Somalia: Humanitarian Innovation Program Coordinator

Humanitarian Innovation Program Coordinator

Purpose of the position:

To guide the strategic direction and manage the operations of the Country Response Innovation Lab. The Humanitarian Innovation Programme Coordinator will drive and prioritize the development of diverse income streams to ensure the sustainability of the Lab. He/she will oversee and support innovation in the Country Lab through the Resilience Innovation Lab (RIL) partners and by building the country wide humanitarian innovation ecosystem. He / She will not only ensure innovation impact from projects in the lab, but also create a focus on learning, pivoting and flexibility.

Major Responsibilities:

LAB MANAGEMENT

• Work with Country Lab Executive Committee to define and implement innovation strategy, projects and methodologies that envision, develop and incubate innovative ideas. This includes collaborating on new product design, social business ideas and types of response programming, designing and leading research and other ideas which improve humanitarian work in this Country.
• Drive and prioritize a funding acquisition strategy to ensure the Lab has access to diverse income streams in order to execute the strategy, recruit needed staff, and ensure the sustainability of the Lab, support innovation projects;
• Provide full project management oversight to ensure excellence in execution of all Country Lab plans and programs. Lead in project planning and coordination to ensure timely and quality implementation of all program activities.
• Focus on acceleration or scale up of projects that succeed in the lab and documentation and sharing of those which fail.
• Facilitate entrenchment of a culture of innovation through effective cultivation of ideas, best practices, pivoting and harnessing of lessons.
• Support on the monitoring and evaluation framework & systems and processes along with the partners and the Innovation Manager.

PARTNERSHIP MANAGEMENT

• Develop partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders involving technology, commerce, innovation, humanitarian and government in the Country Lab.
• Lead in ensuring effective management of resources by providing leadership to the management of sub grantee agreements or contracts with partners.
• Ensure effective partnership to bring in staff capacity and support from a range of public and private organizations to promote new types of thinking and implementation of quality programs with support from people who have the appropriate skill set.
• Support the development of the Country Lab Executive partners and the governance structures that support this entity
• Support the process of developing strong, strategic partnerships, coalitions and networks; Provide leadership in coordinating and managing those specific partnerships to ensure that their outputs are aligned with the objectives of the Country Lab.

LEARNING & REPORTING

• Maintain accurate documentation of best practices, case studies, results, learning and impact of programs.
• Contribute to the development and testing of monitoring and evaluation tools for the different functions offered within the Lab
• Document strategic thinking, dashboard reports, status of innovation implementation and matters of partnership, leadership or management concern of the Country Lab.
• Report monthly progress to the Lab Executive Committee and the RIL Central Support Unit

Qualifications: Education/Knowledge/Technical Skills and Experience

• A Bachelor’s degree in International development, business administration, social policy, communications or related field of study.
• A minimum of 5 years’ work experience in Humanitarian practice with at least 2 at senior management positions.
• Must demonstrate strong leadership skills, excellent flexible project management skills with very good partnership management experience.
• A professional with a positive attitude, experience working with consortiums, capacity to prioritize and manage a diverse range of staff members, projects and activities.
• Demonstrates well-developed interpersonal skills, excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, as well as negotiation skills.
• Strong leadership and demonstrated ability to work independently and within a team, prioritize tasks and manage multiple activities with attention to detail, meeting tight deadlines under pressure.
• Ability to solve complex problems and to represent the lab to a variety of stakeholders in a range of forums
• Able to work on a cross-cultural environment with a multi-national staff.
• Past experience in an incubator, a start-up advisory, social enterprise, innovation space, project management or entrepreneurial experience will have an added advantage.

Working Environment

• Work environment: Office-based with frequent travel to the field
• Travel: 30% Domestic/international travel is required.
• On call: The Position holder will be on call in case of any emergencies that require his/her urgent attention.

Interested and qualified candidates to apply through our careers website https://careers.wvi.org/jobs/somalia/field-operations/humanitarian-innovation-programme-coordinator/9951

on or before 24th July 2018