Program Coordinator US Non-profit Careers – International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Job Title: Program Coordinator for Quality and Learning
Organisation: International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Duty Station: Uganda
About US: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home. The IRC has been working in Uganda since 1998. The current program portfolio in Uganda includes health, protection & rule of law, gender-based violence and women’s protection and empowerment, economic recovery and development.
Job Summary: A successful coordinator must be a generalist with varied skills in facilitation, communications, strategy, and program quality, while also having a general understanding of the work of their colleagues more specialized program functions. S/he must be able to motivate and lead a diverse staff as well as effectively manage programs, collaborations between departments, and budgets. The Program Coordinator reports to the DDP and is based in Kampala, with 35% expected travel to all field sites.
Key Duties and Responsibilities: Facilitate and track Strategic Planning (30%)
- Support the Senior Management Team’s efforts to develop and report on strategic initiatives, including the Country Strategy Action Plan (SAP), by facilitating workshops, writing internal reports on progress, and collecting information and feedback from staff. The SAP defines the country program’s priorities, strategic goals, and vision over the course of 5 years, and is used to drive internal investments and planning.
- Ensure that the strategic direction of programs is in line with the reviewed Country SAP, and in ensure that the SAP is implemented through committed investment in the monitoring of the SAP Implementation Plan (SAP-IP). The SAP-IP is a tool which helps to track specific action points related to the SAP and is used to report on successes and challenges to IRC’s HQ.
- Represent the IRC’s efforts to improve program quality and learning at key national forums (e.g. Accountability to Affected Populations Task Force), and support Sector Leads in sector-specific engagements at national forums on an as needed basis.
- Support the DDP in monitoring all programs through periodic field visits and review sessions.
- Train staff on identified areas as needed (e.g. related to technical needs, program management needs, and Programmatic IMPACT Standard needs).
Programmatic IMPACT Standards and Accountability to Affected Persons (30%)
- Ensure that all departments in the country program adopt the IRC’s Programmatic IMPACT Standards in the way they design and implement their programs. The IMPACT standards aim to ensure that all IRC programs are Informed, Measured, Partnered, Adapted, Client-Centered, and Transformative. The IMPACT Standards can be thought of as IRC’s approach to implementing the Core Humanitarian Standards.
- Provide training, support, and oversight to country-wide efforts to institutionalize the Programmatic IMPACT Standards.
- Work with the DDP and all sector leads to ensure IRC programs are measurably more outcome-focused, gender sensitive, responsive to clients’ needs and preferences, and adapted to contexts of intervention.
- Support DDP, Technical Coordinators and Grants team with the facilitation of program design processes and support the grants team to ensure that new proposals budget for and plan for adherence to the IMPACT Standards.
Support special project and research grants (30%)
- Provide backstopping budgeting, grant management, and supervisory support to projects that are aligned to program quality and research but do not fit neatly into any pre-existing IRC sector. This includes certain cross-sectoral research projects, as well as some technical assistance or systems strengthening-style projects.
- Supervise the IRC’s component of the U-Learn consortium, which is focused on strengthening the broader system of accountability to affected populations within the refugee response.
Internal and External Communications (10%)
- Work with the DDP and Sector Leads to identify needs for communications and information materials, and as needed support the development of communications materials (such as brochures, fact sheets, articles, posters, or audio-visual materials) to promote the work of IRC Uganda among various stakeholders.
- Support efforts to communicate key information internally to IRC Uganda staff. This can include supporting the dissemination of reports, minutes, key policies, etc., as well as more general knowledge management support to colleagues.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The ideal candidate for the Program Coordinator for Quality and Learning should hold a Degree in Development Studies, International Relations, Social Sciences, Development Economics, or a similar field (Master’s degree preferred).
- Four to six years of experiences focusing on program quality in the humanitarian or development sectors, with increasing levels of seniority. Given that the IMPACT Standards are new and are broad, it is not expected that a given candidate will have directly relevant experience in all components of IMPACT. Instead, candidates should be able to demonstrate experience in at least some aspects of program quality and should also be able to demonstrate a propensity for learning and teaching across diverse topics within program quality.
- Minimum one year international experience working in a humanitarian or development setting.
- Experience with fundraising, communications, and working with humanitarian and development donors.
- Strong data interpretation, report writing, and presentation skills – background in research, statistics, or M&E preferred.
- Excellent leadership, communication, problem solving and facilitation, interpersonal, coordination and networking skills.
- Organized approach with ability to work on several different projects independently.
- Ability to work and be flexible under difficult circumstances in a stressful environment.
National Candidates: We strongly encourage national candidates to apply for this position. The IRC strives to attract, motivate and retain qualified national staff in our programs. How to Apply: All candidates should apply online at the link below. Click Here
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