Senior Officer, Climate and Environmental Standards at International Rescue Committee

• The Senior Officer, Climate and Environmental Standards role will be responsible for three areas: (1) supporting the implementation of climate and environmental screenings across the organization with tools, guidance, and resources, (2) supporting country programs with the screenings and development of risk mitigation measures during the project design phase and (3) capacity building. The Officer will work with the Climate Global Practice Lead and other Climate GPA team members to drive projects within the GPA and shape key fora for collaboration. Those fora include a TechEx Working Group across Technical Units and a Climate Community of Practice across all sectors and geographies with the Crisis Response, Recovery, and Development Department. And beyond the IRC, we seek to collaborate with, learn from and influence peer agencies, research entities, government partners and diverse organizations.

The role reports into the Climate Global Practice Lead on the Climate Global Practice Area team.
Major Responsibilities
Climate and Environmental Standards Systems and Policies

• Compile and track host country regulations and donor institutional environmental policies and frameworks to track key intervention areas and opportunities for program design.
• Work with compliance colleagues in the Awards Management Unit (AMU) and External Relations to stay up to date on changes in donor requirements and guidance.
• Coordinate and compare climate and environmental standards guidance with that of peer humanitarian agencies and resource centers
• Track relevant compliance and progress towards on audit responses (e.g. Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) and Sphere minimum standards on environment) and other external commitments (e.g. Climate Charter).
• Build and maintain expert roster for country environmental impact assessment experts in high risk sectors.

Technical Support and Capacity Building

• Develop and disseminate tools and resources, including donor-specific tools as needed.
• Design and deliver training programs, knowledge-exchange workshops, and guidance material to technical units and country programs. This includes updating information on best practices, evolving trends and challenges from peer agencies to create new knowledge and learning products.
• Work to disseminate tools and resources to frontline humanitarians in peer agencies through existing external dissemination channels.
• Manage central repository for countries’ environmental screenings, environmental plans and host country environmental policies.
• Support the technical units and country programs in the implementation of the environmental risk management and the relevant tools including:
• Screening projects for climate, environmental and social impacts and risks
• Supporting technical units and country programs in the identification and proposition of appropriate risk mitigation measures for identified risks and impacts.
• Supporting Awards Management on donor compliance questions, delivery of training programs and guidance materials.
• Track most common challenges and most common requirements to inform prioritization of supporting guidance, policies, and procedures.
• Review relevant project proposals to ensure quality of the EIAs and associated risk mitigation plans.
• Document lessons learned and adapt resources as needed.
• Participate in relevant external subject area networks and stay updated on environmental standards pertinent to environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation.
• Track sector-wide practices that support donor compliance (e.g. through attending NGO consortium meetings, conducting online searches, reviewing reports. Compile or synthesize relevant reference materials for distribution via libraries and communication channels.

Key Working Relationships

• Position Reports to: Climate Global Practice Lead
• Other key collaborators: Senior Sustainability Advisor, GSC

Education
Desired Experience and Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, climate studies, sustainability, public policy, development studies, or a related field. Master’s degree preferred.

Experience

• 3-6 years of work experience in international development or humanitarian aid preferred. Work experience in project design, monitoring, and compliance preferred.

Skills

• Experience in project design, monitoring and evaluation, and/or assessments. Knowledge and experience in climate and environmental screening and risk assessments preferred.
• Experience developing tools, guidance, and templates.
• Strong research and analytical skills, ability to think strategically, analyze and synthesize diverse related data and information. Attention to detail a must.
• Ability to communicate ideas clearly and confidently, articulate issues and recommend solutions.
• High level of proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite products.
• Unparalleled team collaboration skills; comfort working cross-culturally with multi-disciplinary teams
• Strong organizational skills, including the ability to be flexible, work well under pressure, and handle competing priorities in a fast-paced environment

Qualities

• Passion and commitment to addressing climate change and promoting sustainability
• Global mindset and cultural awareness, with the ability to work effectively in diverse international settings. Lived and/or professional experience in one of the IRC’s regional or country contexts in East Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East & North Africa, is a huge advantage

Additional Assets

• Fluency in English is required; Arabic, French, and/or Spanish preferred.
• Ability to travel globally up to 25% of the time, occasionally on short notice