Client Responsiveness Assistant Job at The International Rescue Committee (IRC)

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the world's leading crisis response agencies, providing life-saving assistance and supporting recovery and reconstruction for people affected by war and natural disasters. Active in public health, education, livelihoods, women's empowerment, youth development, and protection and promotion of rights, IRC assists people from harm to home.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Position: Client Responsiveness Assistant
Requisition ID: req5609
Job Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Sector: Monitoring & Evaluation
Employment Category: Regular
Employment Type: Full-Time
Open to Expatriates: No

Background/IRC Summary
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

IRC has been present in Nigeria since 2012 when the organization responded to flooding in Kogi state.  In early 2014, IRC opened a field office in Mubi town of Adamawa state in NE Nigeria followed by offices in Yola (Adamawa state) in November 2014 and Maiduguri (Borno state) in October 2015.  The IRC Nigeria country program is implementing multi-sectoral interventions in the sectors of: Health and Nutrition; Environmental Health; Child Protection; Education; Women’s Protection and Empowerment; Food Security and Livelihoods and Protection. Most of these programs are driven in partnership with strategic local NGOs. 

Job Overview/Summary

• The IRC is guided by three core principles/standards (the IRC Way); Service, Integrity and Accountability.
• Also, the organization is guided by the principles of the Core Humanitarian standards (CHS) as well as the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP).
• To uphold and ensure commitment to these principles in all its projects, IRC Nigeria operates a Community Accountability Feedback Mechanism. One of the mechanism is to collect community’s feedback through toll free telephone system.
• Thus the IRC would like to hire an experienced person for this job.
• The purpose of the Client responsiveness assistance, in general, is to receive feedback and complaints coming from the communities where IRC is working regarding the services the organization is rendering through the various Accountability Feedback Mechanisms.
• The position holder will closely work with the program team specially in liaising between the community and the organization in terms of information flow from one to the other and vise-versa.
• S/he will collect feedback coming from the community through the toll free system as well as other feedback mechanisms and pass onto the respective sector team following the organization’s feedback mechanism information flow system or depending the category level of the feedback, respond to the person who reported the complaint.

Major Responsibilities
Collect feedback from communities and report to the concerned body:

• Answer tool free calls, record the complaints/feedback applying the template/s prepared for the purpose;
• Ensure confidentiality of all information received is upheld and respected.
• Regularly update herself/himself with IRC projects to understand the areas of thematic and geographic areas of operation;
• Understand well and brief staff and others on IRC Nigeria Community Accountability Mechanisms;
• Regularly update herself/himself with the new policies and procedures of IRC particularly in relation to accountability;
• Understanding of Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP), Core Humanitarian Standards and other relevant global standards.
• Respond to those like information requests or answer questions if it is within her/his mandate specified in the IRC Nigeria Community Accountability Mechanism document;
• Summarize the information and report to the concerned body as stated in the Community Accountability Mechanism document;
• Whenever needed and got approval from her/his supervisor, share relevant information that can be used in the new projects designs;
• Whenever needed, clarify the questions reported to the Complain/Feedback Analysis Committee;
• Excellent communication skills and experience in report writing.
• Make preliminary analysis and share the summary to the respective sector concerned staff (following the Community Accountability Mechanism);
• Participate in lesson sharing meetings/bazars/workshops; and
• Systematically and securely document the reports;

Managing/Maintain the hotline services and other Accountability Mechanisms:

• Make sure the monthly subscription is paid on time so that the system is always up and running;
• Maintain the telephone apparatuses and make sure the batteries are always charged full;
• Report any technical problems to her/his supervisor on time and follow up its maintenance;
• Design a strategy and regularly check whether all the target communities have access to the hotline service and other Feedback Mechanisms;
• Managing suggestion boxes installed for feedback collection.
• Devising and implementing ways of effectively communicating the Accountability Mechanisms to all project stakeholders

Perform other duties assigned by the supervisor (----% of time):

• Perform other similar task, related to her/his area of responsibility, proposed by her/his supervisor

Key Working Relationships

• Position Reports to: M&E Manager Position directly supervises: M&E Manager
• Indirect Reporting: M&E officers
• Other Internal and/or external contacts: describe the nature of departments or groups the position influences or requires support from to accomplish objectives.

Qualifications

• A minimum of Diploma in communication or similar areas of studies;
• Experience in similar areas, developmental work and communication is an advantage;
• Must be able to maintain confidentiality of information and individuals
• Excellent computer skills especially in the use of MS Word and Excel.
• Well conversant with e-mail communication, especially Microsoft Outlook.
• Good verbal communication skills in local languages (Hausa, Fulfulde and Kanuri) and working knowledge of English is a must;
• Keen to the organization grievance reporting mechanism and commitment to IRC values and principles; and
• Passionate to humanitarian work;

Education:

• A minimum of Diploma in Communication or any sector or sub-sector related field

Work Experience:

• At least one year experience working in handling complaint response mechanism preferred

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Strong data collection, analysis, and report writing skills required;
• Experience in report writing, data collection and analysis;
• Good verbal communication skills in local languages and working knowledge of English Hausa, Fulfulde and Kanuri;
• He/she must demonstrate good presentation skills
• A strong team player with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work with groups of diverse backgrounds.

Language Skills:

• Must be able to communicate and write in English, Hausa and Kanuri is a
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