IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis, GIS and remote sensing. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, which allows particularly IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.
REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts, supporting and working within the framework of the humanitarian reform process. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.
ACTED is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1993, which supports vulnerable populations, affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. ACTED provides continued support to vulnerable communities by ensuring the sustainability of post-crisis interventions and engaging long-term challenges facing our target populations, in order to break the poverty cycle, foster development and reduce vulnerability to disasters. Their interventions seek to cover the multiple aspects of humanitarian and development crises through a multidisciplinary approach which is both global and local, and adapted to each context. Their 3,300 staff are committed to responding to emergencies worldwide, to supporting recovery and rehabilitation, towards sustainable development.
We are currently looking for a REACH Research Manager to lead our Population Movement and Protection Unit in South Sudan.
Department: IMPACT
Position: REACH Research Manager
Contract duration: 12 months
Starting Date: July 2020
Location: Juba, South Sudan
IMPACT, through REACH, has been implementing programming in South Sudan since 2012. Responding to the Sudan Border Crisis, REACH initially engaged through coordinated information management support – in the form of refugee camp mapping and service provision analyses, thematic assessments, and multi-sectorial needs assessments – in Maban County, Upper Nile State and Pariang County, Unity State. IMPACT was engaged by DFID to provide a series of impact evaluations of their BRACE programming across Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States in 2013; a programme with run for two years, included 5 total assessments, and touched a total of more than 20,000 households. Immediately following the conflict of December 2013, REACH expanded its programming to include the IDP response, participating in Initial Rapid Needs Assessments of conflict affected areas, providing mapping and monthly service provision analyses for major IDP sites around the country, and running large-scale IDP return intentions assessments.
Overall, 2018 saw the expansions of both IMPACT and REACH programming in South Sudan to all 10 states, spanning the refugee, IDP and development responses, and covering diverse activities such as cross-border port and road monitoring, assessments of hard to reach areas, flood mapping and vulnerability analysis, market monitoring and supply chain analysis, accountability to affected populations, and analysis of tensions and conflicts over access to natural resources. In 2019, REACH expanded its role within the technical space, increasing involvement in Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), Needs Analysis Working Group, UN technical agencies, and with academics. In response, REACH has also expanded into multiple new research cycle streams outside of its traditional Area of Knowledge approach – including cluster specific support, population movement, and AAP research.
The Population Movement and Protection (PMP) Unit focuses on carrying out in-depth analysis on population movement, including displacement, migration, and returns, community perceptions of and preferences in the response, as well as broader contextual analysis. The unit carries out both longer term research projects as well as frequent ad hoc assessments, and engages externally with both technical and research agencies, and key analysis and working group forums to identify information gaps and provide support in linking analysis to decision making. REACH’s PMP unit strategy follows three main pillars:
Identifying and monitoring key drivers, routes, and trends of population movement and the challenges faced by populations on the move in South Sudan and improving data quality, availability, and analysis and contextualising complex population movement and mobility patterns– including identifying and filling key information gaps.
Increasing data availability and analysis on accountability to affected populations (AAP) and communication and community engagement (CCE)** in South Sudan and bridging the gap between the data, analysis and decision making and work towards the mainstreaming of AAP within the response.
Conducting and providing contextual analysis on the evolving humanitarian situation in South Sudan to nuance REACH’s internal analysis as well as the wider response’s understanding of the context to better respond to emerging needs, including through the Needs Analysis Working Group (NAWG).
The RM oversees multiple work streams that serve to analyse movement and mobility in South Sudan to flag areas of concern where atypical population movement or widespread mobility restrictions are at risk of increasing humanitarian needs and identifying where vulnerable populations are— such as through port and road monitoring, population movement baseline and tracking, and area based assessments (ABAs) in areas of return. Additionally, the PMP RM oversees REACH’s AAP and CE work streams as well as a project assessing peaceful coexistence in partnership with Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility (CSRF).
The PMP Unit’s work includes a combination of monthly factsheets, ad-hoc assessments, and deep dive research into better understanding and contextualising movement dynamics, AAP and community perceptions and preferences, and context analysis. Within each workflow, close coordination with the other Unit Managers facilitates the inclusion of population movement and contextual analyses into REACH’s other work streams, including the Shock Monitoring Index (SMI) system housed under the Sectors Unit, as well as mainstreaming AAP principles across the country mission.
REACH’s work in the PMP Unit around improving data quality and availability also feeds into strengthening the feedback system between assessments, analysis and decision making through a variety of mechanisms, including information management and decision support systems and working groups of which the PMP Unit is directly providing technical support, such as the Population Working Group, Needs Analysis Working Group (NAWG), Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) Technical Working Group, Community Engagement Working Group, Common Services and Support cluster and other groups that often cross cut the various clusters.
The Research Manager will be responsible for overseeing the development and strategy of the Population Movement and Protection Unit, under the supervision of the IMPACT Country Coordinator and IMPACT HQ in Geneva. He/she will be responsible for the implementation and completion of the various work streams within the PMP Unit. He/She will be responsible for engaging with partners, supporting in providing population movement, AAP, and contextual analysis, and provide technical support in analysing, reviewing and validating Population Movement and Protection Unit products and research cycles. He/She will be responsible for engagement with analytical forums and workshops, including the Needs Analysis Working Group, Population Working Group, Communications and Community Engagement Working Group, and other relevant forums or working groups. He/she will also be responsible for related logistics, partner coordination, reporting, grants management, and finance requirements and will be required to provide input to the strategic development of REACH in the country and region. He/she will also be expected to coordinate and collaborate closely with the IMPACT Country Coordinator and the other heads of units within REACH South Sudan.
