Duty station: Duty station Regional Office in Oslo or Amman.

1. Background/Context

The Asia and Latin America (ALAR) Region for NRC comprises a diverse range of country programmes across a vast geographical area. Of five regions in Field Operations, the Asia and Latin America RO is based in Head Office (HO) covering: three sub-regions: Latin America, Afghanistan/Iran and South East Asia. The operating environment is varied, encompassing a complex and multi-faceted set of humanitarian and recovery response needs in countries that are either fragile, environmentally vulnerable or both.

NRC in the Middle East (MERO) is responding to the Syria and Iraq crisis, assisting refugees in Jordan, Libya, Lebanon and Iraq as well as the displaced. NRC also works in Palestine and with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. NRC works in shelter, emergency distributions, education, water and sanitation and legal assistance. Our response on the ground has grown rapidly with the dramatic rise in displacement and we now have over 3,000 staff members working on the NRC regional response.

The ALAR Regional Office, located in Oslo, and the MERO Regional Office based in Amman, Jordan oversee the country programmes in the regions, and provides strategic guidance and oversight across core programme, advocacy and support functions.

The Regional Cash & Market Systems Adviser is a position which has been established to support NRC operations in the ALAR and ME regions in the development of the thematic area as an emerging part of programme development and delivery at NRC. The Regional Cash & Market Systems Adviser will provide specialist advice and guidance to the Country Director and/or Head of Programme, and any Thematic Specialists/PDMs at Country level where the thematic area is a programme priority, ensuring that optimal programme strategies, structures, systems, policy, tools and practices are in place. The Regional Cash & Market Systems Adviser will provide a range of advisory support, technical oversight and capacity building to CO staff in relation to their own specialist area of expertise. The Regional Cash & Market Systems Adviser will also contribute to funding bids from the thematic perspective and assist the Country Offices (CO) to ensure that donor opportunities are identified, and donor obligations and requirements are met. The position will also support the development of regional strategic partnerships with financial service providers and other CVA actors.

At Head Office, they will have a key relationship with NRC’s Global Lead – Cash and Vouchers in the Programme Policy and Development Unit, and the Global Lead – Market Systems for in the Programme Development and Innovation Unit. The Global Leads are responsible for the overall policy and development of the thematic topic and will contribute to the organisational learning on the thematic topic.

The Core Competency (CC) and Thematic team are part of a technical matrix structure and are required to work collaboratively with colleagues in both the technical and the operational management structures in country offices, and the regional management group. They also have a technical accountability to the global programme function, policy, strategy, and direction as determined through the Head Office level of NRC. Collaborative working with colleagues within the wider regional programme team, at HO and in other Regions is essential to effectiveness in the role and maximising the shared learning across NRC.

2. Role and responsibilities

Policy and strategy and programme development

1. Responsible for ensuring compliance and adherence to NRC policies, guidance and procedures in relation to the thematic area while contributing to the development of policies, strategies, tools and new approaches with a focus on innovation and piloting.

2. Conduct periodic field visits to lead or assist with market assessments, for problem solving and to ensure that implementation of CVA and Market Systems programming, across all core competencies, is in compliance with donor requirement, NRC and government policies and global standards.

3. Responsible of supporting the development of country/regional and core competency strategies and implementation plans, and the embedding of relevant thematic priorities within each.

4. Work in partnership with the HO Programme department to contribute to specific areas of innovation and development, including piloting and learning from experiences at the country office and regional level, development of policies, strategies and tools, and sharing learning with other regions.

5. Contribute to the resource mobilization and fundraising for regional programme development related to Cash & Market Systems.

Technical development, support and capacity building

6. Responsible for providing strategic advice, technical support and capacity building support to the Country Offices in the region on Cash & Market Systems or cross-cutting issues, across Country Offices in the region and the Regional Offices.

7. Ensure that CVA and Market Systems programming contributes to integrated programming and analysis and that these interventions are measured

8. Contribute to the NRC global development of Cash & Market Systems, through collaborative working with and contribution to the NRC Global Development Lead leading the thematic area, and by sharing learning and expertise with the HO level and other Regions.

9. Facilitating and stimulating an environment conducive to innovation. Keeping informed on innovation insights and analysis of relevance to their thematic area. Ensure this knowledge is integrated into the systems and culture of the organisation at country and regional levels.

10. Contribute to the development and delivery of inductions and training provision of CO staff in relation to own thematic area, working collaboratively with Learning & Development and other colleagues. Contribute to recruitment interviews for technical staff. May provide some technical supervision to technical staff in Country Offices.

