Head of Inter-Agency Working Group East and Central Africa

The Head of the Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) provides strategic leadership and representation for a regional, member-led platform of international NGOs operating across East and Central Africa. The role exists to strengthen collective NGO leadership, coordination, and influence in humanitarian and protracted crisis contexts, ensuring that NGO perspectives shape regional humanitarian priorities, policies, partnerships, and resource decisions. The postholder serves as the primary convenor, strategist, and external representative of the IAWG at regional and global levels.\n\n### Key Responsibilities\n\n#### Strategic Leadership\n- Set and drive the strategic direction of the IAWG in line with its Charter and multi-year strategy.\n- Lead strategic reviews and future planning, ensuring relevance to evolving humanitarian, political, climate, and security dynamics.\n- Provide regular high-level reporting and advice to the IAWG Steering Committee.\n\n#### Collective NGO Coordination\n- Convene and facilitate senior-level coordination among NGO Regional Directors.\n- Enable coherence, complementarity, and shared positioning across member organisations.\n- Oversee the effective functioning of IAWG working groups and collective initiatives.\n\n#### Advocacy and Policy Influence\n- Position the IAWG as a credible, authoritative regional NGO voice on humanitarian priorities.\n- Lead the development and articulation of common policy positions, messages, and advocacy priorities.\n- Represent agreed NGO positions in regional and global policy and decision-making forums.\n\n#### External Representation and Partnerships\n- Act as the primary representative of the IAWG with UN agencies, regional institutions, donors, and humanitarian partners.\n- Build and sustain strategic relationships that advance collective NGO objectives and humanitarian outcomes.\n- Strengthen alignment and collaboration with country-level NGO fora and global NGO platforms.\n\n#### Institutional Sustainability and Governance\n- Ensure the financial sustainability and institutional credibility of the IAWG.\n- Lead resource mobilization for core operations, analysis, and advocacy capacity.\n- Support sound governance, transparency, and accountability to IAWG members.\n\n#### Secretariat Oversight\n- Ensure effective delivery, performance management, and compliance with host agency systems.\n\n### Qualifications and Requirements\n- Postgraduate qualification in international relations, development, political science, or a related field.\n- Minimum 10 years of progressive international experience in humanitarian and/or development contexts, including regional-level roles.\n- Proven leadership in multi-agency coordination, coalition building, or network governance.\n- Strong understanding of humanitarian operations, NGO systems, and crisis dynamics in East and Central Africa.\n- Proven experience in advocacy, policy engagement, and strategic communications.\n- Fluency in spoken and written English.\n\n### What We Offer\n- Duty station: Nairobi, Kenya\n- Salary/benefits: grade 11 on NRC’s international salary scale.\n- Duration of Contract: 2 years\n\n### How to Apply\nQualified candidates are invited to apply via the NRC career portal. Interested and qualified? Go to the Norwegian Refugee Council's recruitment platform at ekum.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com via the application link provided.