Regional Project Lead

Job Overview: “Partnering for Resilience to Emergencies through Transformation of SRHR (PRET-SRHR)” is a West Africa regional initiative aiming to strengthen sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.  Over three years, the program will strengthen the capacity of sub-national health systems to deliver rights based SRHR services that are resilient to crises, transform harmful gender norms and improve regional commitment to SRHR in humanitarian and fragile settings.  The focus countries for this program are Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria. 

In 2024, a complementary project has been developed the “She Responds” regional project that aims to ensure SRHR for women and girls in crises to realize effective and complete MISP coordination and response during emergencies in West Africa. The project will build upon national, regional, and global progress on SRHR and humanitarian action and will emphasize shifting power for humanitarian coordination and response to women- and youth-led organizations with the goal of create a more enabling environment for SRHR in humanitarian settings in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. 

Based in Niamey or Ouagadougou, the Project Lead, PRET-SRHR/“She Responds” will be responsible for ensuring effective and high-quality program implementation, coordination of internal and external stakeholders, monitoring of the two projects performance and facilitating regional partnerships to advance SRHR in the nexus. To achieve these goals, the Project Lead will manage and monitor work plans and deliverables, track spending, identify technical support needs and provide technical assistance when needed. The Project Lead will serve as the main focal point for IRC for the project for internal and external representation. 

The Project Lead’s role will also be to promote the sharing and exchange of practices between countries and to ensure effective coordination of all project stakeholders, and more specifically with the regional partner IPBF (Pananetugri Initiative for Women’s Well-Being). The Project Lead will be responsible for implementing the regional activities in conjunction with the SRHR Global Manager and the Regional Health Lead.

Major Responsibilities: 

Project Management and Monitoring

• Work with IRC country program staff to develop and actively track project work plans
• Closely monitor overall program quality and performance in terms of data measurement, spend rate on budgets, staffing at country level, on-time delivery of reports and other products.
• Act as the singular focal point for regular updates to relevant IRC internal stakeholders, including West Africa regional leadership, Crisis Response, Recovery, and Development (CRRD) unit leadership, and program quality unit (PQU) leadership.

Technical Assistance and quality assurance

• Provide remote and in-person technical assistance to IRC country program teams to improve PRET-SRHR and “She Responds” program quality and performance.
• Review PRET-SRHR and “She Responds” performance regularly with IRC country program staff and make recommendations for project course correction.
• Provide recommendations to country program teams on quality improvement for the PRET-SRHR and “She Responds” program.
• Collaborate with health technical advisors to share experiences and lessons learned from PRET-SRHR and “She Responds” to improve health program quality.

Regional coordination, representation, and partnership building

• Build productive, collaborative, and equitable relationships with regional partners, including the West Africa Health Organization (“WAHO”) and the Ouagadougou Partnership.
• Facilitate the joint identification and prioritization of needs and advocacy objectives to strengthen regional commitment to SRHR in humanitarian and fragile settings.
• Coordinate experience sharing and advocacy initiatives for SRHR in humanitarian and fragile settings within the region.
• Implements the regional activities of the PRET-SRHR program and the “She Responds” project and oversees the partnership with IPBF (Pananetugri Initiative for Women’s Well-Being).

Reporting and donor relation  

• Coordinate the production of all narrative reports from IRC country teams and provide feedback to improve product quality, accuracy, and style.
• Ensure high quality, timely and coherent reporting, both financial and narrative.
• Provides all the necessary information for colleagues responsible for relations with donors and contributes to exchanges.

Job Requirements: 

Work Experience: 

• A minimum of seven (7) years’ experience in public health project management, including at least two years managing projects of similar size and complexity in a developing country setting, preference for work experience in West Africa.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies: 

• Previous experience supporting and managing SRHR projects in resource-limited settings. Experience managing SRHR programs in humanitarian settings preferred.
• Demonstrated expertise in sexual and reproductive health, especially family planning, abortion and GBV programs in resource-limited settings.
• Champion for the rights of all women and girls to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, including family planning and safe abortion care.
• Expertise in health systems strengthening and emergency preparedness for the Minimum Initial Services Package for SRH in Emergencies
• Excellence in monitoring and evaluation of public health programs and program management including knowledge of budgeting principles and donor reporting.
• Demonstrated experience in project design, management, and reporting.
• Ability to work with remote, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams.
• Excellence in writing and capacity strengthening of health colleagues.
• Facilitation skills, including ability to organize and executive workshops with multiple stakeholders and achieve desired outputs.

Education:  Master of Public health or equivalent, Clinician a plus

Language Skills:  Written and spoken competency in French and English required.

Working Environment: 

• Standard office working environment.
• International travel up to 35% of time.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles. 

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