Strategic Partnerships and Scale Director

1. Critical change management support to CP SMTs to evolve strategy, management and personnel structures, roles and competencies across all program and operations departments, systems and business processes, and culture, in accordance with action plans developed together with each CP SMT. This includes remote and in-person support to DDPs, DDOs, DDFs, CDs and the broader SMT to:

• Partner first: define our role in strategy, program and project design, based on our added value to local actors and systems, including in SAP, design and GNG processes
• Partner as equals: identify, establish and foster strategic partnerships with civil society organizations, government entities and private sector actors, as well as with networks
• Building blocks: establish the six core building blocks of partnership success in each country office:
  o Co-facilitate a partnership self-assessment to identify priority areas for change, reflected in an action plan, updated annually
  o Design and develop management structures to facilitate a coherent, one-IRC approach to partnership, for example through a partnership working group and standing SMT agenda
  o Design, budget and plan for appropriate personnel structures across all departments, based on the current partnership portfolio and ambition; define clear roles and responsibilities across all departments, based on global frameworks tailored for context, integrated into recruitment competencies, job descriptions, and accountability for those roles through performance objectives.
  o Address the critical partnership training needs in each country office in the region, including a specific focus on the country SMTs
  o Ensure adequate stakeholder analysis is in place across geographical and outcome areas to inform analysis of IRC’s value add, using a systems thinking approach
  o Foster collaborative design with local partners at the strategy, program and project levels, including collaborative project budget development that maximizes impact at scale including by prioritizing resource allocation to the actors leading delivery
• Set Strategy100 Phase 2 Strategy Action Plans that reflect IRC’s true added value to local actors and systems in each CA country context
• Design and develop models for meaningful partner participation in key strategic decision-making processes, including strategy action plan development
• Establish effective feedback mechanisms for understanding partner perspectives, and ensuring accountability to that feedback
• Identify and address any program, operational or finance business processes that constrain the CP’s partnership ambitions, and work with relevant departments to identify solutions
• Co-facilitate ‘townhall discussions’ and other dialogue platforms for staff to explore opportunities, challenges, enablers and barriers associated with this organizational evolution, including any perceptions or concerns that staff may have, for example relating to implications for their jobs
• Develop the team culture required to partner as equals, including through the direction and tone the SMT set, their modeling of partnership principles, the language they use, the competencies they value, and the successes they celebrate
• Identify and implement approaches and mechanisms through which the SMT can effectively incentivize, celebrate, and establish accountability for progress towards the SAP partnership spending and strategic partnerships targets
• Advocate to influence donor policies and practices that enable equitable partnerships and systems strengthening
• Gather and analyze data on partnership performance and system engagement to inform decision-making and continuous improvement
• Identify and test innovative approaches to systems change in collaboration with partners, with a focus on sustainability and scalability

Partnership support to technical coordinators and advisors and partnership leads in the use of PEERS to apply a ‘partner first’ approach to strategy, program and project design and to establish and develop strategic partnerships.

• This is guided by the SAP partnership ambitions, features building collaboration on strategy, program design and delivery and capacity sharing, and includes remote and in-person support to:
• Technical coordinators and advisors to analyze the roles, capacities and strategies of local civil society, government and private sector actors, to define IRC’s role based on its added value to local actors and systems in strategy and program design, as well as in Go-No Go processes
• Technical and partnership leads to identify and establish strategic partnership relationships with civil society organizations, government entities and private sector actors, as well as with networks, based on the stakeholder analysis
• Technical coordinators and advisors to identify, support and promote impact at scale priorities as defined in the country Strategic Action Plans
• CP business development strategies, approaches and planning, including the development of effective donor submissions, on major opportunities
• Partnership and technical leads to promote approaches that maximize collaboration with partners in the design and management of programs
• Promote and guide principled, collaborative, effective risk analysis and management with partners across all organizational functions, consistent with PEERS
• Promote Project Cycle Management that maximizes the participation of partners
• Foster and promote effective capacity sharing approaches across CPs, including effective project support across all organizational functions, and ensuring that we are understanding and leveraging opportunities to learn from partners
• Continuing to build the principles, skills, approaches and knowledge required for effective partnerships in CPs, including through in-person and remote training in PEERS and partnership principles, skills and approaches, and building training capacities in the country offices
• Guidance, coaching and mentoring of partnership leads in each country office
• Facilitating regional partnership communities of practice to facilitate peer learning and networking, including with partners where appropriate
• Strengthen the capacity of senior IRC staff to understand and apply systems thinking to their roles, ensuring alignment with Strategy100 objectives

Partnership support to regional functions to develop and apply their roles in partnership, in particular technical advisors, RPSTs, DRDs and RVPs as well as RFDs, RSCDs, REDs, RMACs and RSSDs. This also includes serving as a partnership resource for the DRD and the RVP in the performance of their partnership roles, including by bringing challenges and successes to their attention, and identifying and implementing approaches and mechanisms through which the RVP and DRD can effectively incentivize, celebrate, and establish accountability for progress towards the SAP partnership spending and strategic partnerships targets

The SRPS will also contribute to the global partnership roadmap designed to address constraints faced by country teams and enable the global organizational evolution required to deliver the Strategy100 partnership ambition, ensuring that work is driven by CP and partner priorities

Key Working Relationships

• Reports to: Deputy Regional Director, management in partnership with the Global Partnerships Director Primary CP & regional interlocutors: Country SMT (with DDPs as primary interlocutor) and DRD, and

Partnership Coordinators

• Significant engagement with: Regional Leadership Team, TAs, Technical Coordinators, DAMs and RVPs
  Serves as a partnership resource for: all CP and regional function