The job:
To support Concern country offices to develop strong, equitable partnerships with local actors, especially civil society organisations, in line with Concern’s commitment to localisation.
This will entail supporting country offices to (i) strengthen their internal capacity to work in partnership with a range of local actors, (ii) strengthen the capacity of local organisations and iii) support the development of tools and systems to aid working in partnership for effective delivery of services to communities.
This will be achieved through direct and remote support to country offices along with documenting and sharing best practice and new developments in this area of work, to enhance cross-organisational learning.
Job location:
- Dublin or locations where Concern has an office (more information here).
- If based in a Concern operational country, pay scale will be benchmarked for that country.
- Candidates must be legally entitled to work in their preferred Concern programme office location at the time of application.The role will incorporate up to 30% travel.
Salary: €54,500 – € 62,286
If you join us, this is what you will be doing:
Supporting Country Offices to:
Develop strategic partnerships:
- Assess country office’s internal capacity to work in partnership with local actors and provide necessary training and accompaniment to strengthen this capacity.
- Develop, update and roll out country programme partnership strategies and partnership-related strategic approaches and tools (including partner capacity development plans) in alignment with Concern’s Partnership Policy, to ensure a harmonised approach to programming with partners.
- Identify, map and select local partner organisations.
- Reflect and adapt – assuring and improving the quality of Concern’s partnerships with local organisations.
- Facilitate participatory and mutual capacity assessments with local organisations, in line with international best practice and supporting approaches to ensure capacity support and/or organisational development plans are budgeted for and implemented.
- Support change management processes required to implement Concern’s Localisation Strategy.
Programme Design, Monitoring and Evaluation:
- Ensure local actors are involved, as equal partners, in all stages of programme and proposal design – including decision-making.
- Develop tools and templates for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes developed and implemented with local partners, ensuring quality and accountability.
- Work with Concern’s M&E and Digital Data Gathering teams to strengthen data collection and presentation, to monitor Concern’s support to local partners and their programmes.
- Work with Concern’s M&E and Digital Data Gathering teams to ensure targets related to working in partnership are achieved.
Documentation and Learning:
- Contribute to Concern’s learning on equitable partnerships by assessing progress, analysing results and documenting this for sharing across the organisation.
- Contribute to annual reports on Concern’s progress on its work with local partners.
- In coordination with other advisers working on partnership, develop and disseminate guidance for country teams on working with local partners.
- Contribute to an online database (guidance, materials and tools) on partnership, through engagement with staff in the country offices and within other head office directorates.
- Stay abreast of sectoral learning and discussion on partnerships and localisation and ensure country offices are aware of these.
- Carry out training and information sharing workshops and webinars as appropriate.
Representation/Networking:
- Support country programmes to establish and maintain relationships with localisation and partnership specialists in other NGOs, institutions and professional groups. Provide information on Concern’s work on localisation and partnership for other organisations (inc; INGOs, IOs Networks and donors), if requested.
Support Concern Worldwide by:
- Leading and facilitating cross-organisational fora (working groups) and discussion to inform the development, implementation and monitoring of Concern’s Localisation Strategy and Partnerships Policy.
- Collaborating with colleagues within Concern to ensure principles of localisation and equitable partnerships are reflected in other sectoral strategies (eg. Livelihoods, Health, WASH & Education) and programme approaches.
- Representing Concern on relevant networks focused on localisation and partnerships
For managers:
- Demonstrating leadership on workplace equality, diversity and inclusion and role modelling a positive safeguarding ethos.
Or for non-managers:
- Upholding and promoting Concern’s values, including our workplace equality, diversity and inclusion values.
Skills you will bring:
Essential:
- Ability to work effectively in both French and English.
- Demonstrable understanding of challenges and opportunities for INGOs working towards localisation and building equitable partnerships: including at least five years’ relevant experience that includes working with, or for, local organisations as partners and/or supporting country programmes working through a partnership model.
- Experience in at least 3 different settings, ideally including in a fragile or conflict affected context and/or in West and Central Africa
- Demonstrable understanding of the key challenges of working in fragile and conflict-affected contexts including working towards both humanitarian and development objectives.
- Experience of capacity development and mentoring staff on partnership principles and approaches.
- Experience of developing and providing training on practical guidance and templates for staff and partner organisations, to ensure quality programming.
- Experience facilitating participatory, mutual organisational capacity assessments and developing support plans with local organisations.
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills and ability to operate as part of a team.
- Ability to communicate complex information clearly and in an accessible format.
- Ability to work independently.
You will report to the Senior Global Adviser: Localisation and Partnership and will work with other SAL Technical Advisers, Desk Officers in the International Programmes Directorate and key Country Office staff.
This is a fixed term (two years) contract with the possibility of extension. The salary, at band 5, will depend on location and pay scales for that country:
For example, the salary if you were based in Dublin would be from €54,500 to €62,286.
How to apply
To apply: CVs should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by the closing date.
Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be shortlisted on a regular basis and we may offer posts before the closing date.
We encourage all eligible candidates, irrespective of gender, ethnicity and origin, disability, political beliefs, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status to apply to become a part of the organisation. Concern is against all forms of discrimination and unequal power relations and is committed to promoting equality.
If this role sounds right for you, please apply with your CV and cover letter. We will respond to every applicant. Please be aware we may offer positions before the closing date.
If you have any concerns about our recruitment process and need particular assistance – for example if you have a visual impairment or are neuro-divergent – please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Important information:
Concern has an organisational Code of Conduct (CCoC) with three Associated Policies; the Programme Participant Protection Policy (P4), the Child Safeguarding Policy and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Policy accessible here. These have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behavior expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and Associated Policies as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Concern Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the content of both the Concern Code of Conduct and the Associated Policies and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these policies. Additionally, Concern is committed to the safeguarding and protection of vulnerable adults and children in our work. We will do everything possible to ensure that only those who are suitable to work or volunteer with vulnerable adults and children are recruited by us for such roles. Subsequently, working or volunteering with Concern is subject to a range of vetting checks, including criminal background checking.
During this job application, you will provide Concern with your personal data. Concern takes its responsibilities towards this personal data very seriously and is committed to complying with all relevant data protection legislation. You have certain rights under data protection legislation. For more information on how to exercise those rights please visit www.concern.net/about/privacy