Summary
The REACH Research Manager (RM) shall be responsible for:
RESEARCH Management and Coordination
Objective 1: Oversight and Expansion of Population Movement and AAP Research Cycles and Grants.
The RM will be responsible for ensuring that all current research cycles are effectively implemented and meet contractual deliverables. The RM will ensure that all ToRs/information products/disseminations meet the quality standards and requirements set by the Country Coordinator and IMPACT HQ. Furthermore, the RM will work with external partners to ensure that the PMP research cycles remain relevant and useful for the informing humanitarian response and in collaboration with the Country Coordinator and Unit Managers, ensure that Population Movement and Protection Unit RCs are utilised in all appropriate forums
Objective 2: Responsible for Population Movement Baseline (PMB) project and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) project under the Humanitarian Information Systems – Strengthening evidence-based decision making in South Sudan - HARISS Programme.
The RM will oversee the continued implementation of both the PMB and AAP components of the DFID HARISS programme that have been ongoing since 2018. The RM will work on identifying new areas of research and key information gaps relevant to the projects and work towards further operationalizing and promoting the use of the PMB findings to inform analysis and decision making around vulnerable populations on the move as well as mainstreaming AAP principles within decision making in the response. He/She will play a critical role in discussing the extension and expansion of the work conducted under these two activities and seeking additional resources moving forward.
Objective 3: Responsible for partnership with Saferworld and Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility (CSRF) to carry out collaborative research to provide contextual analysis and the monitoring of peaceful coexistence in South Sudan.
The RM will oversee REACH’s engagement with CSRF as well as be responsible for ensuring the smooth development and execution of the project as well as ensuring the project continually meets the objectives initially set out. The RM will work on identifying new areas of research and key information gaps relevant to context sensitivity and work in close coordination with the IMPACT Country Coordinator to further expand the project.
Objective 4: Engagement with Needs Analysis Working Group (NAWG).
The RM, in collaboration with the other Unit Managers, under the close supervision of the Country Coordinator, will ensure effective engagement and leadership of the NAWG. He/She will ensure that the Population Movement and Protection Unit is able to feed timely and credible information into the NAWG, including insights from the population movement baseline and the population movement monitoring system, along with overseeing the consolidation of pre-meeting information, trends and contextual analysis, and provide technical support during the bi-weekly meetings. He/She will also work to ensure the NAWG expands its linkages to relevant decision-making bodies and agencies.
Objective 5: Engagement with relevant external partners
The RM, in close coordination with the IMPACT Country Coordinator and other REACH SSD Unit Managers, is responsible for coordinating cross cutting and in-depth research cycles and information, to support a further integration of population movement analysis. Additionally, He/She with regularly engage with relevant technical agencies or bodies around population movement, protection, and context sensitivity to support and add value to both data collection and analysis.
The Research Manager is responsible for overseeing all analysis from each PMP Unit product into IMPACT products such as factsheets, reports and briefs using standard formats. The RM is responsible for following the designated timeline of reports to be submitted to project partners and donors. He/she must oversee the writing of timely and accurate assessment reports and factsheets, ensuring the quality and accuracy of technical information provided, as well as the confidentiality and protection of collected information. He/she will ensure that assessment reports contribute to aid coordination and planning and add to the general base of field knowledge in the country for all organisations working in the areas.
He/she will also manage the drafting of donor narrative reports and contribute to the development of financial reports through regular budgetary follow-up.
The RM will also store, organize and disseminate assessments, project documents and best practices among partners and potential partners. He/she will coordinate timely and accurate reporting to IMPACT.
The RM is responsible for day-to-day management of Population Movement and Protection Unit assessment staff, and occasionally GIS and field staff both directly and remotely. He/she is expected to guide and direct IMPACT staff and prepare and follow up workplans with each staff member that directly reports to him/her. The RM will be required to take the lead in the recruitment of IMPACT assessment staff in coordination with the ACTED HR Officer. This will include the preparation of ToRs, observation of recruitment procedures by planning recruitment needs in advance and undertaking interviews. The RM may be asked to take on additional workstreams as a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT), in coordination with the other research managers.
The RM will ensure that all assessment officers and field teams are comprehensively briefed on the objective, expected outputs and that the overall implementation strategy of any given activity is clearly understood. He/she will conduct regular check-ins with staff within the unit, ensure that deliverables are on track, as well as act as the main pastoral focal point for all staff. He/she will ensure that project/field staff are given training and complete all the necessary documentation in line with program requirements set by IMPACT.
Representation of IMPACT in cluster and multi-sector meetings/ technical working groups in country and follow up on technical issues identified in cluster meetings in other parts of the country. This specifically will include liaising with external partners to identify potential for data sets to be integrated into existing databases and mapped to support the coordination of the broader humanitarian community.
The RM will further represent IMPACT vis-a-vis current and potential donors and communicate relevant information to the IMPACT Country Coordinator. He/she will participate in inter-NGO meetings and those of UN agencies and any other relevant inter-governmental institutions at the national or provincial level.
More generally, the RM is expected to contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organisation, notably through the application of IMPACT’s mandate, ethics, values and standpoint with regards to other actors.
The staff member is responsible for ensuring that all relations with the communities we work are conducted in a respectful and consultative manner. Due attention must be paid to ensuring that communities are adequately consulted and informed about IMPACT programme objectives, activities, beneficiary selection criteria, and methodologies. This is the responsibility of every IMPACT staff member.
This vacancy is archived.