Quality standards, data analysis and M&E

11. Responsible for ensuring that effective documentation, operational research, and capturing of best practices within CVA and Market Systems programming are identified, documented and disseminated both internally and with other key actors across all countries in the region and globally.

12. Work in partnership with the M&E staff to ensure the alignment of the programmatic areas in the M&E and PCM systems in relation to own thematic area.

13. Responsible for supporting and monitoring country programme compliance with the Programme Policy and respective quality assurances in relation to the thematic area.

14. Develop and support market-based programming and a CVA learning agenda for both regions to generate and apply evidence-based learning within programming for quality and innovative programming.

Networking, representation and relationships

15. Responsible for identification, development and maintenance of relationships with relevant stakeholders (e.g., donors, UN agencies, NGOs, research- and educational institutions, private sector) related to programmes in general and more specifically as related to NRC’s thematic activities including but not limited to national and regional Cash Working Groups.

16. Work in partnership with the regional and country office advocacy leads to identify and develop regional advocacy issues related to the thematic area and relevant cross-cutting issues.

3. Specific responsibilities

1. In collaboration with the Global Lead – Cash and Vouchers, provide technical guidance for and oversight of CVA activities across the regions.
2. In collaboration with the Global Lead – Market Systems, provide technical guidance for and oversight of
3. Lead the development of and provide guidance on CVA and Market Systems programming across the regions.
4. Standardize technical approaches and guidelines within the regions around CVA and Market Systems programming as well as processes such as assessments, monitoring and evaluation.
5. Foster organisational readiness to use large scale digital money transfer systems and alternative value transfer systems.
6. Assist Country offices in designing and carrying out market assessments, analysing and designing evidence-based programmes, identifying, and using appropriate technology and tools/approaches, and carrying out periodic appraisals of market-based programmes in the region.
7. Support in the development of emergency preparedness, contingency and response plans.
8. Train and otherwise build capacity of field teams to prepare for and carry out emergency market assessments and cash/voucher responses.
9. Identify and monitor risks, constraints, technical issues and escalate issues related to CVA and Market Systems programming based on evaluations, field visits and periodic reports for timely leadership action.
10. Design multi-year and multi-county projects and identify various donor priorities and funding opportunities for the same, in collaboration with country teams and other Regional CC Advisers.
11. In collaboration with other Regional CC Advisers, identify and promote synergy between the CCs and further these through suitable project conceptualization, design, and development.
12. Coordinate at a regional level with technical focal points of different organisations and NRC technical units to share information, ensure learning is shared and identify opportunities for joint programming and fundraising.
13. Establish partnership with relevant research and academic institutions as appropriate, to build NRC’s evidence base, carry out operational research and document learning.
14. Help country offices in identifying their gaps in terms of capacity to deliver cash-based programmes on time and at scale; as well as the activities to be undertaken to increase the country teams’ capacity.

3. What We Are Looking For

• Minimum 8 years of relevant leadership/management experience within the humanitarian field.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in designing, implementing and managing a range of market based approach programmes including cash and voucher assistance projects, market strengthening/ support and market change interventions, income generation and similar related interventions throughout the project cycle, especially in refugee/ IDP/ displacement contexts. Significant expertise in the application of CVA and Market Systems programming across NRC’s core competencies is very desirable.
• Senior level Livelihoods, Economic Security or similar programme and/or technical supervision experience (ideally in the Asia / Latin America / Middle East)
• Knowledge of and experience of using relevant market assessment tools and methodologies – EMMA, PCMA, RAM etc, as well as value chain analysis and labour market assessments.
• Advanced understanding and experience on programme monitoring and evaluation issues. Ability to design M&E tools relevant to CVA and Market Systems focused interventions, and roll them out to the technical and M&E teams.
• Experience in leading multi-sectoral assessment teams and providing technical guidance on analysis of the data collected, for programme design and adjustment.
• High level of communication, interpersonal, representation and negotiation skills
• Good understanding and programmatic experience on various cross cutting issues such as gender, protection and environment
• Ability to write high quality concept notes and technical sections for donor proposals
• Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities
• Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal. Spanish an asset.

Find more details about the role HERE with the Job Description (JD) of the position.

4. What We Offer

• Type of contract: 24 months.
• Salary/benefits: According to NRC salary scale, terms and conditions.
• Duty station: Duty station Regional Office in Oslo or Amman.
• Travel: Up to 40 %.

Internal candidates are encouraged to apply but we are also open to external applicants who can show a commitment to NRC and being part of a challenging, but important mission to make a difference.

NRC might review applications before the adverted deadline, therefore interested candidates are encouraged to apply early.