Deputy Regional Director, West Africa

Dakar

Organization: IRC - International Rescue Committee
Location: Dakar
Grade: Senior level - Senior
Occupational Groups:
- Managerial positions
Closing Date: Closed

The Deputy Regional Director (DRD), West Africa, will have significant management and international experience, a passion for humanitarian relief and development work, relevant language skills, and be capable of thoroughly understanding and successfully overseeing program design and delivery in Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon. The DRD will ensure the quality of IRC's programs, develop new program opportunities, and drive performance and results in the region. S/he is expected to be an outstanding communicator and team leader, and a committed humanitarian.

Scope of work

The Deputy Regional Director will support the Regional Vice President in overseeing IRC’s engagement and programming in response to the development challenges and the humanitarian crises impacting West and Central Africa. In addition, the DRD will engage with regional INGO, UN, and donor representatives, to position IRC on regional initiatives and to further IRC’s strategic goals. The DRD will also be actively engaged in business development opportunities, especially around multi-year, high value projects. The DRD will be based in Senegal and report to the Regional Vice President. This is an accompanied post.

Position overview

Exercising the delegated authority of the Regional Director, the DRD provides a range of strategic, programmatic and operational management support to country programs and regional colleagues. S/he will be an ambassador for organizational priorities and goals to these country programs and supporting country programs to implement IRC’s Strategy 100. A key function of the role is to navigate the organization on behalf of the country programs. The DRD will travel regularly to country offices (as is possible) to provide management support, including exceptional management of specific issues as required and to monitor program quality. A significant portion of the DRD’s time will be spent on business development activities, regional representational activities, Strategic Plan monitoring, and staff mentoring.

Key responsibilities

Strategy

•Work closely with the Regional Vice President to ensure that the IRC’s global strategy is understood and guides decision-making throughout the region.

•Drive institutionalization of the Outcomes and Evidence Framework, IRC’s program design tools.

•Support delivery of country-level strategy action plans (SAPs). Facilitate and coordinate regional participation in global strategy discussions, initiatives and pilots.

•Oversee implementation of SAP monitoring mechanism and review process, including leading annual SAP reviews and reporting.

•Build consensus around a common vision of what shared success in West Africa looks like, including developing and tracking appropriate indicators.

Leadership & Coordination

•Supervise and mentor direct-report staff, including communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely performance feedback, and leading documented semi-annual performance reviews.

•Provide support to the country programs’ Deputy Directors for Programs, managing them in partnership with their respective Country Directors.

•Provide leadership to increase country programs’ coordination, collaboration, communication and harmonization of programming.

•Drive seamless coordination between programming and operations and across sectors and outcomes, with the objective of improving the quality of IRC programs and impact on the people IRC serves.

•Facilitate close and efficient coordination of regional staff’s support to the country programs, and with headquarters departments on common programming, operational and funding issues.

•With the Regional Vice President, coordinate with regional INGOs, Donors and UN representatives in Dakar, ensuring that IRC’s remains a key partner in coordination mechanisms hosted in Senegal.

Innovation & Program Quality

•Manage the region’s relationships with the Technical Units (TUs), and support TU-country program collaboration to optimize impact on program quality within and across country programs.

•Strengthen the region's readiness to respond to new emergencies in line with global IRC emergency response and preparedness guidelines.

•Facilitate sharing and learning across countries, and support country programs to incorporate learning from other regions into project design and operations management.

•Coordinate the region’s engagement with IRC’s R&D lab.

•Engage the regional team and country programs in on-going context analysis to ensure IRC programs are continually adapted to the evolving contexts across the region.

•Ensure that programs are designed and implemented in support of IRC’s vision of cost-effective, outcomes-driven and evidence-based interventions that are responsive to the local context and the priorities of our beneficiaries.

•Where applicable support country teams to adopt and use industry-standard remote management practices and maximize program quality and controls.

Business Development & Partnerships

•In coordination with the IRC’s Awards Management Unit, provide focused business development support to country programs, building country capacity to win multi-year and high value projects.

•Take go/no-go decisions regarding pursuit of regional funding opportunities. In coordination with Country Directors, engage in strong regional-level representation with governments, donors, international and local NGOs.

•Ensure timely submission of competitive, responsive and high-quality proposals that align with country priorities identified in Strategy Action Plans, and support country program colleagues in negotiations with donors.

•Oversee the design and implementation of IRC’s work in partnership to support and build capacities of local civil society and other key stakeholders, positioning IRC as a valued INGO partner.

•Participate in shaping policy positions and advocacy messages pertaining to the overall humanitarian situation and IRC’s response in West Africa.

•Advise country programs in networking and alliance-building activities, promoting cross-sectoral engagement with the private sector, universities, research institutions, and other potential “non-traditional” partners.

•Support the development of country business development plans which marry the priority outcomes identified in each country SAP with the priorities of existing and new donors.

This vacancy is now closed.
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