TTA - Compliance Officer, Organizational Assessment / European Donors

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Title: TTA - Compliance Officer, Organizational Assessment / European Donors

Sector: Compliance

Location: Any IRC location

Start Date: 2nd December 2024

Duration: 4 Months

Scope of work & objectives:

The Awards Management Unit

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) is responsible for building, maintaining, and strengthening relationships with public and institutional donors and position IRC as a partner of choice for delivering programs for our clients. This means working to expand IRC's portfolio and diversify our relationships, as well as supporting the successful and compliant management and implementation of awards, whether directly or through partners.

AMU Compliance & Policy

As part of the wider Awards Management Unit, AMU Compliance & Policy (C&P) develops and manages donor compliance-related tools, guidance and templates; it tracks and communicates changes in donor regulations and builds knowledge of compliance throughout the IRC. The C&P team offers escalated support in case of complex donor and partnerships compliance questions and to carry out supplementary reviews of agreements where needed.

The coverage needed

The Compliance Officer- Organizational Assessment/ European donors will be on a TTA from December 2nd, 2024 to March 31st, 2025, and AMU Compliance & Policy team is looking for a TTA cover for this period, with at least three sessions of one full day handover before and after that period as necessary.

The candidate is responsible for ensuring that the Donor FAQs and Repository is updated, and he/she will be supporting any Organizational HQ Assessments for donors. This requires working with different focal points of different HQ department.

Under the supervision of the Senior compliance officer European Donors, the Compliance officer- Organizational Assessment/ European donors will be also assessing IRC's ability to comply with DG HOME/ DG JUSTICE donor requirements, determine and support negotiation strategies and provide compliance support throughout the duration of the relationship. This role ensures a culture of compliance by providing advice and guidance on the specific donor's rules and regulations for grants and contracts, and promotes adherence to IRC's procedures to ensure that all IRC staff, project partners, subcontractors, and sub-awardees are in compliance with the donor's requirements. The Compliance Officer - provides guidance to relevant staff to improve their understanding of the terms and conditions of grants and contracts by providing donor compliance advice so that programs are delivered responsibly with minimized compliance risk. The role also advises implementing teams in areas of risk analysis and mitigation. The Compliance Officer- Organizational Assessment/ European donors reports to the Senior Compliance Officer European Donors.

Key Working Relationships

• Regular ongoing engagement: Program and Awards Support Teams (AMU), Business Development (AMU), Strategic Partnerships (AMU), Planning and Strategic Operations (AMU), Subawards and Partnerships (within AMU C&P), Resources and Acquisitions Management (RAI Europe).
• Other relevant ad-hoc contacts: Ethics and Compliance Unit, Office of General Counsel, Global Supply Chain, Finance, Human Resources, CRRD-Safeguarding

Key Accountabilities:

• Under the coordination and supervision of the Senior compliance officer- European donors:

Organizational Headquarters Assessments:

• Become familiar with IRC key organizational HQ assessments and their requirements from established donors:
• ECHO: Partner Requirements such as ex-ante assessment, ECHO fiche, ECHO Periodic Assessment and Declaration of Honor
• GFFO: Full Partner Assessment and Quality Profile
• FCDO: Headquarters Assessment
• SIDA Humanitarian Framework Agreement (HFA): Internal control review, organizationa application, updated annual supplementary application;
• Set up and maintain a calendar and establish processes and procedures to ensure all above is planned, organized, and submitted in time and with the required quality;
• Set up, maintain and develop knowledge management systems and processes to support both organizational and project-specific donor due diligence/pre-qualification processes, with the understanding that the project-specific assessments are not covered nor coordinated under this role.
• Support the Senior Compliance Officer- European donors in reaching out and following up with subject-matter experts to collect and update relevant information;
• As requested by the Senior compliance officer- European donors, provide support to the final revision of any submission to donors, including management responses as required;
• Coordinate with Planning and Strategic Operations team to ensure consistency of information and consistent knowledge management between project and organizational HQ assessments;
• In coordination with AMU colleagues, identify potential other established or highly strategic donors which may require regular organizational HQ assessments, and include them in scope.

DG Home/DG Justice/DG Research and Innovation/DG Employment or any other institutional European donors funding Europe-based Programmes:

• Serve as the AMU C&P focal point for compliance matters for European institutional donors funding Programmes based within Europe such as: DG Home/Justice, DG Research and Innovation, DG Employment or any other donors in Europe as required for RAI (Refugee, Asylum and Integration);
• Ensure that appropriate IRC internal collaborators are advised of any changes made to RAI Europe donors regulations in a timely and user-friendly manner;
• In collaboration with the Senior Compliance Officer - European donors provide interpretation of RAI Europe donors regulations/policies;
• Engage with AMU Program and Award Support and RAM Teams to provide input and develop solutions on major compliance matters and to ensure there is a strong understanding of what issues need to be brought up;
• Work with the AMU Compliance and Policy team to assist in the review of and development of IRC policies, tools, templates and guidelines to enable efficient and compliant project implementation;
• Work with the AMU Compliance and Policy Subaward and Partnership team, to improve and develop donor specific subaward templates for RAI Europe donors;
• In collaboration with the Subaward and Partnership team, review and complement as necessary IRC partnership policies procedures and tools (PEERS) to ensure they are suitable to compliantly and effectively handle partners under RAI Europe donors requirements;
• Develop and maintain strong relations with IRC internal stakeholders such as other AMU departments, Finance, Global Supply Chain, Ethics and Compliance Unit, and Office of General Counsel as needed; and external collaborators as relevant.

Other responsibilities

• Subject to workload and evolving organizational needs:
• Support the Senior Compliance Officer- European donors on other statutory donors as the need arises;
• Represent IRC in external fora and liaise with donors;
• Participate in special projects and initiatives;
• Work with the Senior Compliance Officer - European donors to identify training needs and to craft, communicate, launch and provide training on RAI Europe donors rules and regulations;
• Other responsibilities as assigned by the Senior Compliance Officer, European donors.

Requirements:

Essential

• Fluency (native-speaker or comparable level) in English;
• Strong interpersonal skills: the ability to work efficiently both independently and in a team environment;
• An understanding of compliance, risk, and ethics and a keen interest in learning and promoting donor compliance as an effective collaborative risk management tool and a way to add more value for the organization;
• Keen attention to detail and solution focused/problem solving approach to work;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to optimally convey sophisticated topics in a way that is accessible to non-specialists;
• Experience of, and the ability to, read and analyze sophisticated documents;
• Experience with knowledge management systems and procedures, and knowledge of data and databases good practices;
• Knowledge of statutory donors (ideally DG Home/DG Justice) ideally with experience working in the function areas of compliance, business development, strategic relationship and/or grants management throughout the project management lifecycle;
• High level of tolerance for change; flexible work demeanor and ability to meet unexpected demands;
• Ability to successfully liaise with a range of staff and external collaborators.

Desirable

• Experience working in the field of development and/or humanitarian aid with NGOs, government bodies, multilaterals;
• Experience in reviewing and/or negotiating donor awards and sub-award agreements/sub-contracts;
• Experience in interpreting and applying statutory and regulatory language in awards and contracts from statutory donors;
• Previous experience developing and providing (compliance) training in a multicultural setting and developing policies, guidelines, tools and templates;
• Proficiency in German strongly desirable;
• Proficiency in other European languages, particularly Greek, Italian, Polish languages desirable.
• For the UK office, candidates must have the right to work in the UK. For the office in Brussels, EU citizenship or a valid work permit is required.