ERT Humanitarian Access, Safety and Security Coordinator

Major Responsibilities

Humanitarian Access, Safety and Security Management

• In collaboration with Field Response leadership (Emergency Country Directors and Team Leaders), lead the identification, analysis, and mitigation of humanitarian access, safety, and security risks across emergency responses, ensuring alignment with IRC’s Security Minimum Standards (SMS) and duty of care, and integrating GEDI and PEERS principles into HASS culture and practice.
• Develop and implement specific access, security, and acceptance strategies, in coordination with the Emergency Country Director/ERT Leader, ASAP, and/or Regional Safety and Security Director (RSSD) to enable emergency programs to serve the worst-affected and least-served conflict-affected populations.
• In coordination with the Country Director/Emergency Team Leader and Program teams, build and maintain relationships, engage, and negotiate with authorities, key power brokers, security actors, and community stakeholders, including state and non‑state actors, to ensure IRC’s mission and activities are understood and accepted, and that staff and programs can operate safely and without disruption.
• Establish and maintain emergency-appropriate access and security incident reporting and trend analysis systems that impact IRC’s areas of operation, informing program design, movement control, and contingency planning.
• Construct and maintain context-appropriate communications infrastructure (e.g., VHF/HF/satellite) in emergency responses, and support enhancement and consistency of EmU’s systems.
• Serve as a member of the Field Critical Incident Management Team, supporting the management and resolution of major incidents when activated and relevant.
• Provide technical input to assessments and proposal development for new programs and geographic expansion, ensuring access, safety, and security costs are integrated into proposals and operational budgets.
• Coordinate and collaborate with Country and Regional HASS staff on overall management and implementation of IRC’s relevant policies and procedures.
• Ensure sustainability of the HASS management systems and appropriate handover to the Country Director and relevant Security Focal Points.
• Collaborate with relevant IRC units to ensure prompt and appropriate follow-up to violations of IRC’s Code of Conduct and breaches of humanitarian principles.
• Identify, establish, and manage context-appropriate approaches to assure IRC facilities are secure (e.g., third-party security companies or directly hired watchmen).
• Input into the SHIELD incident database for incident reporting and management, facilitating After-Action Reviews and producing trend analyses.
• Report to the DEHASS on all technical and contextual humanitarian access, safety, and security issues.
• When not deployed to an emergency response, participate in, support, and collaborate on the development and delivery of the shared service offering of ASAP for emergency responses and country programs.

Learning & Development

• Design, deliver, and supervise emergency HASS capacity-strengthening plans in emergency responses; ensure effective delivery of global S&S trainings, including gender-sensitive approaches.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of capacity-sharing initiatives including negotiation training, READI training, or peer learning on humanitarian access and security.
• Lead and facilitate Critical Incident/Crisis Management training for emergency response SMTs.
• Keep records on trainings, identify gaps, report data to regional and global security levels, and suggest refreshers where required.
• Support development, updates, and revisions of HASS technical resources and training materials.
• Support the monitoring, analysis, and reporting of global access and security incidents and trends.

Partnerships

• Lead the delivery of partner capacity-sharing plans in emergency contexts where relevant to HASS, applying IRC’s S&S L&D framework.
• Ensure quality, accountability, and consistency in emergency HASS work led by local and national partners through technical assistance and training.
• Review partner technical tools, reports, and data; recommend adaptations or process improvements.
• Adapt IRC direct implementation emergency tools and systems for partner use as requested.
• Champion a culture of effective and respectful partnerships across the Emergency S&S team.

Team Culture

• Build and maintain strong working relationships across EmU, the Global S&S Department, and regional/country colleagues.
• Cultivate and maintain a positive, collaborative, safe, and protective work environment.
• Promote gender equality, diversity, and more inclusive practices across programming and ways of working.

Requirements

• Approximately 6 years of non-profit or NGO work experience within international humanitarian assistance programs with demonstrated successes in planning, organizing, and managing humanitarian access, safety, and security in complex and volatile environments.
• Ability to commit to deployment within 72 hours of notification of assignment for a minimum of 6 and up to 12 weeks.
• Understanding of humanitarian principles, codes of conduct, and ideally, specific sub-sector work linked to NGO field operations contexts.
• Proven ability to gain a precise understanding of various local, regional, country, and international policies and political situations to facilitate shared analysis.
• Demonstrated understanding and success in gender security management and gender equality.
• Skilled in influencing and obtaining cooperation of individuals at different levels without a supervisory line.
• Advanced level knowledge of communications technology, including VHF, HF radio systems, satellite communications, and cell phone mediums.
• Evidence of experience in capacity strengthening, including prior experience as a facilitator and trainer.
• Fluency in English and French is essential; preference for Arabic or Spanish.
• A BA/BSc/HND qualification.