Background:

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organisation dedicated to protecting the rights of displaced and affected people during crises. NRC delivers high-quality programmes to support people forced to flee, helping them rebuild their lives and establish a new future. NRC provides immediate humanitarian assistance, prevents further displacement, and contributes to durable solutions. It operates across both new and protracted crises across 40 countries. 

In response to the scale, complexity and regionalisation of the Sudan crisis, NRC has seen a significant increase in resources channelled through regional and multi-country projects. The purpose of the Regional Sudan Crisis Adviser position is to ensure effective management, coordination and quality oversight of these regional projects, while strengthening coherence, learning and strategic alignment across country responses linked to the Sudan crisis. The role is designed to provide dedicated capacity at regional level to manage donor-funded regional initiatives and to support country offices to deliver a collective, high-quality Sudan response. The adviser will also collaborate with country advocacy managers and regional advocacy to implement joint advocacy and communication initiatives, in line with the response strategies for the regional crisis. 

The Regional Sudan Crisis Adviser, in collaboration with the Head of Programme in the regional team, can access additional support capacity from the Global Resource Pools, be it from the Core Competencies and Thematic pool, Grants Management pool or MEAL pool. 

Responsibilities

The Regional Sudan Crisis Adviser is responsible for providing advice and guidance to the Country Directors and/or Head of Programmes and for managing designated regional and multi-country projects in ensuring that optimal programme strategies, structures, systems and resources are in place. The postholder will focus on the country offices linked with the Sudan response (Sudan) and hosting Sudanese refugees (South Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Uganda, Ethiopia, Libya) and will provide a range of advisory support and coordination in relation to programme syndergies, business development, strategy development and change efforts at CO level, as well as relevant programme quality. 

Generic Responsibilities:

• Coordinate prioritised support, advice and guidance to relevant country offices in relation to programme development and to strategic planning in country programmes with a particular focus on coherence and complementarity between country and regional Sudan response initiatives.
• Identify and recommend programmatic approaches that strengthen complementarity between country responses, including cross-border initiatives where relevant
• Support the development, review, and alignment of country response strategies to ensure regional coherence, complementarity, and added value.
• Identify potential new business development opportunities, specific to the regional Sudan crisis in line with NRC strategic and programmatic priorities. If delegated by the RHoP, identify, develop and maintain relationships with designated stakeholders (e.g. donors, UN agencies, NGOs and private sectors) related to programme and business development.
• Responsible to stay updated on the specific countries and/or themes related to the regional Sudan Crisis, and support facilitation of induction training and targeted technical briefings for relevant CO programme staff.   
• Where applicable, liaise and work collaboratively with colleagues in relevant global functions and departments (such as Partnership and Policy, Field Operations, Private Fundraising etc) to ensure provision of information and support to COs. 
• Support CO programme evaluations in collaboration with global MEAL.
• Support prioritisation of evidence gathering in collaboration with colleagues at country and regional team as input to business development and fundraising efforts, ensuring consistency across countries related with the Sudan response. 
• Compliance and adherence to NRC policies, guidance and procedures, and a specific responsibility for the functions policies and procedures 

Specific responsibilities: 

• Manage NRC’s regional and multi-country projects related to the Sudan crisis, acting as the primary regional focal point for these grants. This includes overall responsibility for coordination, planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting and close-out across all phases of the Project Management Cycle in close collaboration with the ESA Grants Manager.
• Coordinate with participating country offices to ensure timely delivery of activities, milestones and donor deliverables, including consolidation of inputs, follow-up on implementation progress and resolution of operational or programmatic bottlenecks. Promote integrated and protection-sensitive approaches, ensuring inclusion, gender, and conflict sensitivity are embedded across responses and Support Country Offices to adapt programming to evolving displacement dynamics.
• Ensure high-quality donor reporting for regional Sudan projects, including narrative and financial coordination, consistency of messaging across countries, and compliance with donor requirements in close collaboration with Grants Management, finance and MEAL colleagues.
• Lead or support project modification processes for regional Sudan grants, including development of justifications, revised budgets, logframes and coordination with donors and internal stakeholders as required.
• Support the identification and development of funding opportunities linked to the Sudan crisis, including regional and multi-country funding mechanisms.
• Provide technical input to concept notes and proposals, ensuring strong regional narratives, evidence-based targeting, and donor alignment.
• Support in updating and reporting on the Regional Sudan Response Plan, ensuring quality control of documents and recommend sign off by the Regional Directors, in collaboration with Regional Heads of Programme and the Regional Heads of Operational Support. 
• Identify and support regional Advocacy and communication opportunities related to the regional Sudan crisis, ensuring alignment between programme evidence, advocacy priorities and donor engagement. Contribute to evidence-based advocacy by providing analysis and programmatic insights from the field
• Produce the regional Sudan sitrep, coordinating with relevant countries, drafting and ensuring quality control of the SitRep and other project documents and recommend sign off by Regional Heads of Programme in ESA, CWA and MENA as needed.
• As delegated by the Regional HoP and in coordination with relevant colleagues at Country and Head Office, represent NRC on relevant fora related with the regional Sudan crisis. 
• Facilitate cross-country learning and experience sharing related to regional Sudan projects, including documentation of good practices, challenges, lessons learned and innovative approaches.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues in Global Resource pools to identify gaps in quality and practice, common learning and development needs, and translate these into concrete support actions for regional and country-level Sudan response programming.

Generic professional competencies for this position: 

• 5 years of experience within the humanitarian/recovery context, of which 3 years of Manager/Advisor experience 
• Specialist knowledge and expertise equivalent to an advanced university degree in a relevant field (e.g., international development, politics, social science) 
• Knowledge of institutional donors’ strategies, priorities, and compliance requirements for relevant donors is an asset. 
• Track record of successful proposal development, or similar in funding or partnerships 
• Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts, with preference for previous experience in the region 
• Understanding of, and commitment to working collaboratively with technical and operational colleagues within a matrix structure, including capacity building 
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal.