Philippines: Country Lead, Strategic Partners for Resilience

We help to reduce vulnerabilities and strengthen resilience by responding to disasters and crises and by supporting community and institutional risk reduction and preparedness.

In the Netherlands with more than thirty thousand volunteers and internationally with the aid of specialists or by sending relief supplies or money.

Together we act before, during and after disasters to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people. We do this without regards to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinion.

Our seven principles guide our humanitarian work: humanity, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

NLRC has been present in the Philippines since 2011, supporting the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) with longer term resilience projects in the thematic areas of disaster risk reduction, disaster preparedness, health, WASH and Disaster Recovery. For the *Strategic Partners for Resilience (sPfR)*programme, NLRC is looking for an alliance coordinator in the Philippines.

Position title: Country Lead, Strategic Partners for Resilience

Duty station: Manila, Philippines

Time period: 1 June 2016 – 31 December 2017

Starting Date: 1 June 2016

Status: Single posting

Rationale

Partners for Resilience is an alliance of humanitarian, development, climate and environmental civil society organisations, composed of five Netherlands based members (CARE Nederland, Cordaid, the Netherlands Red Cross, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC), and Wetlands International) and their partner organisations in the field. The alliance, led by the Netherlands Red Cross, promotes the application of Integrated Risk Management (IRM) to strengthen and protect livelihoods of vulnerable communities. sPfR defines IRM as an approach to strengthen community resilience by reducing disaster risks and strengthening livelihoods of vulnerable communities, with specific attention for climate and ecosystems, marginalized groups and women, by involving the wider civil society in addressing risks faced by all groups in society, in particular women, and by working on a conducive legal and financial environment.

The Integrated Risk Management (IRM) approach bridges time- and spatial scales. It integrates attention for changing risks due to changes in hazards, exposure and vulnerability. IRM includes a specific focus on ecosystem degradation, locally and in the wider landscape, as well as changes in hazards due to climate change (in relation to current risks, near-term changes and longer-term shifts in climate patterns). IRM thus integrates elements from disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and ecosystem management and restoration.

The sPfR members have been working as an alliance in the field of IRM since 2011. The alliance is now entering a new partnership with the Netherlands government (for 2016-2020), aiming to enhance community resilience through:

· Strengthening partner civil society organizations (CSOs) and communities (through Community-Based Organisations, CBOs) in their lobby and advocacy knowledge and capacity on IRM (referred to as IRM dialogue, by pursuing Humanitarian Diplomacy) in the interest of all people in society, so that these communities, supported by the partner organisations, are capable of strengthening their resilience:

· Embarking on specific IRM dialogue trajectories at local, national, regional and global levels, focusing on three interrelated domains:

· Policy – ensuring that IRM (including disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, eco-system managementand restoration) is mainstreamed in policies and legislation at all levels:

· Investment – ensuring that investments in IRM are increased, that other sectoral investments include IRM-based safeguards and screenings and that related funding mechanisms are coherent across the development, humanitarian, climate financing continuum;

· Practice – ensuring that projects and programmes of governments and the private sector are implemented based on context-specific IRM principles, and address community interests and priorities at all levels.

Summary statement and responsibilities

The Country Lead of the Strategic Partners for Resilience (sPfR) alliance in the Philippines, will be the overall coordinator of the Strategic Partners for Resilience programme 2016-2020 at the country level. He/she will support sPfR’s dialogues with stakeholders that promote Integrated Risk Management (IRM).

Position in the organization

This position will report to NLRC Country Representative in the Philippines who holds formal responsibility for managing relationship with the Host National Society. The position will have technical reporting line to the Global Coordinator of Partners for Resilience.

Specific responsibilities

· Coordinate overall programme implementation and guide the alliance partners and their implementing partners towards coherent programme implementation;

· Responsible for smooth cooperation in- country

· Representation of Country Team nationally (upon agreement by team)

· Provide timely and appropriate reporting to the global co-ordination team in the Netherlands (CTNL) on the programme status, achievements, challenges, budgets and expenditures;

· Compile, based on inputs of the alliance partners, annual plans and reports, and other reports as required by the CTNL;

· Liaises with Programme Working Group and Thematic Working Groups operating at global level

· Represents the Alliance in dialogues with the Netherlands Embassy in the Philippines

· Represents Country Team in regional meetings to align strategy with other countries,

· Ensuring appropriate coordination and effective liaison with alliance partners, implementing partners and donor agencies;

· Effectively overseeing, developing and managing the relations of the alliance with external stakeholders such as the government- and private sector, other NGOs and knowledge institutes;

· Ensuring that all partners apply the internal and external communication strategy and guidelines on visibility;

· Coordinate with the CTNL and the alliance partners to evaluate programme and staff capacities and the quality of services delivered;

· Organise and coordinate mid-term and final evaluations and audits;

· Formulate and manage contracts and working agreements between the NLRC and the alliance partners in accordance with the overall programme requirements.

· Offer its IRM expertise, tools and guidelines to Alliance Members.

· Act as an initiator, facilitator, connector and capacity developer as per the above approach.

· Monitor and support IRM in investment flows at country level through the Dutch Embassy.

· Contribute to or propose new collaborations between private and public agencies and CSOs where possible and viable.

· Uphold the principle and discipline of humanitarian organization in building better society as guided by the seven principles of Red Cross

· In due course the Country Lead will also represent the Philippines country team in the sPfR's regional programme for Asia, that will be developed following agreement on and start of the country programme

Requirements/Qualifications

· Master degree in Social Science or other relevant field; Training in line with the areas of responsibility

· Proven international experience in the field of humanitarian diplomacy and dialogues with stakeholders, community resilience strengthening and IRM.

· Able to deal with complex partnerships;

· Proven experience of large-scale programme management including narrative and financial reporting, financial management, budget preparation control;

· Minimum 5 years working experience in a developing country

· Knowledge of and experience with IRM initiatives and opportunities on global, regional and national levels.

· Knowledge of and experience with Philippine policy and financing mechanisms.

· Extensive experience in the development of policy and strategy, and supporting multidisciplinary and complex projects programs on Humanitarian Diplomacy and IRM.

· Good knowledge of the functioning of the Red Cross international context is important.

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills (proposals, reports, texts for external communication) in English.

· Accustomed to a complex environment with a myriad of players with different interests; sensitive to political relations

· Please send your resume in English and letter of motivation to Annemieke van Teeffelen before 10 April 2016 using our online application system: http://werkenbij.rodekruis.nl/en/Vacancy/Apply/61405

· For more information about the position, you can contact Guineviene R. De Jesus, gdejesus@redcross.nl

· An assessment can be part of the selection procedure.