Job Title: Partnerships Officer
Band / Level / Grade: Functional Support/8/B
Department: Partnerships
Location: Aden, Yemen

BACKGROUND: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC responds to people’s acute and longer-term needs with integrated programs that improve health and safety, prioritize children’s education, foster economic wellbeing, and empower communities to regain control over their lives. Our work gives rise to some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary humanitarian action, including questions of access, conflict sensitivity, coordination, and impact.

The IRC Yemen began its programs in October 2012. Since establishing its presence in the South of Yemen, in the Red Sea Coastal city of Aden, the organization has grown from just an implementing small project to handling large scale emergency and relief operations. Following the war which broke out in Yemen in March of 2015 and the humanitarian disaster, which was crafted by the same, IRC launched one an emergency response program in the southern governorates of Aden, Lahj, Abyan, Shabwah and Al Dhale, and expanded later in Sana’a and Hodeidah in the North.  Currently IRC Yemen is operating in eight governorates in the south and north of Yemen through direct programming and through local partnerships, in Health, WASH, Nutrition, Economic Recovery Development, Education, Child Protection, Gender and Women Protection and Empowerment.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) have been working in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for more than forty years. Today, the IRC has more than 2,200 staff working across the region, including in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Yemen to support those affected by some of the world’s most complex and protracted humanitarian crises.

SCOPE OF WORK:

Under the supervision of the Partnership Lead, and in line with IRC's Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS), the Partnerships Officer contributes to principled, equitable, and responsive engagement with IRC Yemen's local partners, including women-led and women/girls-serving organizations, across the partnership project cycle. The role is grounded in PEERS principles of equality, complementarity, mutuality, solidarity, results-orientation, humility, and applies PEERS partnership skills and approaches in all engagement with partners and IRC colleagues.

JOB SUMMARY:

The Partnerships Officer supports the Partnership Lead in upholding PEERS-aligned partnership management for IRC Yemen's active sub-awards, including engagement with women-led and women/girls-serving organizations. The Officer contributes to collaborative partnership management processes, supports the delivery of partner project support plans together with technical and operational departments, gathers and helps respond to partner feedback, and promotes mutual learning between IRC and partners. The Officer also serves as a coordination interface with the Supply Chain team on partner-related supply chain.

WORKING RELATIONS:

• Reports to: Partnerships Senior Manager
• Coordinates closely with: HR, Finance, Supply Chain, Grants, HAS and MEAL teams, and relevant Technical Coordinators 
• External: Designated partner focal points across active sub-awards 
• Position supervises: None

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

Promote Effective Partnerships

• Promote and apply IRC's Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS) in all engagement with partners and IRC colleagues, modeling the partnership principles, skills, and approaches.
• Contribute to building a strong understanding of PEERS across IRC Yemen, including by sharing PEERS guidance and tools with colleagues whose roles intersect with partnership work.
• Gather and document partner feedback on IRC's management of the partnership relationship, and support the Partnership Lead in ensuring that feedback is acknowledged and acted on

Partnership Management

• Contribute to collaborative partner identification and stakeholder mapping, with proactive attention to women-led organizations and organizations serving women and girls.
• Support Partner Identity and Background Review (Vetting) processes by gathering required documentation and contributing to the completion of vetting reports for the Partnership Lead's review.
• Contribute to Partner Project Capacity Analysis (PCA) processes, supporting the collaborative analysis of capacities, strengths, and risks together with partners and relevant departments. Engage GEDI, HAS, and other departmental focal points at the appropriate stages of the PCA.
• Co-facilitate, with the Partnership Lead and Technical Coordinators, the preparation and documentation of Partnership Project Opening, Review, and Closure Meetings (PCMs), promoting full partner participation in project decision-making and adaptive management.
• Coordinate the timely flow of narrative and finance reporting between partners and IRC review functions, working collaboratively with partners to clarify requirements and resolve issues constructively rather than transactionally.
• Maintain complete, well-organized partnership files for assigned partners, ensuring transparency of agreements, deliverables, and decisions.
• Work collaboratively with partners and IRC colleagues to surface and constructively resolve any issues that arise, escalating to the Partnership Lead where needed.

Partner Support and Capacity Sharing

• Contribute to the collaborative development and delivery of partner project support plans, ensuring that support is responsive to partners' priorities and the issues identified in the PCA, rather than replicating IRC's systems and policies.
• Support coordination across IRC departments to ensure timely, quality delivery of agreed support to partners.
• Identify and flag emerging partner support needs to the Partnership Lead and relevant departmental focal points, with attention to gender-responsive support and the specific needs of women-led partners.
• Promote continual mutual learning between IRC staff and partners, including by capturing partner practices, innovations, and lessons learned during PCMs and monitoring touchpoints, and feeding these into IRC reflection processes.
• Where appropriate, support partner focal points on partnership management processes, reporting timelines, PCM preparation, documentation, grounded in humility and mutual planning.

Coordination Interface with Supply Chain

• Serve as the partnership-side coordination point with the Supply Chain Focal Point on partner-related supply chain matters: joint planning of partner visits, coordination of post-visit action follow-up with partners, and consolidation of administrative inputs into PCA and PCM processes.
• Support the SC Focal Point in maintaining responsive and trust-based communication with partners on logistics and procurement matters.

Other

• Other duties as assigned by the Partnership Senior Manager, within the scope and band of the position.

REQUIREMENTS:

A.    Education: Bachelor's degree in social sciences, development studies, business administration, or a related field.

B.    Experience: 2–3 years of experience working with NGOs in humanitarian or development settings, with at least 1 year directly engaging with local partners or sub-awards. INGO experience preferred. Familiarity with PEERS or comparable partnership frameworks (e.g., Grand Bargain localization commitments, partnership-based programming standards) is an asset. Experience working with women-led organizations is a strong asset.

C.    Skills and Abilities:

PEERS Partnership Skills: 

• Communication: ability to communicate clearly, respectfully, and with cultural awareness with partners and colleagues; strong written and oral communication in Arabic and English.
• Analysis: ability to support collaborative analysis of partner capacities and risks, and to identify what kind of support partners genuinely need.
• Negotiation: ability to navigate competing priorities and interests across partners and IRC departments, while maintaining trust.
• Coaching and Mentoring: ability to support partner colleagues' growth in a humble, peer-to-peer way rather than a top-down corrective way.
• Reflection: willingness and ability to reflect on what's working and what isn't, and to invite the same from partners.

PEERS Partnership Approaches: 

• Mutual Planning, Trust Building, Facilitation, Adaptive Management, and Humility — demonstrated through past examples of partner engagement.

General skills: Strong organizational and time-management skills; proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams); able to work effectively in a team and independently. 

D.    Proficiencies:

• Receptive: listens to and acts on partner feedback.
• Resourceful: finds practical, principle-aligned solutions in capacity-constrained settings.
• Resilient: sustains constructive engagement under pressure and through setbacks.
• Results-oriented: focuses on outcomes that matter to partners and the people they serve.

Professional Standards: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, marital status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

IRC strives to build a diverse and inclusive team at all levels who as individuals, and as a group, embody our culture statement creating a working environment characterized by critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity for us to achieve our aspirations as a team and deliver the best possible services to our clients.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.

Commitment to Client Responsiveness: By committing to Client-Centered Programming, at the IRC Yemen, we place the people we serve - our clients - at the center of our programming and services. The IRC Yemen Staff have an important role to play in supporting the implementation of client-responsive programming through raising awareness among the community and clients about the existing feedback mechanisms and how to use them including the response processes, access, and eligibility to services, and contribute to building an institutional culture that prompts staff to listen to clients.