ECW CORE Consortium Lead (Re-advertised)

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

Job Overview

Reporting to the EECD Coordinator, Head of Unit, the ECW CORE Consortium Lead provides overall coordination and program management leadership for the ECW CORE consortium and serves as the primary day-to-day coordination focal point across consortium members.

The Consortium Lead is responsible for ensuring the program operates as one coherent consortium, with partners progressing against agreed workplans, results, budgets, timelines and donor commitments. The position leads consortium planning and implementation follow-up, performance and financial monitoring, donor reporting, risk management, localization and institutional capacity strengthening, and cross-partner coordination and problem-solving.

The Consortium Lead will also lead and coordinate responsibilities under Outcome 3, working closely with MEHE, the Education Sector/LEG, consortium members and relevant stakeholders to strengthen sector-level crisis preparedness and education continuity mechanisms. The role works closely with consortium functional leads across Technical, PGI, MEAL, Finance and Safeguarding/PSEA while respecting the leadership and accountability assigned to each consortium member.

Major Responsibilities

1. Consortium Leadership, Governance, and cross functional coordination

• •Lead the day-to-day coordination and management of the ECW CORE consortium, acting as the central coordination point between members and ensuring timely information flow, joint planning and coherent implementation across partners, outcomes and geographic areas.
• •Support IRC and AAA as Co-Lead Grantees and Co-Chairs in preparing and facilitating Consortium Steering Committee meetings (agendas, performance, risks and decisions) and coordinate systematic follow-up of SC decisions and actions.
• •Ensure consortium governance structures and Task Teams operate in line with agreed Terms of Reference, the Consortium Agreement and ECW requirements.
• •Coordinate across the Technical, PGI, MEAL, Finance, Safeguarding/PSEA and implementation functions, maintaining clear roles and accountabilities, and facilitate cross-functional problem-solving, including working with the Technical Lead and PGI Function so that implementation findings requiring adaptation are followed through.
• •Ensure agreed consortium-wide tools, protocols and ways of working are applied consistently across members.
• •Promote equal partner participation, transparency, shared accountability and locally led decision-making in line with the program’s localization commitments.
• •Escalate strategic issues affecting program scope, results, budgets, risks or partner performance to the Co-Leads and Steering Committee through agreed governance mechanisms, with clear recommendations for action.

2. Consortium Program Management, Implementation Oversight and financial performance

• •Lead and oversee implementation of IRC’s scope of work under the ECW CORE program, ensuring IRC and sub-partners’ activities, deliverables, targets, budgets and commitments are delivered in accordance with the approved programme and agreed timelines.
• •Coordinate across relevant IRC teams and departments to ensure the inputs and actions required for IRC to fulfil its programme responsibilities are planned, coordinated and delivered on time.
• •Lead development, consolidation and regular review of the overall consortium workplan , ensuring alignment across partner workplans, program outcomes, results framework, budgets and implementation timelines.
• •Maintain consolidated oversight of implementation across the program, regularly reviewing progress against activities, outputs, targets, milestones and donor commitments.
• •Convene regular consortium implementation and performance reviews to identify delays, bottlenecks, cross-partner dependencies and emerging risks, and agree and track corrective actions.
• •Ensure program adaptations are appropriately coordinated and remain coherent across workplans, results frameworks, activities, budgets and partner implementation plans.
• •Maintain a consolidated overview of key program milestones, deliverables, commitments, decisions and action points.
• •Escalate significant implementation or performance issues to the Co-Leads and Steering Committee, as appropriate, with clear recommendations for action.
• •Work with the IRC-led MEAL Task Team and partner MEAL focal points to maintain a consolidated view of performance, ensure consistency between partner data, program achievements and the ECW Results Framework, and support harmonized monitoring, data-quality and beneficiary-deduplication processes.
• •Work with IRC Finance and sub-partners to maintain a consolidated program-level view of financial performance, facilitate joint program-finance reviews, and ensure financial considerations are integrated into planning, adaptations and risk management.
• •Lead IRC’s responsibilities under Outcome 3 and coordinate the internal and external inputs required for its delivery, working closely with MEHE, the Education Sector, consortium members, relevant IRC departments and other stakeholders to support sector-level crisis preparedness, education continuity and response mechanisms.

3. ECW Reporting, Communications and Visibility

• •Lead the consortium's ECW reporting calendar and reporting process, ensuring consortium members and functional leads understand requirements, responsibilities and deadlines.
• •Coordinate and consolidate partner inputs into high-quality consortium narrative and performance reports.
• •Ensure consistency across program narrative, results, indicators, reach, expenditure, risks and partner reporting.
• •Coordinate internal review and quality assurance of reports through the agreed consortium governance process prior to submission.
• •Track ECW feedback, management actions and reporting commitments and ensure timely consortium follow-up.
• •Serve as a key program-level focal point with ECW on implementation and reporting matters, as delegated by the Co-Leads, and coordinate preparations for ECW monitoring visits and program reviews.
• •Coordinate with Policy, Advocacy and Communications focal points to develop and implement the program communications, advocacy and visibility plan, ensuring timely delivery of ECW communication and visibility requirements and coordinated documentation and dissemination of program results, learning and impact.

4. Partner Coordination, Performance Follow-Up and Localization

• •Maintain regular bilateral and consortium-wide follow-up with consortium members on implementation progress, deliverables, results, expenditure, risks and agreed actions.
• •Ensure sub-partners concerns, implementation challenges and operational constraints are appropriately addressed and reflected in consortium decision-making.
• •Track sub-partners’ commitments under the Consortium Agreement and program workplan and ensure timely follow-up on agreed actions.
• •Coordinate with relevant functional leads where partners require technical, MEAL, PGI, safeguarding, financial, operational or institutional support.
• •Lead implementation of the consortium's localization and institutional capacity-strengthening agenda, coordinating with relevant IRC departments a