operating Procedure (SoP).
• Provide technical support the preparation of relevant project reports (narrative and financial) by consolidating Water inputs from all relevant colleagues/parties and submit to the IFRC Geneva WASH and DRR and Resilience Lead promptly for endorsement and submission to the donor; ensure financial and narrative reports accurately reflect actual deliverables and milestones.
• Provide additional inputs and data for external project reports as necessary and required by the IFRC Geneva WASH Team.
• Participate in the WHCA alliance/consortium technical working groups (Global and Regional) and closely liaise with the IFRC network (NLRC, RCCC, National Societies) and UN partners (UNDRR and WMO) at the global level.
• Maintain regular Water and climate technical coordination and good working relationships with relevant IFRC Regional Office(s), relevant country clusters/country delegations and National Societies.
• Nurture partnerships with various stakeholders e.g. inter-government and government institutions, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders to contribute to the achievement of project results.

Advance the work and position IFRC on Water and climate change.

• Support the development of proposals opportunities for mobilizing resources for scaling up and expanding the Water and climate change programme and prepare substantive inputs/briefs on possible areas of cooperation.
• Analyse possibilities and advocate for the scale-up and replication of the programme approach in other contexts.
• Facilitate and support the positioning and visibility of the programme(s) in high level global and regional events.
• Support the development of “WASH Starter activities” around awareness raising, campaigns and mobilization, indicating which simpler activities that can be undertaken with limited additional resources (both human and financial) by National Societies.
• Coordinate with National Societies and IFRC regional WASH personnel to build and maintain a portfolio of Climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable WASH programming.
• Support the expansion and continuation of Climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable WASH programming by using Water at the heart (W@H), One WASH programmes focus on climate and cholera as platforms for further resource mobilization and delivery of other public health activities.
• Support the advocacy and dissemination on anticipatory action and response. Related actions around WASH environmental sustainability and green response – which should be tagged specifically (as different from climate change adaptation).

Contribute to an effective, high quality IFRC WASH team.

• Be accountable to the IFRC Geneva WASH team lead by providing progress reports on results against objectives and risk analyses.

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

• Be flexible in the work definition according to needs and targets and help to improve efficiencies and effectiveness within available resources.
• Foster a customer service-oriented culture that values proactivity, continuous improvement, innovation, high performance and cost effectiveness.
• Foster a collaborative working environment with colleagues in the IFRC Secretariat, Regions, WHCA consortium/ alliance members, National Societies and external partners.
• Contribute and support the IFRC Geneva WASH team as needed and join IFRC Geneva team meetings.
• Contribute to the overall planning, budgeting and reporting of the IFRC Geneva team and the department.
• Be available to deploy to Regions, Country Offices, or Operations to provide support as necessary.

Duties applicable to all staff:

• Work actively towards the achievement of the IFRC Secretariat’s goals.
• Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles.
• Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager.

Education

Required

• University degree in climate change, disaster risk reduction, water management, or related field.

Preferred

• Master’s degree or similar in climate, disaster risk reduction, water management or related field.

Experience

Required

• At least 3 years of work experience in climate change adaptation, early warning early action, locally led adaptation, water management, and/or related work.
• 1-3 years of experience in programme/project management, grant management or related field. 
• Experience managing partner and resource development relations in a context of humanitarian and/or development programmes.
• Experience working in an international or cross-cultural environment.

Preferred

• Experience working in humanitarian or development sector, with developing countries and/or with an international organisation.
• Experience working in a RC/RC National Society and/or Federation/ICRC/Climate Centre.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

• Fluent spoken and written English.
• Knowledge of climate change adaptation and climate-smart disaster risk reduction, early warning and anticipatory action, and water resource management - and ability to support such programmes.
• Energetic and enthusiastic individual, engaging, brokering, and facilitating learning and dialogue among diverse groups.
• Professional credibility, able to work effectively at all levels across the organisation.
• Proven good judgment and ability to work with complete integrity and confidentiality.
• High degree of discretion, tact, and sensitivity in dealing with internal and external clients and stakeholders at all levels.
• Ability to work within a multi-cultural, multilingual, multidisciplinary environment.

Preferred

• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic).
• Programme/project management.
• Results-oriented and demand-driven individual, entrepreneurial, ability to lead in unprecedented and/or ambiguous situations.
• Demonstrated track record in innovating, contributing to a learning culture, sharing knowledge and new approaches to engaging partners. 

Competencies, Values and Comments

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability.

Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.

Application Instruction

Please submit your application in English only.

IFRC values equal opportunity, diversity and inclusivity. We encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, nationality, class, political opinions, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion, or belief.