Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.”  The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during, and after disasters, health emergencies, and other crises.

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The IFRC’s work is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters is organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy, and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy, and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. It also has a country cluster delegation and country delegations worldwide. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster, and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.

Job Purpose

The IFRC Water Systems Strengthening Global Unit based in GVA is undergoing a growing process in which several new focus areas of work and concepts are added to the traditional water, sanitation, and hygiene agenda (preparedness, emergency, development, coordination). Some of these concepts include the broad idea of Water Security, which encompasses new areas covering climate change, water and peace, specific work in drought, and various water nexus. To scale up the agenda and its global development/implementation, IFRC would like to welcome an intern to its unit to support and advise on the daily development of strategies, frameworks, roadmaps and bringing new partnerships (donor mappings, positioning, mobilizing funds, setting up meetings at global and regional levels with water advisors, delivering presentations, attending to global events, working on research and supporting the Global Unit’s Manager in all aspects related to the scaling up of the Unit’s agenda).

This is an excellent opportunity to gain a global overview of the IFRC’s work in water and to have loads of visibility within the RC/RC movement. 

Job Duties and Responsibilities

1. Support the maintenance and creation of new partnerships.

• Support the creation and maintenance of partnerships with various stakeholders, e.g., inter-government and government institutions, the private sector, civil society, academia, and other stakeholders, to contribute to expanding the global Water Security agenda.
• Proactively mapping potential partners at all levels, advising and supporting approach dynamics.

2. Ensure quality support and technical advice to the Unit’s Manager on the roll-out of the water security agenda scale-up process.

• Support the scale-up process of the water security agenda, which is still in progress. Finalize frameworks and support global dissemination and roll-out in GVA and elsewhere.
• Participate actively in weekly team meetings and quarterly or monthly regional and global meetings.
• Support designing and implementing a communication/information-sharing plan with regions, clusters, and countries.
• Support the design and communication plan within the secretariat and the network.
• Provide technical support for preparing relevant reports, speaking notes, briefings, concept notes, presentations, etc.

3. Advance the work and position of the IFRC Water Strengthening Systems Unit.

• Support the development of proposals and opportunities for mobilizing resources for scaling up and expanding the Water Security Agenda, as well as prepare substantive inputs/briefs on possible areas of cooperation.
• Facilitate and support the Manager and Unit on the positioning and visibility of the program (s) in high-level global and regional events.

4. Contribute to an effective, high-quality IFRC Water Strengthening Systems Team.

• Be accountable to the Manager by providing progress reports on results against objectives and risk analyses.
• Flexibility in work definition according to needs and targets will help improve efficiencies and effectiveness within available resources.
• Foster a customer service-oriented culture that values proactivity, continuous improvement, innovation, high performance, and cost-effectiveness.
• Foster a collaborative working environment with colleagues in the IFRC Secretariat, Regions, Clusters, National Societies, and external partners.
• Contribute and support the IFRC Geneva Water Strengthening Systems team as needed.
• Be available to deploy to Regions, Country Offices, or Operations to provide support as necessary.

Duties application to all staff

1. Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals.
2. Abide by and work by the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles.
3. Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities of the line manager may assign.

Education

Required

• Be currently-enrolled in a university or equivalent level, or have graduated recently (normally within 1 year from the date of hiring) in an area that is compatible with the IFRC activities.

• University degree in climate change, disaster risk reduction, water management, or human sciences-related field.

Preferred

• Master’s degree or similar in humanitarian aid, international development, resource mobilization, water management, public health, climate, or a related field.

Experience

Required

• At least one year of work experience in humanitarian, emergency, water, climate change, or related work.
• Experience working in an international or cross-cultural environment.

Preferred

• Experience working in the humanitarian or development sector, with developing countries, or with an international organization.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

• Fluently spoken and written English.

Preferred

• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic).

Competencies, Values and Comments

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability.

Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.

Application Instruction

Please submit your application in English only.