Business and Resource Development Senior Officer

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 192-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises. The IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. The IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services. The IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The IFRC also has country cluster delegation and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat. The IFRC Secretariat Strategy 2030 was approved and adopted by the Governing Board in December 2019. The IFRC MENA Region is covering 17 countries in support of the respective National Societies and positioning itself to ‘work for and with’ membership to ensure strong, relevant and sustainable MENA National Societies that are able to directly and collaboratively implement the five strategic priorities and the three Enabling Approaches and deliver on the Strategy 2030. To operationalise Strategy 2030, the Plan and Budget 2021-2025 and the global Agenda for Renewal were developed to position the IFRC as a Focused, Engaged, Accountable and Trusted Secretariat. The Agenda for Renewal also outlines transformative priorities to enable it to meet the four objectives: 1) Focused on five strategic priorities of S2030, 2) Engaged, with renewed influence, innovative and digitally transformed with greater emphasis on National Society Development, 3) Accountable, with agile and efficient management, and 4) Trusted, owned and valued by the membership.

Job Purpose

As part of the regional Partnership and Resource Development team, and reporting to the Head of PRD, the Business and Resource Development Senior Officer is responsible for assisting in the expansion of resource base including private donors (corporates, foundations, trusts, etc), and overall support in streamlining inputs, data and information towards proposals, reports and key materials.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

The Business and Resource Development Snr Officer will be required to:

1. Business Development

• Map out the potential funding streams that are left untapped for IFRC in MENA and regularly monitor funding opportunities using global and regional search engines for this specific purpose (DEVEX, DARPE, etc)
• Assess regional and country level donor environment, develop and put in place donor mapping based on thematic areas of focus of the IFRC Country Operational Plans
• Identify key funding priorities and funding sources and support developing high quality proposals in consultation with the technical leads and Heads of Delegations and coordinate with relevant RCRC actors to access the funding
• Coordinate engagement with key donors – bringing together core technical staff, IFRC leadership and IFRC membership with funding agencies.
• Develop tools and put in place a mechanism for generating funding, tracking funding needs and proposal development which can be sustained after the support period.
• Actively promote and fundraise for the MENA Regional Initiatives (as sub-sets of the IFRC Global Flagship Initiatives).

2. Partnership development and engagement

• Set priorities and highlight key deliverables of the current COVID-19 operations and country operational plan for each of the results areas
• Develop a longer-term funding needs assessment for COVID-19 response, recovery and preparedness of the appeal
• In coordination with Communication, Finance and PMER, develop a broad coordination and communications mechanism to fundraise utilizing IFRC’s online donations mechanism (iRaiser)
• Contribute to the strengthened accountability of the country operational plans and COVID-19 emergency appeals by enhancing the grant management tracker and updates on the funding tables;
• Attend to and organize partners’/donor calls and meetings as required for continued donor engagement

Duties applicable to all IFRC staff:

• Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals 
• Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles
• Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager
• Be on stand-by in case of any emergencies 

Education

• University degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline - required
• Relevant post-graduate degree or MBA - preferred 
• Relevant professional training courses - preferred 

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years of working experience - required
• Solid track record in partnerships and fundraising - required
• Relevant work experience with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, or another organisation working internationally, including in resource mobilisation, partnerships, planning and/or reporting - required
• Experience in project management including multi-stakeholder engagement - preferred 
• Working with international funding agencies (e.g. EU, governments) - preferred

Knowledge, skills and languages

• Familiarity with government and multilateral funding systems - required
• Ability to work in a diverse cultural context - required
• Strong knowledge of information sharing tools, and the ability to implement them - required 
• Highly organised, with ability to create a team approach - required
• Excellent communication skills; influencing skills - required
• Excellent relationship building skills; ability to build and strengthen internal and external networks, and establish effective partnerships, with National Societies - required 
• Demonstrated skill in analytical and strategic thinking - required 
• Facilitation and presentation skills - required

Languages

• Fluently spoken and written English - required
• Good command of another IFRC official language (French or Arabic) - preferred
• Good command in local language - preferred

Competencies and values

• Communication
• Collaboration and Teamwork
• Judgement and Decision Making
• National Society and Customer Relations
• Creativity and Innovation
• Building Trust