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.
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.
Launched at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019, the Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) brings together 110 partners, governments, international organizations, NGOs, and technical actors, who are at the forefront of Early Warning, Early Action (EWEA), and Anticipatory Action (AA). REAP is a platform for alignment, influence, and acceleration.
The new REAP 2030 Strategy is the result of a collective effort across this ecosystem. It reflects a shared ambition: A world where people are resilient to the climate crisis because risk-informed early action is taken wherever and whenever it is needed.
To get there, the strategy focuses on what the system actually needs now, not more fragmentation, but coherence, clarity, and scale.
REAP partners agree that only by working together across sectoral silos and involving those at risk, can global ability to act ahead of climate extremes and disasters be strengthened. IFRC hosts the REAP Secretariat at their offices in Geneva, Switzerland, with the Secretariat being fully independent of the IFRC.
Job Purpose
Under the supervision of the Head of Secretariat (HoS), the Policy Officer will ensure REAP partners co-create ideas and processes that lead to strong collective policy messages and pathways to have joint influence in integrating EWEA into Governmental and institutional DRM policies and strategies.
This position will contribute to achieve REAP’s 2030 strategy policy integration pillar. The Policy Officer will lead the collective influencing functions ensuring that EWEA does not remain a standalone agenda, but is fully mainstreamed into global, regional, and national priorities, policies and laws (with a key focus on accelerating legislation processes and disaster risk financing for early action). The role will contribute to national and regional EWEA leadership in alignment with existing global frameworks and influencing the 2030 global agendas (post Sendai, SDGs etc), to ensure EWEA arrives where it is needed the most.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
1. Policy Implementation
- Develop and coordinate the implementation of the REAP 2030 Policy Plan, ensuring alignment with the broader REAP Strategy and Secretariat priorities, and alignment with EW4All policy-related ambitions.
- Desing policy processes for partners to agree on actionable policy priorities.
- Together with Secretariat members, design and implement innovative policy dialogues to strengthening and ensure the REAP convening branding quality.
- Working closely with Senior Officer, Knowledge and Policy Insights, ensure the policy messages arrive to the right audiences by designing targeted policy processes within and outside REAP spaces.
- Support the development of policy activities to shape the post-2027 Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative and contribute to the evolution of the 2030 global agendas (Sendai Framework, SDGs, climate and humanitarian governance processes).
- Provide sounding board advise to the Secretariat and partners in ensuring effective policy processes across all relevant activities in the REAP operational plan.
2. Global and Multilateral Policy Engagement
- Identify and prioritize key policy spaces for influence.
- Together with the HoS, work closely with key multilateral actors (including IFRC, WMO, UNDRR, UNDP, WB and others) to ensure coherence and strategic alignment of policy processes (including legislative and governance) related to Early Warning Systems (EWS) and Anticipatory Action (AA).
- Coordinate closely with the IFRC Disaster Law and DCC teams to ensure complementarity and synergies in advancing EWS and AA policy within and beyond the IFRC network.
- Engage humanitarian policy actors to strengthen the linkage between humanitarian AA evolution and national EWS processes.
- Support influencing donors in integrating ‘preparing legal and regulatory frameworks for EWS/AA as part of Disaster Risk Management (DRM)’ in their funding envelopes.
- Lead REAP’s policy engagement towards the integration of EWS and AA within the Treaty on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (Disaster Treaty).
3. From Regional to National Policy Enablement
- Working closely with regional mechanisms, and in coordination with EW4All Pillar lead regional focal points, support the development of a regional policy approach in collaboration with REAP regional secondees, and key partners by identifying priority opportunities and building structured five-year regional policy influencing process (how to get from A to B from a policy perspective using existing policy spaces).
- Coordinate the design and implementation of innovative policy processes that focus on shaping the new EWS and AA policy priorities to ensure Early Action is at the forefront of policy processes.
- Support partners in leveraging regional and national DRM policy and legislative processes to streamline EWEA within them.
- Lead the development and implementation of activities to post-disaster policy reform, to capitalise on “windows of opportunity” following disasters (e.g. policy surge support mechanisms).
- Lead the design of a policy process for the creation and sustainability of a network of parliamentary champions to drive policy reform at national, regional, and global levels, building on REAP’s existing board governmental representation, and in alignment with EW4All Pillar leads.
Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)
4. Policy Influence and Public Momentum
- In collaboration with Senior Officer, Knowledge & Policy Insights, design and implement policy influence strategies through media engagement, including collaboration with regional and media collectives to elevate awareness of legislative and financing opportunities for EWEA/AA.
- Contribute to build coherence across partner policy messages to strengthen collective influence and reach key decision-makers effectively.
- Coordinate the design and implementation of the REAP policy academy.
- Coordinate high quality policy related capacity strengthening activities (including the policy academy).
Duties applicable to all staff
- Work actively towards the achievement of the REAP 2030 strategy mission and vision.
- Abide by and work in accordance with the REAP and Red Cross and Red Crescent principles.
- Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager.
Education
Required
- University/bachelor’s degree in relevant field (e.g. international relations, public policy, law, environmental studies, etc.)
Preferred
- Post-graduate degree in relevant field.
- Certificate/training in Project Management.
Experience
Required
- Min. 3-5 years of relevant professional experience in policy in the development and/or humanitarian sector,
- At least 2 years of experience in policy process development or implementation, influencing legal and policy reforms.
- Track record in designing, organizing and coordinating high-level convenings that result in concrete outcomes (policy, financing or joint initiatives).
- Experience with global and regional policy frameworks and key regional policy mechanism. E.g. Sendai, Paris Agreement, African Union Commission, ASEAN etc.
- Multi-stakeholders coordination experience, preferably in the development/humanitarian sector.
Preferred
- 2 years of project management.
- Experience working within networks, partnerships and coalitions.
- Experience in Early Warning, Early Action and Anticipatory Action.
Knowledge, Skills and Languages
Required
- Proven ability to diagnose and address structural and political barriers to policy and legislation change.
- Good knowledge of international and national law and policy-making processes.
- Good understanding of disaster risk reduction and management concepts.
- Good understanding of the global humanitarian system.
- Ability to work with minimum supervision.
- Ability to work effectively with, and in, inter-disciplinary teams.
- Attention to detail and focus on the delivery of results and accountability.
- Advocacy skills and experience.
- Proven good judgment and ability to work with complete integrity and confidentiality.
- Excellent communication skills – written and verbal.
- Strong networking, representational and negotiation skills. An ability to be proactive and persuasive.
- Project management skills.
- Ability to work with sensitive issues in a multicultural environment and with virtual or/and dispersed teams.
- Outstanding planning and coordination skills within diverse multicultural environments.
- Well organized, able to work under pressure and manage priorities within deadlines for timely delivery.
- Strong interpersonal skills, good judgment, and maturity.
- 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.
Preferred
- Information management skills.
Languages
Required
- Fluent spoken and written English.
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; Customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.
Application Instruction
Please submit your application in English only.
