Programme Innovation and Private Partnerships, Regional Advisors

They are expected to form a highly dynamic and complementary task force, that in its entirety can support proactive and positive changes processes in DRC field programming. Though the advisors will be placed in regional hubs covering West Africa, Middle East and East and Central Africa, it is expected that the team delivers support to all DRC regions including Asia, Europe and North Africa.

About the job

General Responsibilities:  

• Deliver strategic direction on programme innovation and business partnership at regional level

  Develop and support DRC’s strategic approach in a consultative manner and support the implementation at field level

  Support and deliver the development tools, guidance and facilitation of trainings/project processes in support of innovation and private partnership at regional, country and/or global level in collaboration with other network members.  

• Oversee innovation/business partnership portfolio

  While initiatives will typically be implemented directly by DRC field operations, the advisors will often be involved with partners/donors at some stage of the process. In these instances, a sustained, strategic involvement of the advisors is required to continue building relations with relevant partners/donors/stakeholders.  

• Provide strategic sparring to DRC field operations

  Working strategically with innovation and business engagement remains relatively new features of DRC’s international programs.

  The advisors shall give direction on and support efforts to enhance local capacity – including but not limited to:

  - Fundraising efforts: Oversee a central scanning for fundraising opportunities within institutional donors such as the EU, World Bank, DFID and Danida.

  If resources allow, support field operations responding to local funding opportunities.

  - Identifying and managing partners: Work with field operations to identify relevant partners and provide guidance on vetting requirements to ensure that partners meet DRC’s standards.

  - Internal training: Ensure that trainings on DRC’s tools, approach to innovation and business partnerships is developed and conducted on a regular basis to ensure that relevant staff are supported and able to use tools in practice.  

• External representation

  Taking part in seminars, conferences and other relevant events both to position DRC, engage with potential partners and stay updated on recent developments in the field.   

• Learning and information sharing

Oversee that best practices and lessons learnt are shared within DRC and facilitate learning across the organization. Stay updated on the latest developments and build a Community of Practice (CoP) related to innovation and business partnerships.

• Knowledge about programming in refugee and displacement situations is considered a strong advantage.
• Documented experience in supporting the development of shared value partnerships that are involving new ways of addressing humanitarian financing gaps, including partnership arrangements of a commercial and semi-cooperate nature, social impact businesses, investment fund etc.
• Strong innovation experience within one of DRCs core sectors of such as Economic Recovery or Protection and/or cutting edge knowledge of key issues of urbanization and climate change
• Strong documented financial experience in supporting the development of shared value partnerships that are involving new ways of addressing humanitarian financing gaps, including partnership arrangements of a commercial and semi-cooperate nature, social impact businesses, investment funds etc.
• Strong documented experience in ICT4D, FinTech, EduTech, PeaceTech or similar