Global Roving Youth Advisor (internals only)

Founded in 1946, today the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) works in both new and protracted crises across 31 countries. Our 6,000 employees provide life-saving and long-term assistance to millions of people every year. NRC specialises in six areas: food security, education, shelter, legal assistance, camp management, and water, sanitation and hygiene. NRC is a determined advocate for displaced people. We promote and defend their rights and dignity in local communities, with national governments and in the international arena.

NRC’s expert deployment capacity, NORCAP, boasts around 1,000 experts from all over the world who can be deployed within 72 hours. NORCAP experts help improve international and local ability to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from crises. 

NRC also runs the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva, a global leader in reporting on and advocating for people displaced within their own country.

Background

With growing international momentum and donor interest in youth, NRC has taken a stronger role in the youth sector internationally. With few partners working on education for youth in humanitarian settings, external and internal evaluations have shown that this area of work is a recognised niche for NRC as an organisation.

In 2017 NRC has shown commitment to raising the importance of working with young people in the Education Core Competency by turning the position of Global Youth Advisor into a 100% position. This reflects a focus on youth in an increasing number of NRC country offices, high international interest and a strategic area of work for the Education Core Competency in the next 3-year strategic period (2018-2020). There is a need to capitalise on NRC’s stronger role in the youth sector internationally and therefore stronger linkages between field programme and global efforts are vital.

The purpose of the Roving Youth Advisor is to support country offices who are in need of direct, hands-on support such as youth assessments, start-ups and targeted assistance in the design, the reaching of results and capacity development components within programme. The role will be closely intertwined with that of the Global Youth Specialist to ensure global strategies, initiatives and country office strategies and initiatives learn and develop from one another. The Roving Advisor will contribute to global programme development specifically in terms of capacity building combined with dissemination and harmonization, teacher/facilitator professional development, tool development and the piloting and use of these tools. The Roving Advisor will be a vital connector in strengthening linkages with other Core Competencies in the support of programme design, implementation and M+E and defining of clear roles and responsibilities between youth and livelihoods (with the Food Security Core Competency just having been expanded to include Livelihoods) and other parts of NRC when necessary and relevant. The position will also contribute to youth knowledge management within the organisation.

Role and responsibilities

The Roving Youth Advisor is the organisation’s roving youth expert within the Education Core Competency.

 

Generic responsibilities

Technical CC support: Contribute to the provision of strategic advice and guidance to specific Country Offices in relation to youth programming to ensure that NRC delivers high quality, effective and relevant programming.

Capacity development: Responsible for the capacity development along the technical reporting lines (to COs and RO) within Youth programming including the mentoring and development of key staff in the country offices. Contribute to the recruitment and induction of appropriately qualified youth staff.

Technical CC development: Responsible for the further development of NRC’s country office youth programmes ensuring that NRC remains a relevant actor. Contribute to the technical development of youth programming in particular in relation to the Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) and Education core competencies.

 

Programme integration: Contribute to the identification and utilisation of programmatic synergies between the theme of youth and the other core competencies as well as the development areas through the integrated programme approach. Contribute to the utilisation of tools and methods developed to better integrate cross-cutting issues and prioritised areas into youth programmes.

Learning and information sharing: Contribute to the documentation, analysing and dissemination of youth learning from the country programmes including the sharing of best practices, resources and tools ensuring coherence, efficiency and effectiveness of the operation. Contribute to the institutionalisation and promotion of best practices and learning related to youth programming, including knowledge management to encourage and support peer to peer learning.

Monitoring and Evaluation: Contribute to the development and facilitate the use of effective assessment and M&E systems ensuring compliance with NRC programme policy, quality standards and technical guidance. Contribute to the overall analysis, strategic use and dissemination of relevant data for youth. Contribute to the alignment of M+E and PCM systems within the theme of youth. Contribute to better understanding of NRC’s alignment to global M+E standards for youth programming.

Advocacy: Contribute to the identification, prioritisation, development and documentation of advocacy issues related to youth.

Programme Policy compliance: Responsible for the monitoring of country programme compliance with the Programme Policy and for raising potential deviations from the programme policy in country offices with the Global Education Manager for action.

 

Specific responsibilities

 Policy and strategies: Contribute to the development of policies and strategies related to youth. Contribute to development of Programme Policy and related governing documents to reflect new needs and emerging humanitarian trends.

Technical CC development: Contribute to the adaptation of NRC’s global youth programme approaches and the development and dissemination of guidelines, tools and innovative approaches based on research of trends and the learning from the country offices. This includes a focus on both youth programming and teacher/facilitator professional development.

Youth programme pilots: Responsible for the identification of pilot projects for the further development of the Education core competency in the region. Contribute to the communication of results and the development of recommendations.

 

Programme development projects: Responsible for the management of specific programme development projects that are relevant for specific regions, including the spending of earmarked funds and reporting requirements.

 

 Country office start-up and assessments: Contribute to the strategic positioning of NRC through an adequate and high quality youth programme response in the establishing phase of new country operations.

 

Centre of Excellence: Contribute to the effective utilization of the youth Centre of Excellence. Contribute to the pro-active and inclusive management of the youth community of practice.

 

Competencies

Competencies are important in order for the employee and the organisation to deliver desired results. Competencies are relevant for all staff and are divided into the following two categories:

 

Professional competencies

These are skills, knowledge and experience that are important for effective performance.

 

1. Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience as a manager within the humanitarian field, including experience of working with adolescents and youth
2. High level of professional expertise in the core competence
3. Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts, and ability to work independently in a result oriented, multi-cultural environment and manage conflicting priorities
4. Experience in drafting and encouraging implementation of policy/strategic guidance, and developing practical tools and resources
5. Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities
6. Able to represent organisation at a strategic level
7. Fluency in English both written and verbal. Knowledge of French a prerequisite.

Behavioural competencies

• Handling insecure environments
• Planning and delivering results
• Influencing
• Analysing
• Communicating with impact and respect
• Strategic thinking

 

This position is for internal candidates only. An internal candidate is someone who has been employed by NRC or NORCAP within the last two years.

The position is a roving position and will require 60/70% traveling. The person doesn't need to be based at the Head Office, but can be based at one of our NRC-offices after agreement.

Please note that you are required to enter the geographical location for all your previous positions while registering your CV. There is no specific field for this information in our CV form, but you can use the "Company name" field for both company and location.

Only CVs and applications written in English will be assessed.

Late applications will not be considered.

NRC reserves the right to conduct a full background check on shortlisted candidates.