Organizational Context
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian network, with 191 member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. IFRC uses the Triple R – response, resilience and respect – to deliver on Strategy 2030. IFRC responds to disasters and crises, ensuring timely, coordinated and locally led humanitarian action. IFRC supports its members in building community resilience in the areas of climate and environment, health and wellbeing, and migration and displacement. IFRC promotes respect for our fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality, including in our work on values, power and inclusion. The IFRC focuses throughout on our core mandate – our raison d’être – of strategic and operational coordination, humanitarian diplomacy, National Society development, and accountability.
IFRC is led by its Secretary General and has its Headquarters in Geneva and five regional offices in Africa (Nairobi); the Americas (Panama); Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur); Europe (Budapest); and MENA (Beirut) as well as representation offices, service centres and delegations across the globe.
The IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.
The IFRC Country Delegation in Azerbaijan supports the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society (AzRCS) in strengthening institutional capacity, disaster preparedness systems, anticipatory action mechanisms, and community resilience programming. Azerbaijan faces a range of natural hazards including floods, earthquakes, landslides, droughts, and extreme weather events. Strengthening early warning systems, anticipatory action, and community-based disaster risk reduction is a key priority for reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience.
The SAFER-AZ programme, funded by European Union (EU), supports Enhanced Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments (EVCA), early warning dissemination, anticipatory action mechanisms, community preparedness planning, and capacity-building initiatives including First Aid (FA) and Psychological First Aid (PFA).
Job Purpose
The purpose of the position is to support and strengthen the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society (AzRCS) in the area of Early Warning and Early Action (EWEA), with a particular focus on embedding anticipatory action mechanisms within national disaster risk governance and climate adaptation frameworks.
Under the supervision of the IFRC Programme and Operations Manager, the EWEA Coordinator will support the establishment and facilitation of the national EW4ALL Pillar 4 Working Group and coordinate the national gap analysis on early warning and early action capacities. The incumbent will ensure that AzRCS early warning and anticipatory action mechanisms are strengthened in alignment with national systems led by the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR).
The EWEA Coordinator will provide technical facilitation to ensure that triggers, guidance notes, and preparedness arrangements are inclusive, actionable, and institutionally owned by national authorities, while remaining aligned with global EW4ALL standards and IFRC methodologies.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
SAFER-AZ Programme Implementation
- Support the establishment, institutional anchoring and facilitation of the national EW4ALL Pillar 4 Working Group, ensuring regular coordination meetings, agreed terms of reference, documented minutes, and follow-up on action points.
- Act as the primary national focal point for engagement with Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, ANAMA and relevant governmental stakeholders on early warning and anticipatory action matters, ensuring continuous dialogue and technical alignment.
- Coordinate and technically facilitate the national gap analysis on early warning and early action capacities, including stakeholder consultations, data consolidation, and preparation of draft findings for validation by national authorities.
- Support national authorities in the development, consultation, and validation of practical guidance notes on Early Warning and Early Action (EWEA), including definition of triggers for early action, clarification of institutional roles, and integration of inclusive communication channels.
- Ensure that early warning and anticipatory action mechanisms are coherently linked to the findings of the Disaster Law Study and National Climate Assessment, promoting institutional consistency between governance frameworks and operational preparedness arrangements.
- Contribute to the development of a costed national roadmap under the EW4ALL initiative, including identification of priority investments, institutional reforms, and capacity-building measures.
- Provide technical input into national and sub-national contingency planning processes to ensure integration of anticipatory action and early warning triggers within existing disaster management structures.
- Represent IFRC at national technical forums, coordination meetings and consultations related to disaster risk governance, climate adaptation, and early warning systems.
- Support knowledge management by documenting lessons learned, good practices and recommendations to inform national policy dialogue and potential scale-up.
- Promote accessibility and inclusiveness of early warning systems, ensuring systematic attention to women, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, and vulnerable groups in line with IFRC Protection, Gender and Inclusion (PGI) standards.
- Facilitate coordination between government institutions, AzRCS, Civil Society Organisations, academia, and technical partners to strengthen the “last mile” of early warning dissemination and ensure warnings trigger timely protective actions at community level.
- Ensure all activities comply with IFRC regulations, safeguarding standards, financial procedures, and EU visibility and reporting requirements under the SAFER-AZ Programme
Technical and programmatic support
- Provide technical advice and assistance to target AzRCS on EWEA related activities and topics, across the Early Warning System pillars.
- Ensure effective alignment between relevant projects and EW4All. Support the organization and facilitation of EWEA-related trainings and workshops for AzRCS
- Coordinate closely with IFRC technical sectors in the Country Cluster Delegation and Regional Office, including EWEA, Disaster Preparedness, Climate, PGI and CEA.
Partnership building and resource mobilization.
Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)
- Initiate and cultivate partnerships with donors, government institutions, private sector, civil society, and other stakeholders to contribute to the achievement of project results and further scale-up.
- Identify and work with key partners to ensure synergies with other programmes/initiatives and to avoid duplication of activities among actors.
- Identify and seek out opportunities for mobilizing additional resources to scale up and replicate relevant projects.
Monitoring and reporting
- Monitor progress against project indicators.
- Ensure proper documentation of activities, including attendance sheets, meetings reports, multimedia evidence, and monitoring data.
- Promote identification, documentation and synthesis of lessons learned and best practices for EWEA knowledge production, dissemination and replication.
- Contribute to narrative and financial reporting in compliance with IFRC and EU standards.
Compliance and safeguarding
- Coordinate closely with AzRCS HQ and branch leadership to ensure ownership and sustainability.
- When introducing policies, guidelines, tools and trainings, the incumbent has the responsibility to explore and consult any existing documentation and practice within the IFRC network
- Ensure compliance with IFRC policies (safeguarding, Code of Conduct, PGI, financial procedures).
- Ensure visibility and acknowledgment of EU support in all field activities and communication materials
Education
Required:
- University degree in Disaster Management, Environmental Sciences, Public Policy or related field
- Technical training in the disaster preparedness, response and recovery
Experience
Required:
- At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in disaster risk management or early warning systems
- Field experience in coordinating and managing disaster response operations
Preferred:
- Minimum of 5 years work experience with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement
- Experience in project cycle management including proposal development, budgeting, reporting, monitoring and evaluation
Knowledge, Skills and Languages
Required:
- Knowledge of RC/RC and knowledge of EU and UN global disaster response tools
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with independent decision-making capacity
- Excellent communication and inter-personal skills with the ability to represent the International Federation and to negotiate and influence people’s opinions
- Flexible and adaptable to work effectively in a multicultural environment and ability to travel at short notice
- Demonstrated core proficiency in (a) digital communication & collaboration, (b) basic digital content creation, (c) digital safety & security, (d) data literacy, and (e) problem solving with technology (including responsible use of AI assistants.
- Understanding of and commitment to IFRC’s mission and values.
- Fluent spoken and written English
- Fluent spoken and written Azerbaijanj
Preferred:
- Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic)
Competencies, Values and Comments
Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability
Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust
