Technical Specialist - Institutional Development & Coordination

Background/IRC Summary:  Established in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is working in more than 40 countries, responding to the world’s worst humanitarian situations. In Pakistan, IRC has been offering comprehensive emergency rehabilitation services such as supporting health systems, environmental health, education, child and women services, and livelihoods.

Since 1980, IRC Pakistan has effectively responded to all major humanitarian situations emanating from earthquakes, catastrophic floods, and temporary displacements. Currently, IRC has an average annual portfolio of around $40 million implementing projects in all the four provinces of Pakistan. With support of the federal and provincial governments, and generous donors like DFID, ECHO, USAID, and Australian Aid Agencies, IRC has reached 1.8 million people in Pakistan in the year 2018-19.

Recently, IRC has launched a 5 years USAID’s  “Women’s Economic  Empowerment (WEE) Project   primarily in five selected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the objective  to promote women’s social and economic empowerment through safe and dignified access to livelihoods opportunities, information, resources and services.

Cognizant of the fact that lack of Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) is a key barrier to Pakistani women’s economic empowerment preventing millions of women from opening bank accounts, registering as voters, accessing credit, inheriting and owning property and accessing social protection benefits, the  project will facilitate CNIC registration of 1.25 million women across Pakistan in two years starting July 2020. With the objective  to facilitate CNIC registration,  the project  will follow two pronged approach by : (1) linking /bringing beneficiaries women at NADRA Registration Centers (NRCs) and (2) facilitating Mobile Registration Vans (MRVs) through respective Regional Headquarters of NADRA in the far flung locations at the doorsteps of women for CNIC registration.

Job Overview/Summary:  

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is seeking a dynamic and self-motivated individual for the positions of Technical Specialist –Institutional Development and Coordination for the implementation of WEE’s component of Women ‘s CNIC Registration. This initiative will address the gender gap and enable women’s full participation leading towards increased women’s Access to Financial Services, Institutions, Property Ownership, and Social Protection in Pakistan.

Job Responsibilities:

Major responsibilities related to Institutional support are to:  

·         Provide necessary directions and technical oversight to Sr mangers (based in province), Provincial Coordinators, Zonal mangers and Sr. MIS/Info Analyst on implementation of work plan and women ‘s CNIC registration related activities;

·         Ensure efficient and effective coordination with stakeholders ECP, NADRA, LGRD and others;

·         Prepare relevant reports to be submitted to USAID meeting  deadlines and per adhoc and pre-determined timelines

·         Finalize reporting templates /formats with necessary orientation to provincial and field staff.

·         Oversee Management Information System (MIS) established for CNIC registration passing through various stages of listing and submitting cases to NADRA and receiving CNICs

·         Coordinate with program support unit of IRC for implementation of project plans in collaboration with provincial/ district level teams

·         Manage external relations by representing the project and the organization and ensuring the dissemination of information about project achievements and lessons learned;

·         Forge and maintain strong cooperation with provincial and district level officials and other key stakeholders including but not limited to ECP, NADRA and LGRD;

·         Conduct  field visits to project sites to monitor activities and to compile back to office report as regular feedback mechanism for the management

·         Verification/ triangulation of progress data, on monthly/ quarterly basis, on Women CINIC activity  amongst from various sources including but are not limited to NADRA database, Election Commission of Pakistan DBMS, Provincial and district level bureau of Statistics, as well as other stakeholders

Capacity building/Trainings:

·         Build capacity of field teams and other cooperating stakeholders to prepare for and respond to any challenges that may arise during the implementation of the project.

·         Effectively manage and supervise staff working under direct supervision by delegating clear responsibilities and closely monitoring the performance and achievements; determine staff development needs and coordinate with management and HR for appropriate trainings and capacity building of the supervisees.

·         Assist relevant government agencies and implementing partners with development of essential skills through training workshops and on the job training, thereby upgrading their institutional capabilities.

Coordination:

·         Establish and maintain operational coordination with NADRA, ECP and other related Government departments to identify opportunities for further collaborative approaches and initiatives that improve the Women registration process in the country.

·         Coordinate with and provide support for implementation and operational partnerships, including inter-agency collaboration among IRC, ECP, NADRA and other National/Provincial/District Governments, to ensure a strong multi-sectoral response identification and registration process.

·         Collaborate with Gender Specialist, contributing  incorporating gender perspectives in all area of program, to ensure equal participation of men and women in order to muster support for women registration.

·         Ensure required standard of quality in attaining targets, maintaining burn rates in the acceptable range and accomplishing activities  as outlined in the project document

·         Supervise, guide and coordinate the work of the Project Implementation Team, all project staff, consultants and government counterparts.

·         Coordinate  with ECP and NADRA on all aspects of monitoring and data collection activities including but are not limited to;

o   Periodic reporting . Ensuring monthly progress report to USAID

o   Collating, analyzing and reporting  country wide data with assistance of  Sr MIS Manger updating  USAID/PaKInfo website as well as IRC website on quarterly basis;

o   Contributing to other periodical reporting to USAID as and when required

o   Conduct DQA of reported data / indicators on periodic basis In close collaboration with USAID/Pakistan Program office ensuring and maintaining high quality data  at all level     

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Chief of Party WEE project

Position directly  supervises:  Sr. Manger MIS/Information Analyst (PMU), Sr Mangers NIC (Province based)/Zonal mangers 

Position indirectly supervises:   Provincial Coordinators (NADRA and ECP)  

Requirements:

a)      Education Requirements: Master’s degree in Business /Public Administration, Economics, Statistics or a closely related Development/ Social Sciences .

b)      Work Experience Requirements: At least 8-10 years of integrated work experience in Program implementation, Coordination, Planning, monitoring & Evaluation, Strengthening Systems and Institutions (Public / or Private) sector; Including experience in project management / coordination in senior positions preferably with USAID/Pakistan.

·         Experience in the country wide coordination, Institutional support, Collaboration, Data collection, Surveys, preferably paperless data collection and reporting tools, is highly preferred. Also demonstrated experience of managing people and processes in country wide project implementation, coordination, and leading teams to produce deliverables which will increase women identification for registration for obtaining National ID cards.

·         Experience in strategy development, and managing country, provincial, district and local level teams involved in data collection – preferably in real time data collection and data analysis

·         Demonstrated previous work experience across all four provinces as well as Newly Merged Districts i.e., the erstwhile FATA as well as familiarity with local languages and culture are highly desirable.

·         A deep understanding of key gender equality considerations, design, approaches and indicators for women’s inclusion and equality.

c)    Skills & Competencies: Experience in Institutional strengthening, capacity building, Planning, monitoring & evaluation, Data collection using Tablets/ mobile phones, Risk analysis/documentation and mitigation strategies, technical assistance, and creating related tools and resources.

·         Fluent in English and Urdu languages both (both writing and speaking).

·         Experience of working with national / provincial / district / local government departments and their working modalities is highly preferable

The IRC Core Values and Commitments;

·   The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, 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 Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

·   IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.

o   Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children

·   IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have competencies to solicits and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.

·   IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.

Women candidates and persons with disability are highly encouraged to apply.