BACKGROUND CONTEXT 1. Start Fund Membership Engagement Manager Start Network member agency office with travel

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1 Job Title: Place of work: Grade: 3-36,000 to 40,000 Reports to: Line Management Responsibility: Child Protection Level: Start Fund Membership Engagement Manager Start Network member agency office with travel Start Fund Manager Short-term Consultancy and/or Officer posts Level 1 - The responsibilities of the post do not require you to have contact with children or young people Length of contract: 12 months (September ) BACKGROUND Start Network is a consortium of 24 leading NGOs working together to connect people in crises to the best possible solutions. In order to meet the needs of crisis-affected people in a future of great uncertainty and complexity, we believe that the humanitarian sector must change. The Start Network members collaborate because the change that is demanded cannot be achieved by any single organisation acting alone. We promote a way of working that enables international and local humanitarian actors to coexist. We envision a self-organising system where the agencies best placed to respond to a crisis are empowered to do so. To realise this vision, we are working to catalyse a humanitarian sector that is more diverse, decentralised and collaborative. The consortium works in three principal areas: Start Fund (financing for emergency response); Start Build (strengthening civil society capacity); and Start Labs (experimentation, rapid prototyping and learning). The Start Network legal structure enables resources and initiative to reach nearly 7,000 partner agencies, comprised of over a quarter million staff working in 200 countries and territories. Start is presently hosted and incubated by Save the Children UK on behalf of all Member Agencies and intends to become independent during The majority of Start core team staff work within the Save the Children UK infrastructure, and some also work as embedded staff in Network members. CONTEXT 1

2 The Start Fund is an NGO-owned global pooled fund, the result of a unique collaboration by humanitarian actors, and it provides rapid response to small scale humanitarian crises ( forgotten crises ) for the first 45 days and within 72 hours of the fund being alerted. We now have three funders for the Fund: DfID, the Irish Government and the Dutch Government. The Start Fund kicked-off in April 2014 and in its first year disbursed 3.2m across 16 alerts reaching 1.5m beneficiaries. In 2015 we have 8m to disburse, a four-fold increase on calendar 2014, which presents us with interesting challenges around member engagement and simplicity of our governance and funding models. The Start Fund is collectively owned, global and local. It enables more funding for national and local level NGOs. The Start Network has delegated authority from its donors to fund crisis-response projects, and promotes decentralised power by delegating authority to a national level committee to select projects, according to a Network peer review process. The emphasis is on postimplementation feedback and learning, not on front-loaded risk management and controls. The Start Fund s success, and indeed that of the Network, depends on the contributions by the Network s members and their partners. As the Network grows it needs to be more inclusive across a larger and eventually more decentralised group of agencies. There will be a trade-off between the trust and familiarity between a smaller number of agencies and individuals which has to date produced effective and consensus-driven decision-making, and engaging a wider number of people involved in the process. Socialising the culture of the Start Fund is essential. The Network needs to surge its capacity in providing the right sort of information to the right places. The Start Fund Membership Engagement Manager will identify and deliver ways to raise awareness of the Start Fund throughout the membership and to invest in more prepared decentralised Start Fund decision-making structures. Useful links: 1. Start-Network-Report-2014-with-appendix.pdf External-Evaluation-2014-Management-Response pdf 2

3 JOB PURPOSE The Start Fund Membership Engagement Manager will drive Start members engagement with the Start Fund; from Field Office Manager to Country Director to Desk Officer. This role is about increasing awareness so that the Start Fund is alerted to more crises of the appropriate scale and scope, and it is about establishing de-centralised hubs of decision-makers for selection of Start Fund projects. Reporting: This role reports to the Start Fund Manager with close working relationships to our Network of NGOs and with the Start Team. We are looking for an experienced project manager with expertise in humanitarian response operations at central and at country level, who is both pragmatic and open minded with a motivation to drive collaborative change around the timeliness of humanitarian action. This post may involve the management of up to two short-term member engagement officer positions and is likely to require contracting of and support to a small number of consultants. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES The accountabilities fall into two broad areas: 1. Building capacity in Start Network agencies, globally, to engage with the Network and with the Start Fund mechanism, and 2. Leading on the specific area of establishing local (national and regional) standing project selection committees (a roster system). For each of these accountabilities, the post holder should Work closely with the Start Fund Officers Work closely with the Disaster Emergency Preparedness Programme (DEPP) Programme Manager Work through existing in country/region coordination mechanisms - i.e. the IAWG in Kenya or PINGON in Philippines - in order to maximise uptake, socialisation and ensure coordination. Management and enabling rapid scale up in outreach Budget management of circa 150,000 for Start Fund engagement (including Network member sub contracts). Start Fund Engagement Oversee awarding and delivery of Start Network sub contracts/project awards to Start Network members for delivery of country and regional 3

4 capacity and awareness building activities on the Start Fund for project offices and partners (single agency and consortia). Local Start Fund Project Selection Capacity Operationalise the project selection standing committee plan in a phased manner, but, with an ambitious target to launch 11 standing committees by the end of 2015 (including in 5 of the larger DEPP programme countries and countries where the Start Fund is commonly activated).. Build a sustainable system for rota management so that the standing committees operate as hubs that then start fulfilling a regional role, briefing and supporting pop up PSCs in their region.) To roll out standing committees at the rate required, this is likely to require contracting and providing support to short-term consultancy roles to deliver roster briefings and exercises in selected countries/regions. Contribution to development of engagement strategy and materials Direct delivery of some workshops at country or central level for Start Network member agencies in support of the Start Fund Manager and wider Start Network core team. Deployment of other modalities for outreach to members, as appropriate. Produce recommendations for elaboration and refinement of Start Fund outreach materials, based on first use, with a view to producing a package of outreach materials accessible to the Network through the online portal. 1 Serve as a resource to all Start Network members, including new members, to ensure members have access and are empowered to participate in all aspects of the Network 1 The materials developed for outreach will be transferred to online (built into the existing Start Fund online portal, being developed end of 2015). Instructional design specialists may be contracted for further development of materials, using the recommendations, and to work with the Start Network Head of Digital post, who will also play a part in finding the relevant technical resources to design an appropriate and accessible solution. 4

5 Learning and amplification of impact Data collection and tracking relationship management within the scope of this role to contribute to the overall Network approach to member services. Contribute to the Start Fund team s overview of members ability to participate in the Fund alert cycle and collective management of the Fund and ensure members are aware of their own performance. Explore techniques to leverage the collective network footprint (thousands of staff across 200 countries and territories) to crowdsource the identification and analysis of new emerging issues and opportunities for the Start Fund. PERSON SPECIFICATION and EXPERIENCE Essential Significant experience of humanitarian assistance operations, including experience in the field Demonstrable high level competence in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships across organisational boundaries Experience of programme management (planning, budget oversight, monitoring, learning) Proven skills in building partnerships for humanitarian programme delivery Strong brokering skills Strong facilitation and mentoring skills A flexible and initiative-taking attitude with the ability to work autonomously and manage and prioritise an unpredictable workload Excellent verbal and written communication skills Excellent computer skills including word processing, presentation and use of spreadsheets combined with the ability to develop and maintain office and management information systems. A flexible and initiative-taking attitude with the ability to manage an unpredictable workload Willingness and ability to operate an open door policy with regards to colleagues seeking immediate information and support Desirable 5

6 Knowledge and experience of at least some of the Start Network member agencies ways of working and key sectors Experience of instructional design, design of humanitarian capacity building or learning materials Another language such as French, Spanish or Arabic 6