IPPF - Governance & Accreditation Advisor

About IPPF

It is more than 70 years old and is present in 150 countries 27 of them in the Americas and the Caribbean. The membership is built by one per country. The federation has undergone a governance reform and will start implementing a new strategy in 2023 where the interest is that the member organizations are at the center and that they are the ones who, from their knowledge of the context, nurture the federation. IPPF members receive core grants, benefit from exchanging lessons learnt, are accredited and important topics such as diversity and social entrepreneurship n are addressed. They are global leaders in sexual and reproductive rights and health, youth and gender issues.

IPPF is a network of nongovernmental organizations working for sexual and reproductive rights.

The Role

Role: Governance & Accreditation Advisor

Location: Trinidad and Tobago

Salary: 38,916 – 54,480 USD

Responsible to: Regional Director MA Support & Development

Role Purpose

To manage membership status from admission to accreditation and renewal/non-renewal of Member Associations, ensuring the process is one anchored in a learning and improvement approach as well as compliance. Providing knowledge and advice to strengthen governance and boost risk management.

The Governance Advisor in ACRO will be part of the Safeguarding and Incident Management Team and as a member of the Global Safeguarding Task Force, to develop and deliver the global strategic safeguarding priorities and operational initiatives across the Federation.

Context of Role:

Accreditation and strong governance is a corner stone of IPPF, a unique process that offers Member Associations the opportunity to both self- evaluate and be externally evaluated on their adherence to the IPPF Membership Standards, the gold standard of organizational and SRHR programme performance. With learning garnered over twenty years, we are entering a new era in IPPF in which we will are looking to truly inform and anchor our overall approach to supporting Member Associations and become a seamless element of ‘architecting cooperation’ working as an integrated part of a regional and globally connected Member Association Support and Development Team.

Governance & Accreditation Advisors will closely work with the Architects of Cooperation to support them build an understanding of Member Associations strengths, improvement needs and capabilities leveraging the accreditation process. Providing advice and supporting the creation of development plans to strengthen performance and governance working with Architects of Cooperation and of Member Associations. Governance & Accreditation Advisors will also work proactively in supporting the identification of collaborative partners and associate members.

Governance & Accreditation Advisors will work as a global community of practice to develop the function, share knowledge, skills and capacity and provide data, information and insights to support/leverage Member Associations development, performance and impact. They will add to IPPF’s macro knowledge on Member Associations and provide insight to inform priorities.

The person will be the first regional point of contact for Safeguarding subject matter expertise, will provide regional leadership of the implementation of safeguarding activities and initiatives, training and subject matter expertise that increases the normalization of a culture of safeguarding to regional work.

Role Purpose

Role Deliverables:

• Organise and manage the accreditation review process, ensuring accreditations take place inline with IPPF’s cycle, and within budget.

• Engage Architects of Cooperation and others who conduct accreditations, ensuring they are trained and equipped to carry out effective visits/online accreditations. Organise the pool of volunteers and staff from Member Associations, working with Member Associations to recruit, train and motivate volunteers/staff who have a range of relevant skills and competencies.

• Conduct accreditations directly as and when required, particularly those which are more complex. Oversee and support the preparation and follow-up and reporting of accreditations by those responsible for each visit.

• Promote a risk management approach, including raising and managing risks identified in the due diligence and accreditation processes.

• Where significant risks are identified at the Member Associations level, advise and support on risk mitigation, including corrective action, suspension and termination of membership status.

• Manage affiliation and due diligence process with regards to existing affiliates and new organization wanting to join the Federation.

• Support the review of the constitutions of the Member Associations and ensure that they conform to the IPPF Standards and Responsibilities of Membership and IPPF’s Act and Regulations and related governance

structures, systems and processes.

• Provide expertise on best practice on supporting Member Associations governance and managing risk, to Architects of Cooperation or other relevant colleagues.

• Ensure continuous links between Architects of Cooperation, Performance, Learning and Impact, and other teams as relevant, ensuring a continuous loop where knowledge of MAs feeds into accreditation preparation and accreditation findings support Architects of Cooperation and Performance, Learning and Impact Senior Advisor in delivering their objectives.

• Collaborate and contribute proactively as a member of the wider global governance and accreditation team, with global staff and regional peers, so IPPF continuously learns and improves how accreditation is implemented overall.

• Support or co-ordinate Member Associations cases arising from IPPF’s SafeReport.

• Support and enable a safe environment, adhering to the safeguarding reporting and monitoring requirements of this role.

Incident Management:

• Co-lead the Regional Incident Reporting Unit Lead with the Regional Heads of Corporate Services for the regions they support.

• Fulfil the responsibilities of designated Incident Coordinator (IC) for reported safeguarding concerns reported and provide advice to ICs responsible for bullying and harassment cases.

Safeguarding:

• Delivery of global safeguarding priorities, including the global safeguarding KPIs, Member Associations and Regional Office training.

• Work effectively with Regional Office colleagues to mainstream safeguarding in the region’s work.

• Provide timely subject matter expertise to regional office colleagues and all Member Associations and Collaborative Partners.

• Provide regional input to global thought leadership and safeguarding initiatives, through membership of the global SGIM Team and the global Safeguarding Task Force.

• Tailor global initiatives, to local conditions/laws and cultures, and implement these regionally efficiently, effectively and according to timelines agreed.

• Support the development of investigation Terms of Reference, giving special consideration to risk management and overcoming barriers to disclosure.

• Support Member Associations in the implementation of their policies and procedures, and meeting IPPF safeguarding standards.

• Work closely with gender subject matter experts to ensure that the safeguarding work undertaken by IPPF is gender transformative.

• Adhere to the safeguarding reporting and monitoring requirements of this role.

Candidate Profile

Key Skills/Expertise:

• Experience in accrediting or certifying organisations or bodies against a standards system.

• Knowledge off governance standards, especially in the civil society sector.

• Background in risk management with proven skills in reading audit reports and identifying, promoting and coordinating corrective actions.

• Understanding of Safeguarding and Financial standards and requirements for a safe working environment.

• Demonstrable experience in the field of safeguarding, including demonstrable interest/experience in working to prevent exploitation and abuse of children and vulnerable adults.

• Experience of conducting safeguarding/other investigations and/or oversight of case management systems.

• Experience designing and facilitating workshops and trainings.

• Strong interpersonal skills, able to work effectively with a network of multicultural diverse stakeholders and colleagues at different levels to deliver.

• Ability to be diplomatic yet persistent in achieving goals.

• Proven planning, organising and prioritising skills with the ability to work independently and as part of a team.

• Strong analytical and evaluation skills with the ability to draw out learning from practice, aggregate and propose adaptations and improvements to processes and procedures.

• Excellent report writing skills and the ability to distil information into actions in a clear, concise way.

• Good written and verbal English and Spanish, French is desirable.

• Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding in a local and international context.

• Demonstrates ability and willingness to work in a diverse, multicultural, multilingual and intergenerational environment that is anti-racist and respectful of others.

• An intersectional (pro) feminist passionate about sexual reproductive health care rights + justice, including safe abortion.

• Supportive of people’s rights regardless of sexuality or gender identity/expression and supportive of worker’s rights and access to health care in sex work.

How to Apply

All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR.

All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter as two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

The document should be saved in PDF in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (mmyy) e.g., Pat-Jones-CV-062023-IPPF or Pat-JonesCoverLetter-062023-IPPF.

In the event that you have submitted your application through alternative platforms, such as the IPPF’s website, we would like to inform you that Oxford HR has been entrusted with the management of these applications. As a result, there is no requirement for you to reapply via Oxford HR. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding.

Timeline

Closing Date: Monday 7th August 2023

First stage interviews: TBC

Final interviews: TBC

Selection Process

All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.

Equality Statement

Equality and diversity are at the core of IPPF’s values. Staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected.

Queries

If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email at ippf@ oxfordhr.com in the first instance.

About Oxford HR

Exceptional leaders can inspire change and propel purpose-led organisations towards reaching their world-changing goals.

Finding such leaders can be a challenge; and yet their transition into leadership is vital to an organisations mission and success.

Oxford HR is a global leadership consultancy dedicated to searching for and supporting remarkable leaders and teams in purpose-led organisations.

We understand the nuances of purpose-led leadership because we’ve worked in organisations across the breadth of the sector ourselves. We’ve also worked with such organisations since 1995; so we appreciate just what benefits impactful people can bring.