Research Program Coordinator at International Rescue Committee

Requisition ID: req25014

Research and Innovation Department

• The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s technical units provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice.
• The technical units have three central objectives that we work towards:
• Guide program design to achieve outcomes by incorporating the best available evidence
• Build technical capacity of country program staff to implement, measure and continuously improve programs
• Influence the IRC, peer agencies and donors to use proven interventions and generate new evidence to achieve change in peoples’ lives
• The Research and Innovation Department (Airbel Impact Lab) supports the various technical units across the IRC to conduct or backstop research studies and innovation projects, and also leads initiatives that provide resources for country programs to design and implement programs based on existing evidence. 

Health Technical Unit

• The Health Technical Unit is organized in four sectors; primary health, reproductive health, environmental health, and nutrition. The structure emphasizes a clear division of roles between staff focusing on comprehensive technical assistance to countries and staff providing specialized support and thought leadership.

Health Systems Research Programme Consortia (RPC)

• The IRC is expected to receive funding to lead Ensuring Quality Access and Learning (EQUAL) for Mothers and Newborns in Conflict-Affected Contexts Consortium, a research consortium funded through DFID’s ‘Filling the Gaps in Evidence: Building Stronger And More Resilient Health Systems Research Programme Consortia (RPC)’ mechanism.  The IRC-led RPC aims to produce high quality evidence that improves the health of the poorest and most vulnerable people in developing countries. The IRC is partnering with Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, Somalia Disaster Resilience Institute, Sudd Institute (South Sudan), and Université Catholique de Bukavu (DRC).  The objective of this project is to produce rigorous, operationally relevant research and evidence to improve maternal and neonatal health in low-income, conflict-affected contexts.  This project will produce evidence that is accessible to decision-makers influencing strategic investment, policy and programming to improve MNH, at the national and global level. 

Major responsibilities

• The Research Program Coordinator supports contract management across the entire program, working closely with the EQUAL Consortium CEO, Research Directors, and the rest of the project team to deliver an ambitious program of research and research uptake activities. The role involves liaising across multiple research and program specialist units within IRC, academic consortium partners, IRC country offices, the Awards Management Unit (AMU), and FCDO to deliver the project in a high-quality, effective, and efficient manner. A significant focus of the position is to ensure that the project meets the high standards and requirements of FCDO contracts.

 Project Management and Monitoring & Evaluation (40%)

• Work with the project team to develop project plans, including full logical frameworks and key performance indicators
• Support the CEO to implement adjustments to account for any gaps in reporting/data collection and work closely to address them
• Coordinate with the Finance Coordinator to ensure the budget and forecasts reflect current activity plans
• Support the CEO in project monitoring tool development and strategies/templates and implementation of Project Cycle Meetings
• Assist and coordinate technical staff, partners, and field offices to implement project tracking tools, including those for contract compliance with support from AMU Program and Grant Support (PGS) team
• Maintain an in-depth knowledge on donor and government policies and support colleagues to ensure that Partners’ responsibilities are tracked and evaluated, and that updates on their contract management performance are communicated in a timely and professional manner to appropriate stakeholders
• Maintain comprehensive and standardized electronic files for the project, and ensure project team and partners have access to relevant records
• Facilitate project coordination, information-sharing, and guidance on donor rules to IRC and Partner’s project staff
• Main and update risk register and systems to analyse risks throughout project lifecycle
• Supervise and complete special projects as assigned by the EQUAL Consortium CEO that may fall outside of this job description
• Supervise EQUAL program manager and ensure s/he is providing adequate administrative support to the project, including for organizing meetings, events, and travel

Partner coordination and compliance (40%)

• In coordination with the project team and AMU PGS, work with partners’ staff to develop project documents including monitoring plans, sub-contracts, and activity plans;
• Coordinate any due diligence processes and revisions for sub-contracting;
• Supervise and coordinate partnership processes in accordance with IRC’s processes as defined by AMU C&P.

Working with AMU PGS:

• Ensure that Partners’ responsibilities for donor compliance are tracked and evaluated;
• Ensure that updates on contract management performance are communicated in a timely and professional manner to appropriate stakeholders;
• Identify partner capacity strengthening and mentoring needs in regards to FCDO terms and conditions, and organize appropriate activities to meet such needs;
• Ensure that the project team and Partners are aware of all relevant FCDO communication, changes in their regulations, and meetings or conferences.

Reporting (20%)

• Coordinate the production of all narrative reports from partners, the IRC project team and field offices, and provide feedback to improve product quality, accuracy, and style.
• Support the Finance Coordinator as needed to obtain necessary inputs from partners on financial reporting
• Be responsible for preparing donor reports and information,  compliance questions and project challenges for submission by AMU PGS.
• Support the EQUAL Consortium CEO to implement adjustments to account for any gaps in reporting/data collection and work closely with field teams and partners to address them.
• Work closely with the Finance Coordinator as well as AMU PGS to develop and execute contracts in accordance with the payment by results model.

Key Working Relationships:

• Position reports to: EQUAL Consortium CEO
• Position indirectly reports to: N/A
• Position directly supervises: Program manager
• Internal contacts: Regular contact with consortium staff, Research and Innovation department teams, and Health Technical Unit teams, Awards Management Unit staff, and country program staff.
• External contacts: Researchers and finance and grants teams from partner organizations in the consortium. 

Job Requirements:

Minimum Requirements  

• Bachelor’s level education in public health or a related subject
• 3-5 years of experience with demonstrated organisation, coordination, and project management skills including grants or contract management and developing project management documents
• Excellent written English including the ability to edit, synthesise information and produce high quality reports  
• Ability to work (read and write) in French 
• Experience and interest in global health
• Proven ability to operate in a complex organisation, across functions and work on own initiative and collaboratively as part of diverse teams
• Ability to manage a varied workload, work under pressure, prioritise and meet deadlines
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills including an ability to communicate effectively with staff at all levels and across regions/countries
• Excellent IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel)
• The ability to work productively and accurately while under pressure in a fast-paced, demanding environment;
• Flexible work attitude: the ability to work in a team environment and independently and ability to meet unexpected demands;
• Ability to work as part of a team as well as on own initiative.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively

Preferred requirements

• Experience of managing donor-funded contracts highly desirable
• Experience working on DFID/FCDO commercial contract
• Experience and interest in maternal and neonatal health
• Experience and interest in humanitarian contexts
• Good understanding of logframes and monitoring and evaluation frameworks
• Working environment
• Ability and willingness to travel internationally to humanitarian contexts (up to 20% of time)