About Plan International Ireland
Plan International is an international child-centred organisation working in 54 countries. With a focus on long term sustainable development, Plan has also developed, over the past ten years, a disaster management pillar to its work and has a growing engagement in humanitarian response. Whilst focusing on child protection and education in emergencies, Plan responds across all sectors where humanitarian needs are identified and the organisation has the capacity and competence to intervene with high quality interventions.
Key roles and responsibilities
The Emergencies Officer is a member of the Emergencies Unit, which is responsible for managing and maintaining our humanitarian grant portfolio. S/he will also form part of Plan International’s Emergency Roster and may be deployed at short notice to respond to emergencies. S/he will be the primary focal point between Plan International Ireland and Plan Country Offices where our grants are being delivered.
Key Functions in managing the Country Portfolio:
- Grant management, compliance and financial management of the humanitarian programme grants within the designated countries;
- Strong co-ordination and liaison with both Country Offices and National Offices, to support the delivery of high-quality programmes;
- Maintenance of robust donor engagement and identification of new funding opportunities, ensuring a robust grants pipeline to our priority Country Offices;
- Sharing of learning and knowledge management for emergency programmes, both internally and across Country Offices to strengthen delivery of programmes;
Acting as focal point and providing technical capacity on a relevant thematic, and/or donor and/or project management area;
Maintenance of a strong context analysis on priority countries and on the donor landscape;
Contributing to opportunities to profile our work, within the Plan Federation and within Ireland.
Key internal links:
The Emergencies Officer will link closely with Plan Ireland’s technical experts to strengthen the design and management of humanitarian grants, supporting a robust pipeline of grants. S/he will liaise with the fundraising and communications department to profile Plan’s work in the designated country offices, and within Ireland.
Key responsibilities:
Country Office Support
- Support Country Offices in the development, implementation, monitoring and review of Country Strategic Plans (CSPs);
- Liaise with other National Offices working in designated countries to maximise co-ordination, learning, and grant opportunities;
- Ensure Country Offices are fully aware of Plan International Ireland thematic priorities, and share current thinking and best practices as appropriate;
- Contribute towards staff training and organisational learning in designated countries where appropriate;
- Assist designated countries in lobbying and influencing all relevant stakeholders (including donors) toward children’s rights;
- Provide continuous mentoring and backstopping support to a designated number of Country Offices to ensure quality delivery (e.g. start-up workshops), timely reporting (internally and to donors), and M&E processes of grants secured by Plan International Ireland;
- Conduct regular monitoring missions (at least four a year), to supported countries to review activity plans, achievement of outputs and outcomes and adherence to Plan International and donors’ policy and compliance rules;
- Support Country Offices to implement good practices in all aspects of programme/project cycle and budget management liaising with Plan International Ireland finance team;
- Work with Country Office teams to maintain appropriate flows of communication with partners including contracting procedures, dissemination of templates, funding schedules, report deadlines and to build their capacities;
- Manage grant budgets to ensure timely and accurate expenditure and reporting; Assist the Country Office teams in identifying innovative and successful approaches and scalable solutions in-country;
- Represent Plan International Ireland to donors as required and to deal with their related inquiries;
- Maintain programme records and associated files (including project contracts and internal compliance documents) for designated countries to facilitate reporting.
Resource Mobilisation
- Contribute to the development and implementation of funding strategies for designated Country Offices;
- Lead in the development of high quality proposals related to designated Country Offices;
- Identify new humanitarian income streams and lead on the development of new proposals.
Emergency Response
- Travel to disaster affected areas as required at short notice for possible sustained periods to support Plan’s field teams to respond to emergencies;
Manage documentation related to ongoing and new emergencies;
Prepare emergency response briefings for Plan International Ireland and donors.
Learning, Knowledge Management and Communications
- Manage programme review and evaluation, and share learning, research and best practices, in close co-ordination with Plan International Ireland’s technical advisors;
- Assist Country Offices to develop, case studies and briefing papers that can also be shared with the communications, fundraising, programme funding and technical teams as appropriate;
- Maintain watching brief on country context, programmes/projects, and evaluation and/or advocacy initiatives of designated countries, and share with internal teams where appropriate;
- Seek opportunities to develop advocacy, communications and development education material on designated countries, where appropriate.
Other
Contribute actively to Plan International Ireland’s Emergencies Unit, sharing ideas and experience to ensure the implementation of our programme strategy and to build programme quality.
Essential Attributes
- Minimum 4 years’ relevant experience in humanitarian programmes or other programme management role (including at least 3 years in overseas experience);
- Educated to Master’s degree level in an international humanitarian related field;
- Commitment to gender transformative programming, and experiencing in implementing gender responsive programmes as per Plan International’s mandate;
- Knowledge and experience of humanitarian response, programme cycle management, RBM and the implementation of CHS and other humanitarian standards such as SPHERE;
- Experience in donor compliance;
- Strong analytical skills and financial understanding;
- Experience in using participatory approaches in project design and implementation;
- Experience in working with a portfolio of donors and donor compliance;
- Ability and willingness to travel to country offices and other locations as required
- Fluency in English.
Desirable Attributes
This position has a strong focus on the North Africa and the Middle East with some work in West Africa, so Arabic and French language skills are highly desirable;
Experience of working and living in North Africa/Middle East.
Competencies and Behaviours
- Strong communications and networking skills: the role requires co-ordination witha diverse number of stakeholders, both internal and external. S/he will need to have strong written and verbal communication skills, and be able to adapt messages to meet diverse audiences;
- Excellent time management and organisational skills: the role requires an abilityto plan well and deliver on objectives in a timely way, particularly in relation to meeting grant management deadlines;
- Proven learning, creativity and innovation ability: the role requires someone whois willing to seek out, develop and successfully implement new ideas, or adopt proven approaches that support the delivery of quality programmes;
- Ability to influence, advocate and profile our work: S/he must be willing toengage with others inside and outside the organisation to promote our child rights agenda, and profile the work of Plan International Ireland;
- A team player who is willing to adapt to change: S/he will be willing to respond positively and constructively to change and play an active role in Plan International Ireland’s Emergencies Unit.
Please note that this document is not intended to be an exhaustive job description - it serves only as an overview of the role.
Salary Range: €40,000 - €44,000 per annum, depending on experience.
Location
The Plan International Ireland office is located on Harrington Street, Dublin 8 (across from Brother Hubbard’s). We are just a stone’s throw away from the bustling and busy Camden Street area, with its many coffee shops, bars, restaurants, and much more! Our nearest LUAS stop is Harcourt Street. Currently, as per the government’s measures to control the spread of COVID-19, Plan International Ireland staff are working from home.
To apply
Please submit your CV and a letter of motivation by 5pm on Friday 4th December, 2020. To submit please visit our jobs page on https://www.plan.ie/about-plan/vacancies-jobs/
Safeguarding
Plan International is committed to safeguarding people within our programmes from exploitation and abuse and has specific policies on this commitment (including a Code of Conduct) which outlines the expected behaviour and the responsibility of all staff, consultants, and other organisational representatives.