Senior Officer, Youth

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. IFRC also has country cluster delegation and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

The Danish Red Cross Country Office in Ukraine has supported the Ukrainian Red Cross Society in country since 2014 and have significantly scaled up its support following the intensification of hostilities after the 24th of February 2022. DRC in Ukraine focuses its support to URCS within Disaster Management, Humanitarian Relief, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Health, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, National Society Development (including branch development and volunteer management), youth and livelihood

Job Purpose

Since 2014, the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) has actively engaged young people, equipping them with the skills and confidence to take action in their communities. Through Humanitarian Education, URCS provides training in conflict management, project development (Sprint), and youth empowerment - including self-confidence building, psychological resilience, and social cohesion (Life Skills and YABC).

All URCS youth activities follow a peer-to-peer approach, where young people are trained to facilitate workshops for their peers. Recently, URCS has been working to integrate its inclusive youth empowerment methods into livelihood initiatives, aiming to better prepare unemployed youth for the job market by strengthening self-confidence, decision-making, and job search skills.

Since the escalation of the conflict, URCS has expanded its youth engagement efforts across Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi, and Kharkiv oblasts, with support from Danish Red Cross (DRC).

To continue this work, DRC is seeking a Youth Senior Officer to support URCS in strengthening its Youth Development portfolio. As DRC’s lead on youth engagement, the Youth Senior Officer will serve as URCS’s primary focal point for all youth-related matters within DRC. The role will specifically focus on supporting URCS in planning and facilitating processes such as program and strategy development, as well as following up on new initiatives to ensure efficiency and sustainability of program activities.

The role includes technical guidance on project and program design, hereunder budgeting and activity planning and ensuring effective project management of DRC-supported initiatives within URCS, aligning them with organizational strategies and donor priorities.

The Youth Senior Officer will play a key role in supporting URCS in enhancing its capacity in strategy and program development, as well as in strengthening its overall portfolio for youth engagement, ensuring that young people are actively involved in program design and decision-making. ole requires both strengthening existing collaborations and creating new opportunities for youth engagement. The Youth Senior Officer will work closely with RCRC Movement partners, particularly Danish Red Cross Youth (DRCY), as well as external stakeholders, to further develop impactful and sustainable youth initiatives in Ukraine. At the same time, they will actively identify and initiate new partnerships, fostering stronger cross-departmental collaboration within URCS and ensuring that youth engagement becomes fully integrated across the organization.

The Youth Senior Officer can also support URCS’s work directly, as requested by URCS, for up to 40 % of the time.

Job Duties And Responsibilities

Technical assistance and support to URCS Youth Sector (40 %)

• Assist the URCS Youth Sector in planning and executing nationwide youth activities, with a particular focus on providing support and close monitoring for methodologies in conflict management and sexual and reproductive health and rights, as these approaches are relatively new to URCS compared to their established practices.
• Support regional youth summer camps by providing ideas for mobilizing local resources, enhancing communication, and motivating youth for sustained engagement with URCS.
• Coordinate and facilitate a close collaboration between Danish Red Cross Youth (DRCY) and URCS.
• Support the development of a new Youth Engagement Strategy, including technical assistance and coordination with external youth stakeholders, such as DRCY.
• Assist URCS in designing and implementing a nationwide volunteer recruitment campaign, with a specific focus on engaging young people.
• Support URCS in developing tools to assess the social impact of humanitarian education activities
• Assist in designing and implementing the integration of Life Skills sessions into livelihood programs, and collect and analyze results from the pilot, offering guidance on applying and scaling learnings across other URCS programs and sectors.
• Provide guidance on addressing Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) and Protection, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI) considerations, enhancing the programmatic approaches of the URCS Youth team.
  
  
  

Project management (40 %)

• Work closely with URCS counterparts to ensure effective project implementation of youth and livelihood activities in DRC-funded projects and provide regular support to URCS, ensuring compliance with project plans and donor requirements.
• Monitor project progress and quality by using project tools (Project Management Tool) and conduct field visits as needed.
• Consolidate inputs from URCS to prepare reports and submit accurate and timely quarterly project reports.
• Work closely with and support URCS developing and designing a youth program
  
  
  

Coordination within DRC and across sectors (20 %)

• Organize and facilitate bi-weekly meetings with DRC colleagues in the field to gather updates on youth and livelihood activities in DRC supported regions.
• Contribute to improving the technical quality of cross-cutting youth engagement activities across all DRC supported areas.
• Lead the expansion of the youth engagement portfolio through project development in collaboration with relevant colleagues.
  
  
  

Job Duties And Responsibilities (continued)

Duties applicable to all staff

‎1.‎ Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals ‎

‎2.‎ Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles

‎3.‎ Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

Education

Higher education or an academic degree

Experience

Required

• Experience in volunteering with URCS or other NGOs with branch and volunteer ‎development/management.‎
• Be flexible and able to work with people who differ in culture and capacities.‎
• Ability to work in politically and security complex environment. ‎
  
  
  

Preferred

• Working experience in either organizational development, management, ‎administration and/or project implementation.‎
  
  
  

‎

• Understanding and commitment to the Red Cross mission and Fundamental ‎principles, and the role, mandate, and opportunities of RC branches. ‎
  
  
  

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

• Self-supporting in computers - good computer skills and command of standard ‎Microsoft office tools
• Very good interpersonal, communication and presentation skills ‎
• Motivated self-started personality, sense of responsibility and organization skills ‎
• Good negotiation skills ‎
• Flexibility and ability to travel in the operation’s areas ‎
  
  
  

Fluency in written and spoken English, Ukrainian or Russian languages.

Competencies, Values and Comments

VALUES: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability.

CORE COMPETENCIES: Communication; Collaboration and Teamwork; Pro-activity; National Societies and Customer Relations; Creativity and Innovation; Building Trust.