Emergency Cash and Anticipatory Action Specialist

Emergency Cash & Anticipatory Action Specialist

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their lives.

The IRC's Emergency Management Unit (EmU) leads global emergency preparedness and response for large-scale crises. Its mission is to strengthen IRC's ability to support communities in acute and hard-to-reach emergencies by investing in people, systems, and solutions. EmU works through risk analysis, capacity building, partnerships, technical support, and deploying expert emergency staff. The Cash and Emergencies team within EmU specifically contributes to IRC's global Economic Wellbeing efforts in critical emergencies, focusing on rapid, scalable cash and voucher assistance.

In addition to crisis response, IRC uses Anticipatory Action (AA) to deliver support before climate-related shocks occur, mainly through cash assistance. This approach, part of IRC's Climate Practice Area, relies on predictive data and timely action to reduce impact and ensure continued support after the shock.

The Emergency Cash & Anticipatory Action Specialist plays a key role in bridging IRC's emergency response and anticipatory action efforts. Based within the Emergency Unit's Quality in Emergencies (QiE) team, and working closely with the Climate Practice Area, this position supports the alignment of emergency cash programming and pre-shock interventions under IRC's Anticipatory Action (AA) Follow the Forecasts approach.

You'll collaborate with regional technical advisors to ensure country teams, especially those at high risk of climate-related shocks or on IRC's emergency watchlist, are "cash ready" for both rapid emergency response and proactive AA programming. This includes refining and rolling out IRC's Emergency Cash Readiness Checklist, supporting country teams with actioning cash preparedness measures, and contributing to global AA project design and business development, including concept notes, budgets, and workplans.

The role also involves field visits during contingency planning phases of AA interventions to support with intervention design, and occasionally providing back-stop support to emergency start-ups in new country programs. It's a dynamic position for someone with deep expertise in emergency cash programming and a passion for connecting preparedness and response to deliver timely, impactful support to communities both before and after crises hit.

Major Responsibilities:

• Support the EmU STA for Cash and Emergencies and the IRC's regional TAs in ensuring IRC country programs in the IRC's Emergency Watchlist Countries and those with forecasted climate events implement specific actions to ensure cash readiness by conducting baseline assessments of preparedness and actioning steps to improve readiness for cash including staff training and capacity building, SOP development.
• Provide expert remote or in-person support focusing on conducting readiness assessments, training staff on CVA, mapping and contracting implementing partners and context-appropriate financial service providers, and leveraging digital technologies to enhance efficiency, scale, and speed.
• Lead the development and improvement of key strategic resources for cash and basic needs in emergencies including Technical Frameworks and user-friendly program implementation tools (IRC's STEP toolkits) for use during emergency and AA interventions.
• Support set up for and standardization of emergency cash and basic needs M&E systems/practices for emergency and AA responses by partnering with Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) teams in EmU, the ERD Technical Unit, and IRC's Measurement Unit.
• As needed, support Household Economic Analysis (HEA) and AA contingency planning and ensure interventions are poised to deliver quality and compliant CVA (and if required, other types of distributions), including components of targeting, selection, transfer value calculation, distribution, monitoring, and learning. This might include in-person deployments.
• Track budgets and expenditures and support donor engagement for strategic projects, when needed.

Business Development and Strategic Direction:

• Along with the STA for Cash & Emergencies, support the AA team with strategy and overall program design in relation to the CVA components (and other distribution-based programming).
• Work with EmU, TU, and AA leads to refine how we can (and when we should) ensure both pre-shock and post-shock support is provided to the affected communities, and identify priorities and opportunities for strategic program implementation.
• Provide technical inputs to AA business development on cash or other distribution components, ensuring technical quality and adherence with IRC CVA policies and procedures.
• Collaborate with the AA team in exploring AA design options that spans other outcome areas (not just economic/basic needs), including health, WASH, education, and protection; and that forecast and act on different types of events, including conflict, etc.
• Champion a culture of effective and respective partnerships and promote partner-led emergency and AA programming in line with IRC's "why not partner?" and 'cash-first' approach.
• Other support in advancing and cash and AA programming within and outside of IRC as requested.

Team Culture (cross-cutting):

• Build and maintain strong working relationships with EmU, TechEx, AA, and regional colleagues and continually promote a culture of partnership and collaboration.
• Cultivate and maintain a positive, collaborative, safe and protective work environment, while additionally setting an example of 'One IRC'-way of working within the team, EmU and the wider organization.
• Contribute to efforts across EmU to promote gender equality, diversity and more inclusive practice across our programming and our ways of working.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Senior Technical Advisor, Cash and Emergencies with management in partnership with the Senior Anticipatory Action Specialist.

Position directly supervises: N/A. When required, may temporarily supervise external emergency roster or country team personnel.

Other contacts: Close working relationships with other technical sectors in the EmU's Quality in Emergencies (QiE) team (Health, Protection, Education, Partnerships) and the Director of Program Quality and Performance in Emergencies; operations staff across EmU (especially Finance and Supply Chain); the ERD Technical Unit (including Regionally aligned Cash TAs); the Anticipatory Action team (including climate analysts); and the Director for Program Quality & performance in Emergencies.

Job Requirements:

Education: University degree in a related field such as economics or related field.

Work Experience: 6+ years of experience in CVA programming, food security, or emergency livelihoods programming in low-resource settings, with 3+ years working in emergency settings (conflict, disaster/crisis, and outbreaks). Experience starting-up cash and basic needs emergency responses, and working on AA programming or similar forecast-based finance, is strongly preferred.

Field Experience: 3+ years of field years working in emergency or protracted humanitarian crisis settings (i.e. conflict, disaster/crisis, and outbreaks) in basic needs, CVA, food security, etc. A minimum of two different country experiences required.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Demonstrated expertise in humanitarian basic needs and food security assessment, strategy development, program design, operational planning, proposal development, implementation, and in monitoring.
• Ability to provide technical assistance and transfer knowledge and skills, either through formal/informal training, on the job coaching and mentoring, adapting to needs and level.
• Extremely organized, with excellent skills in prioritization and multi-tasking. Proven project management experience.
• Genuine interest in and commitment to collaborating with local and national NGOs and government partners in emergency health programs. Experience with IRC's PEERS approach preferred.
• Effectiveness in bridging conceptual frameworks and practical guidance, ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable and relevant action.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to facilitate effective collaboration within the organization externally with local partners.
• Ability to work with multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams and proven ability to develop positive relationships with global, local and remote team members, while providing and coordinating context-appropriate technical assistance.
• Excellence in organized oral and written communication and excellence in information technology.
• Proven ability to deliver results under pressure and in a timely manner.
• Strong track record as a capable trainer able to effectively transfer technical knowledge and skills Demonstrated success in working with donors, partners, project design, and business proposal development.

Language Skills: Fluency in English and high-level of proficiency in either French, Arabic or Spanish required.

Working Environment: Standard office or remote work environment with 30% travel as necessary, including in unstable and low-resource settings and acute emergency responses.

Standards of Professional Conduct: The IRC and IRC workers adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality. In