Economic Recovery Specialist (Refugee Impact Advisory Specialist) Non-profit Careers – Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
Job Title: Economic Recovery Specialist (Refugee Impact Advisory Specialist)
Organisation: Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Reports to: Head of Programmes
About US:
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a private, independent, humanitarian organization working on all aspects of the refugee cause in more than 36 countries throughout the world. The aim of DRC is to protect refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) against persecution and to promote durable solutions to the problems of forced migration, on the basis of humanitarian principles and human rights. DRC works in accordance with the UN Conventions on Refugees and the Code of Conduct for the ICRC and NGOs in Disaster Relief.
Job Summary: The Refugee Impact Advisory Specialist will support the launch and operations of a new investment initiative called the Refugee Investment Fund (RIF), developed jointly between DRC and iGravity (a Swiss firm specialised in impact investment and innovative finance solutions). The RIF offers impact-linked and concessionary loans to enterprises directly impacting refugees and host communities across four impact parameters: increased employability, increased decent and sustainable employment, increased access to services/products, and financial inclusion. In addition to offering patient investment capital, the RIF has established a Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) to provide impact mentoring and advisory services to investees on maximising their social impact on refugees and host communities.
The Refugee Impact Advisory Specialist will lead on the RIF’s TAF from within DRC Uganda, working alongside Innovative Financing Specialists at DRC Regional and HQ. This role involves support in identification and screening of high impact private companies for the RIF, leading on impact development and due diligence of potential investees from a refugee impact perspective, managing technical assistance to scale investees’ refugee impact, defining and monitoring the refugee impact of investees, and identifying potential links to DRC and other humanitarian/development programming. The Specialist will also work with DRC Uganda’s Economic Recovery team and the Regional Innovative Financing Specialist to identify and scope new private sector partnership and financing opportunities for refugee impact.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Refugee Investment Technical Assistance
Lead the scoping and development of technical assistance activities both prior to and during investment under the RIF, which seeks to offer patient investments of up to 5 years to local companies and start-ups that have the potential to positively impact refugees and host communities. This includes:
Pre-Investment Technical Assistance
- Identify companies with potential refugee impact through networks and country programming and refer such to the RIF /iGravity Investment Officers for screening
- Lead on identification of potential enterprise impact within target displacement affected communities, aligning with community needs as part of screening of potential investees
Investee Technical Assistance:
- Lead the design and defining of focus for technical assistance allocations for each investee, in line with the Technical Assistance Facility framework, and in cooperation with the DRC country teams, DRC RIF Global Lead, Regional Specialists and the RIF in-country Investment Officer
- Identify business capacity building needs, opportunities for impact and ways to further connect businesses to displacement-affected communities
- Identify key refugee impact metrics relevant for each company and define an impact framework for each investee
- Prepare and submit proposals for technical assistance grant allocations to the RIF Investment Committee
- Provide technical assistance and advice to investees on refugee impact, such as support developing impact management and monitoring systems, assistance engaging effectively with refugee communities and their needs, analysis of markets and ecosystems within refugee hosting areas to enhance business engagement, and support in development of best practice around refugee-inclusive business approaches
- Manage impact monitoring for RIF investees, through annual review of impact reports of investees, meeting with investee management teams, on-site monitoring, and on this basis make recommendations for strengthening the impact of investees
- Identify links between investees and DRC’s other economic recovery programming in country to build complementarity in approaches
Coordination and MEAL Activities
- Coordinate DRC RIF country activities and priorities with the Global DRC HQ RIF Lead and iGravity’s RIF Country Lead
- Support the development of learning and community impact monitoring alongside DRC’s MEAL teams, gathering data and feedback from communities on RIF impacts Private Sector Partnerships and Innovative Finance Concept Development
- Support DRC Uganda’s Economic Recovery team’s work with private sector partners, including identifying and exploring partnerships with companies with potential positive impact on refugees and host communities, including job creation, employability and technical training, access to relevant services and products
- Support the Regional Innovative Financing Specialist’s work developing innovative financing approaches and investment partnerships to mobilize new types of capital for refugees and host communities, including idea and concept development, partner and donor outreach, proposal writing and external representation
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The ideal applicant must hold a Master’s degree in one of the following: International Development, MBA/Finance or International Relations
- At least five years proven and successful track record engaging with businesses in refugee contexts or other similar contexts working with marginalized populations, and identifying impact measurement, with ideally some experience in the investment sector or from the non-profit or social enterprise sector working with private sector development approaches. You should also have:
- Experience in social impact financing, implementing market systems development activities and fostering strategic private sector engagement;
- Experience in economic development, private sector development, economic recovery in humanitarian and/or emerging economy contexts, business strategy and business plan development, or similar fields with social impact focus
- Understanding of the refugee / host community context in country, including socio-economic challenges and opportunities and the role NGOs and private sector can play in addressing challenges and realizing opportunities
- Fluency in English
- Excellent communication skills
- High integrity and willingness to conduct her/himself transparently and open to scrutiny
- Ideally, you also have
- Previous experience working in East Africa region
- Ability to communicate technical information in an easy to understand, informative and collaborative manner
- Good knowledge of the Core Humanitarian Standards or other accountability measures/standards
- Excellent verbal and written English.
How to Apply:
All suitably qualified and interested candidates should apply online at the link below
Deadline: 26th May 2022
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