Partnerships Assessment and Strategy (Action Plan) Development – Consultant at the International Rescue Committee (IRC)

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Partnerships Assessment and Strategy (Action Plan) Development – Consultant

Requisition ID: req29661
Location: Nigeria
Employment Category: Consultant
Sector: Grants

Objectives

• By gaining an in-depth understanding of IRC’s SAP priorities in Nigeria, as well as IRC’s global Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS), the consultant will:
• Review existing IRC Nigeria’s partnerships with local organizations, document learnings from existing local partnership with focus on what is working well, what did not work well and areas that needs improvement,
• Map local organizations and actors with a focus on areas of potential collaboration in line with IRC strategy, programmatic priorities  and geographic areas, and specific approaches of engagement that would be needed in the short, medium, and long terms engagements and collaborations.
• Develop a concrete plan of action and implementation strategy for the IRC Nigeria team to streamline internal capacities/resources to be able to scale up the implementation through local partners by realizing their potential and sharing capacities.
• Recommend how to develop and maintain strategic partnerships and engagement with local partners, complementary actors and stakeholders (past, present, and future)
• Working with women led or women focused organizations, develop concrete plan of action in promoting the feminist approach in the localization agenda, strengthening and empowerment of women led organizations to provide them an environment to raise their voices and engage productively with decision makers and leaders.
• Advise on the approach that should be taken to navigate local relationships, as well as any tailoring of the PEERS system that may be wise for the context in North-East Nigeria and northwest Nigeria.

Who should be Consulted?

• IRC: Country Senior Management (SMT); operations, program, grants and Technical Advisers from Region and H/Q
• IRC local partners/actors in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, and Zamfara states
• Stakeholders: various line state ministries (Health, WASH, Education, Ministry of Women Affairs etc)
• Donor interested into local partnership work – FCDO, SIDA, NHF etc

Approach

• The Consultant will develop a detailed methodology/approach, tools, and templates (by making use of and contextualizing the existing resources and templates in PEERs) for the Partnerships Assessment (including Partners’ Mapping) and Strategy (Action Plan).
• The initial version should be specified in the application and will then be further refined and validated during the inception phase of the assignment. Any limitations of the suggested methodology should be specified, along with strategies to overcome these.
• Multiple and high-quality data collection and analysis methods with a range of stakeholders should be used to gather perceptions and facilitate triangulation. These may include, but are not limited to, documents review (PEERs/SAP Nigeria etc.), semi-structured interviews with the key IRC staff, meetings with existing and potential partners, partners’ Expression of Interests – EOIs (if applicable), meeting with INGOs and Other Stakeholders, Online Surveys (if applicable), and consultative workshops/meetings with the IRC team on the partnership’s capacity assessment and Partnerships Action Plan development.
• The Consultant will present the findings to IRC Team at every stage, including SMT and Department Heads, with a framework of partnerships strategy and Action Plan.
• The IRC team will provide feedback during the consultation process and on the draft Assessment and Strategy Document.

Key working Relationships:

• Consultancy Manager: Deputy Director of Programs
• Country Senior Management Team (SMT): Will provide overall strategic leadership and guidance
• Field Level Contact and support: The Consultant will work closely with the IRC Grants and Partnerships Team under the supervision of the Sr. Grants Coordinator/Sr. Partnerships Manager, and Partnerships Manager as the designated contact point in setting up meetings, exchanging information, and providing documentation.
• Program Technical Coordinators – responsible for IRC program delivery

Expected Deliverables
The consultant will be required to produce the following outputs:

• A Partnerships Review/Assessment Report providing a detailed analysis of the IRC’s partnerships capacities and potentials of collaboration in the priority thematic and geographic areas and recommendations on the future partnership landscape.
• An articulated and comprehensive partnership strategy with an actionable plan for the coming 2-3  years to increase program implementation through local partners (including CSOs, NGOs, Government and Private Organizations/Institutes) and developing strategic partnerships.
• A mapping of potential partners and status report of potential collaborations with local organizations in IRC’s priority thematic and geographic areas in line with the Strategic Action Plan. Taking into considerations:
• Mapping accordingly in line with key types of partnership: project-based partnership, strategic partnership and alliances or networks
• Ensuring that there is minimum consideration of partnership that is shared or compatible vision, Mission, values
• Review meetings with relevant strategic partners and also with women lead/focused organizations
• The final document ‘ IRC Nigeria Partnership Plan’

In addition to the above deliverables, the Consultant will ensure:

• Submission of inception report (including methodology and tools) and approval by Deputy Director Programs/IRC HQ Support
• Submission of data collected, various analyses, draft documents (soft or hard), work plans/schedules, presentations of the finding etc.
• Advise on the approach that should be taken to navigate local relationships, as well as any tailoring of the PEERS system that may be wise for the context in North-East Nigeria
• Upon completion of the assignment, the Consultant shall submit a completion reporting annexing all the outputs described above for approval and clearance.

Timeline:

• The indicative starting of the service is envisaged to be the start of September, 2022. The service shall be completed within thirty (30) to forty five working days  from the date of signing the contract (effective date).

Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in the fields related to International Relations and/or Organizational Development / Business Administration
• At least seven years of working experience in recognized organizations in the field of policy and strategy development or in developing, managing, and coordinating partnerships for programs in humanitarian or development settings
• Strong track record in working in partnership with governments and civil society organizations at various levels and diverse organizational stakeholders, developing and implementing appropriate and targeted learning and capacity sharing activities.
• Strong communication, analytical and writing skills.
• Demonstrated knowledge and skills in developing data collection tools, data analysis and transforming the data into analytical reports and strategies.
• Experiences of working with civil society and community-based organizations in the Nigerian context will be a value-added advantage.
• Working knowledge of gender, equality, diversity, and inclusion.
• Ability to work with multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams
• Excellence in oral and written communication skills in English and Hausa Languages
• Good organizational, interpersonal, time and people management skills.
• Relevant computer software skills (including, at a minimum, the standard applications in MS Office).

Application Closing Date
30th August, 2022.