Regional Cash Specialist East and West Africa At International Rescue Committee

The position will be based in Nairobi, Kenya; or in a country in West Africa, Central Africa, or East Africa where IRC operates (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Sudan).

Job Overview/Summary:

The Economic Recovery and Development Technical Unit (ERD TU) provides technical assistance, ensures innovation, promotes illustrative practices, and improves data collection and analysis for livelihoods programming within the organization.

Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) programming is an important mechanism for delivering effective and efficient assistance to affected households. To continue the scale-up of CVA, the IRC is recruiting a Regional Cash Implementation Specialist to support CVA programming across East and West Africa. The Specialist will collaborate with regional ERD Technical Advisors (TAs) to comprehensively support IRC country teams with high quality CVA programming throughout the regions.

The position will provide regular in-person and remote support to each priority country office team. The Specialist will work closely with finance and supply chain teams and ERD program teams to support the use of cash in basic needs, food security, or livelihood programming. They will provide technical support to work towards ”cash across outcomes” with the Health, Environmental Health, Protection and Governance teams. The position will play a critical role in strengthening IRC and partner staff capacity to deliver CVA programs, promoting preparedness to deliver CVA rapidly when crises happen, crafting or improving M&E systems, and strengthening operations practice and procedure between programs, supply chain and finance teams.

Major Responsibilities:

•Assist ERD or other sector teams in IRC country offices in the assessment, design, implementation and monitoring of CVA programs. The position is encouraged to be heavily involved in program delivery, troubleshooting implementation challenges, and using monitoring data to improve program design.

•Ensure effective CVA tracking systems and continuous observation of CVA activity plans in collaboration with Finance, operations, ICT and M&E teams at TU, regional and country levels.

•Where not yet existing, support the development, adaptation and standardization (if appropriate) of operating procedures for CVA implementation. Ensure country teams know IRC’s cash procedures and tools so that they can use them independently.

•Support country teams in developing CVA preparedness plans and pre-positioning CVA plans in order to be prepared to rapidly and effectively deliver cash relief when emergencies happen.

•Support offices in adopting digital payment systems for CVA programs. Assist in defining digital payment needs and program requirements, identifying potential vendors, supporting the contracting process, and developing procedures to effectively handle digital payments.

•In partnership with the ERD TAs that support the West and East Africa Regions, coordinate and encourage sharing and learning between country programs, including sharing knowledge, skills, and tools by engaging country office staff in active cross-country and cross-sector communication.

•Provide CVA support to high-risk countries (Ethiopia, Cameroon, CAR, Mali, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen) to develop solid prevention plans, mitigating risks associated with CVA.

•Ensure gender and protection mainstreaming in CVA tools and methodology.

•Support the roll-out of IRC’s ”Good & Great Standards” for CVA by ensuring that country teams are trained and able to consistently meet them.

•Establish and maintain IRC networks (regional and international) and effective relationships with IRC partners.

•Deploy as needed on short notice to support new food security, basic needs, or other cash-based emergency responses in East and West Africa. Support assessments, program design, and start-up activities for new emergency responses in the region, including in locations where IRC does not yet have a presence, as applicable.

Key Working Relationships:

•Position Reports to: ERD Cash Technical Advisors for West Africa and East Africa

•Position directly supervises: N/A

•Indirect Reporting: Other Internal and/or external contacts:

•Internal: East Africa and West Africa Deputy Regional Directors, ERD Senior Technical Advisor for Cash and Emergencies, Cash Preparedness TA, ERD Markets Specialist, Regional Emergency Advisors, Regional M&E and ICT4P Advisors, Country-level SMTs, ERD Coordinators and other sector Coordinators as needed

•External: N/A

Job Requirements:

Education: Undergraduate degree in social science, international relations, humanitarian affairs, nutrition, food security, logistics, Business Administration, Financial Management, or related field and technical accreditation or equivalent

Work Experience: 3-6 years of work experience in the humanitarian or development sector with dynamic management and decision-making responsibility, including a minimum of 3 years of international experience implementing cash and voucher activities, including mobile money and e-vouchers. Experience working in diverse emergency, recovery, post-conflict or development contexts.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

•Strong demonstrated experience implementing CVA programs in a variety of programming contexts, and in-depth knowledge of various types of CVA approaches (conditional and unconditional grants, vouchers, Cash for work, etc.).

•Demonstrated assessment, data collection and analysis skills, including needs assessments, market assessments and incorporation of gender analyses into assessment approaches.

•Demonstrated ability to work across function and sector to build strong working relationships and to ensure high-quality market-based program delivery. Demonstrated ability to communicate technical expertise and standards and implement best practice approaches to implementing rapid, consistent, high quality projects

•Outstanding communication and coordination capabilities and capability to operate independently and as a team member.

•Experience writing proposals for donor funded programs and grants.

•Proven capacity building, facilitation and coordination skills required

Language Skills: English and French required; knowledge of local languages spoken in the region preferred

Certificates or Licenses: N/A

Working Environment: The position will be based in one of the countries in the region where the IRC has an established office (see above) with 50-70% travel to countries in the East and West Africa regions. Travel may be on short notice when supporting new emergency responses. Trips will typically average approximately 3 weeks in duration, but may be up to 3 months in the event of a large-scale emergency response.

The IRC is an equal opportunity employer and follows all applicable federal, state and local fair employment laws. The IRC has a long-standing commitment to providing equal opportunity in the workplace to all employees and qualified applicants in all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to, recruitment, selection, promotion, compensation benefits, and termination of employment. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Equality, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, Egalite, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles.