Background
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 192 member National Societies. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, our work is guided by seven fundamental principles; humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.
Organizational Context
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 192-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. The 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 work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. The IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are 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. The IFRC Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional office based in Beirut, Lebanon supports 17 national societies in the region. The MENA Disasters, Climate, and Crises – DCC (prevention, response and recovery) unit within the MENA regional office works with one regional plan as well as provides the technical support & quality assurance to country cluster support teams and country offices. The MENA DCC (PRR) unit has articulated its alignment with the strategic priorities and enablers in-line with the global IFRC Strategy 2030 and IFRC’s Plan and Budget 2021-2025.
Job Purpose
Climate change is a humanitarian emergency, threatening human survival now and in the long term. The frequency and severity of extreme weather events have increased and will continue to do so, together with more uncertainty. Meanwhile, longer-term impacts of climate change, such as rising temperatures, sea level rise, growing desertification, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation, are increasingly being felt. Disaster risk reduction has been one of IFRC’s key focus areas over the past three decades. Today, IFRC is one of the biggest DRR actors in the world. Over the coming years, in line with Strategy 2030, the Movement Ambitions to Address the Climate Crisis and our pledge made at the 33rd International Conference, the IFRC Secretariat will seek to mobilize a significant scale-up in climate action focused on reducing the current and future humanitarian impacts of climate and environmental crises through increasing our work on climate adaptation and mitigation and integrating climate and environmental risk management across our programs, operations and advocacy. In the MENA region, we continue to face many climate and environmental challenges which include water scarcity, extreme heat waves, air pollution, inadequate waste management, arable land depletion, desertification, loss of biodiversity, declining marine resources and degradation of coastal ecosystems. MENA countries are very vulnerable to climate change impacts as harsh climate conditions, extremely high temperatures and heatwaves, limited groundwater, rainfall, and scarce agricultural and arable land naturally affect them. The region has been subject to an almost continuous drought since 1998, according to NASA, which says the current dry period is the worst for 900 years. The World Bank, which is spending $1.5 billion to fight climate change in the region, estimates that 80-100 million people will be exposed to water stress by 2025.
Objectives
- to undertake a baseline mapping exercise to define needs, trends and opportunities related to Climate and Resilience in the MENA region together with MENA NSs and movement partners.
- To support the development of multi-year regional roadmap on Climate and resilience.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Main tasks and deliverables
The volunteer will carry out the following specific tasks:
- Develop and run a mapping survey and produce a report on the climate and resilience landscape, priorities, and opportunities in the MENA region to better position the IFRC network going forward.
- Together with Partnership and resource development unit, produce a detailed mapping of multilateral climate funds and what they are prioritizing for the MENA region.
- Produce a position paper on the impact of the climate change on the humanitarian situation in the region and the proposed scope and role of the RCRC reducing, preparing and addressing these impacts.
- Facilitate and support a multi-dimensional planning exercise to develop multi-year roadmap on climate and resilience for the MENA region.
- Time allowing, the assignment may also contribute to other related tasks including Support IFRC in the development of project proposals that could be of interest to climate-related funds.
- Support IFRC MENA Climate & Resilience Coordinator in any other tasks, including capacity development...etc.
Collaboration modalities
- IFRC MENA Disasters, Climate and Crises Unit will take on the role as main responsible for the volunteer and will provide remote supervision for the person.
- IFRC will, depending on how the COVID-19 crisis evolves, invite the volunteer to Beirut for a briefing of the subject over 1-2 weeks or an online briefing will be organized.
Reporting line/management**
The volunteer formally reports to the IFRC MENA Climate & Resilience Coordinator. However, he/she would be expected to work most closely on a day-to-day basis with different unit members and global technical counterparts among others.
Education
- University degree in disaster risk management (or relevant area) or change climate adaptation
Experience
- Field experience in working with a humanitarian organization (preferred)
- Experience working within the RC/RC Movement (preferred)
- Experience in policy development, developing tools and guidance, providing technical assistance and in establishing and maintaining networks (preferred)
Knowledge, skills and languages
- Excellent communication and writing skills.
- Strong inter-personal and partnership building skills, demonstrated capacity to build functional networks.
- Flexible and adaptable to work effectively in a multicultural environment and ability to travel at short notice.
- Fluently spoken and written English
- Good command of another IFRC official language (Arabic) (preferred)
How to apply:
For those who are interested in this position, the application is only accepted through the following link:
Any application sent by email or applied by any other means will not be considered.