Duty station: Regional Office/HQ Oslo.

1. Background/Context

The NRC Asia and Latin America Region (ALAR) comprises a diverse range of Country Offices (COs) across a vast geographical area and is organised in three sub-regions:

1. Latin America: Colombia/Panama/Ecuador, North of Central America (Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala) and Mexico (NCA&M), and Venezuela.
2. Central Asia: Iran and Afghanistan.
3. Southeast Asia: Bangladesh and Myanmar.

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.

Across the region COs coverage area there are over 6 million refugees, some 13 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 1.5 million stateless people. More than two thirds of the world’s refugees come from just five countries – three of which are inside ALAR: Myanmar, Venezuela, and Afghanistan. Of refugee hosting countries, the second and third largest refugee populations are to be found in Colombia and Pakistan, respectively. Some of the world’s major IDP populations can also be found in ALAR. Colombia continues to report the highest number of IDPs, with 8.3 million recorded at the end of 2020. NRC continues to respond to both growing caseloads of conflict induced IDPs across Myanmar and Afghanistan, as well as IDPs in protracted situations, such as Colombia.

The Asia and Latin America Regional Office (ALARO), based in Oslo, oversees the country operations in the region, and provides strategic guidance and oversight across core programme, advocacy, and support functions.

The Regional Programme Department, based in Asia and Latin America Regional Office (ALARO) and managed by the Regional Programme Director, is responsible for the strategic development of NRC programming in the region by maximizing the support to and the development of COs as well as by exploring and creating synergies among COs. The Regional Programme Department is focused on research, policies, guidance and procedures, evidence and learning, capacity building, programme quality and donor relations. The department includes a Core Competencies and Thematic Unit, Regional M&E, Regional Grants and Partnership Specialist, and Senior Sub Regional Advisers.

The Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) Regional Advisor is the organisation’s regional expert within the Core Competence, working across the region and with a matrix professional relationship to the Core Competency (CC) specialists in the Programme Development and Support Section.

2. Role and responsibilities

Generic responsibilities

Policy, Strategy and Programme Development

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.

1. Responsible of supporting the development of Country/Regional ICLA Strategies and implementation plans in line with global policies and strategies.
2. 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.
3. Contribute to the resource mobilisation and fundraising for regional programme development related to the ICLA CC. 

Technical development, Support and Capacity building

1. Responsible for providing strategic advice and technical support and capacity building support to the COs in the region on relevant core competency or cross-cutting issues across COs in the region and the Regional Office (RO).
2. Ensure that ICLA-based programming approaches contributes to integrated programming and analysis and that these interventions are measured.
3. Contribute to development and delivery of induction and training provision of CO staff in relation to own core competency, working collaboratively with Learning & Development (L&D) and other colleagues. Contribute to recruitment interviews for technical staff. May provide some technical supervision to technical staff in COs.

Quality standards, Data analysis and M&E

1. Responsible for ensuring that best practices within the Core Competency are identified, documented, and disseminated both within the region and beyond.
2. Work in partnership with M&E staff, to ensure the alignment of the programmatic areas in the M&E and Program Cycle Management (PCM) systems in relation to own CC.
3. Responsible for supporting and monitoring country programme compliance with the Programme Policy and respective quality assurances in relation to the ICLA CC.

Networking, Representation and Relationships

1. 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 Core Competencies.
2. Work in partnership with the RO and CO advocacy leads to identify and develop regional advocacy issues related to the core competence and relevant cross-cutting issues.

Specific responsibilities

1. Learning and information sharing: Responsible for the documentation, analysing and dissemination of ICLA learning from the country programs including the sharing of best practices, resources and tools ensuring coherence, efficiency, and effectiveness of the operation.

1. Advocacy: Contribute to the identification, prioritization, development, and documentation of advocacy issues related to ICLA.

1. Programme Policy compliance: Responsible for the monitoring of country programme compliance with the Programme Policy and to activate procedures to obtain approval/rejection of context specific deviations from the programme policy in country offices.

1. Policy and strategies: Contribute to the development of policies and strategies related to ICLA. Contribute to development of Programme Policy and related governing documents to reflect new needs and emerging humanitarian trends.

1. Technical CC development: Contribute to the adaptation of NRC’s global ICLA programme approaches, and the development of guidelines, tools and innovative approaches based on research of trends and the learning from the country offices and sub-regions. Responsible to the adaptation of these policies, tools and approaches at sub-regional and country level.

1. Core competence pilots: Responsible for the identification of pilot projects for the further development of the ICLA Core Competency in the region. Contribute to the communication of results and the development of recommendations.

1. Country office start-up: Contribute to the strategic positioning of NRC through an adequate and high quality ICLA programme response in the establishing phase of new country operations.

2. What We Are Looking For

• Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience as a manager within the humanitarian field, including (ideally) experience of working as an adviser.
• Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts, and ability to work independently in a result oriented, multi-cultural environment and manage conflicting priorities.
• High level of professional expertise in an area relevant to the ICLA Core Competence, in particular relevant knowledge and expertise of national and international legal frameworks impacting on displaced people.
• Experience in drafting and encouraging implementation of policy/strategic guidance and developing practical tools and resources.
• Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities.
• Able to represent the organisation at a strategic level.
• Fluency in English and Spanish, both written and verbal.

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

4. What We Offer

• Type of contract:
• Salary/benefits: According to NRC salary scale, terms and conditions.
• Duty station: Regional Office/HQ Oslo
• Travel: 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.