Who are we?
The position is anchored in the Programme Division, within the Programme Innovation and Business Engagement team but holds the broader Programme Division, the External Relations Division, the Operations and Finance Divisions and the Communications Department.
About the job
Today’s crises are more frequent, last longer and affect more people. A conglomerate of root causes, conflict, disaster, pre-existing vulnerabilities affecting both internally displaced populations and refugees strain the financial means available for assisting these populations. Despite growing international humanitarian assistance in 2017, at USD 27.3 billion, calls by UN and governments have been made repetitively for alternative and innovative financing, trying to bridge an increasing financing gap. The Global Compact on Refugees calls for more equitable burden sharing, seeing that poor countries, or regions affected by conflict and instability are disproportionately carrying the lion’s share of hosting large refugee populations.
Notwithstanding the broad recognition of the above, and the general impetus, need and willingness from the side of both private sector, companies, foundations and investment funds to invest in ‘frontier markets’ aiming at both financial and social return, and the humanitarian sector, challenges persist in finding a common language and ground. Despite strong innovations, it is still too early and a wider range of tools and combined financing opportunities are needed for scaling these initiatives and finding new ones.
Early studies of existing work with alternative financing, in particular ODI/HPG (New Financing Partners for Humanitarian Impact, 2019) emphasizes the need to match up carefully identified needs with relevant tools
For DRC it is highly relevant to further investigate both blended financing opportunities and market-based solutions, but very few attempts have taken place. Therefore, DRC’s Programme Innovation and Business Engagement team has dedicated a workstream to (innovative) Alternative Financing that would substantiate and give input to DRC’s thought leader processes, but also position and increase DRCs experience and partnership possibilities within this area.
The incumbent will lead the global work track on alternative financing for displaced populations, i.e. ‘move from grant-making toward employing a wider range of financial tools and scaling up investment in poor countries[1]’ aiming at both financial and social return, but also render concrete support to initiatives that are being piloted in several regions.
Your main duties and responsibilities will be:
About you
Required
Excellent communication skills
In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies: