Senior Officer, Climate and Health

Tags: Global Health climate change English Spanish Red Cross language Environment
  • Added Date: Thursday, 22 May 2025
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Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the worldโ€™s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies (NSs). The overall aim of IFRC is โ€œto inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs 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.โ€ 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 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 four main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Coordination, (ii) Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization, (iii) People and Strategy, and (iv) Legal, Governance Support and Accountability.

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

IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.

At Geneva level the Health and Care Department focuses on two strategic directions:

  1. 1Health System Strengthening
  2. WASH System Strengthening

    These two strategic directions are supported by four pillars:

    1. Global Health Security
    2. Global Health Protection / UHC
    3. Global Water Security
    4. Transformative Partnership

      The Senior Officer is based in the Health and Care Department in Geneva, reporting to the Lead, Health Climate, Migration and Risk Communication. The Senior Officer will work closely with members of the Disaster, Crises and Climate Department and Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Department and Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Center to advance IFRCโ€™s Climate and Health agenda.

      Job Purpose

      community resilience and adaptive capacity. The position will focus on designing and coordinating IFRCโ€™s efforts to adapt and mitigate the health impacts of climate. The Senior Officer will be actively engaged in donor outreach and mobilizing financial and technical resources to support the implementation of IFRCโ€™s Climate and Health agenda.

      The Senior Officer, Climate and Health supports the IFRC network to provide thought and operational leadership in climate and health ensuring high quality, coherent and well-coordinated programming and representation and communication activities. Key tasks will include technical advice and operational support for climate and health adaptation activities across departments and programmes.

      The Senior Officer will collaborate with colleagues across IFRCโ€™s HQ as well as Regional, Cluster, and Country teams to provide strategic insight, facilitate knowledge sharing, and offer guidance on operational approaches, while supporting global representation and policy advocacy in both internal and external forums as needed.

      ๐Ÿ“š ๐——๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—š๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฎ ๐—๐—ผ๐—ฏ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ! ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿค ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ก๐—˜๐—ช ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—š๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—จ๐—ก๐—›๐—–๐—ฅ, ๐—ช๐—™๐—ฃ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—œ๐—–๐—˜๐—™, ๐—จ๐—ก๐——๐—ฆ๐—ฆ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—™๐—ฃ๐—”, ๐—œ๐—ข๐—  ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€! ๐ŸŒ

      โš ๏ธ ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐‹๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐๐จ๐ฐ: ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐“๐ž๐œ๐ก๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š ๐ฃ๐จ๐› ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐”๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐Ž๐–!

      Job Duties and Responsibilities
      1. Advice and support to the IFRCโ€™s Climate and Health agenda
      2. Provide guidance to IFRC and National Society colleagues to advance the design and implementation planning for climate and health programming.
    5. Collaborate with regional, cluster and country technical staff to strengthen National Societies positioning and operational collaboration with governments and other stakeholders and alignment with climate and health initiatives.
  3. Integrate strategic partnerships with external organizations into the climate and health agenda to provide access to additional technical capacity to National Societies, create opportunities for collective impact, and build alliances that enhance resource mobilization, programmatic reach and the quality of implementation.
Identify and promote expertise and resources within the IFRC network and membership and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement available to bolster resilience related to climate and health issues. Provide technical leadership in designing and implementing climate and health activities with a focus on ensuring integration with existing National Society programming. Ensure this technical guidance is evidence-based which leads to measurable improvements by indicator. Strategic Planning and Standards Provide technical assistance and guidance to IFRCโ€™s HQ, regional, cluster and country offices and National Societies on how the IFRC network can contribute to the climate and health agenda. Prepare regular strategic analysis on trends and innovative approaches to address climate and health. Provide strategic guidance, mentoring and coaching for quality assurance of programmes and operations. Document and share success stories / better practice to facilitate the strengthening of technical content and operational approaches on climate and health. Promote learning and knowledge sharing in Climate and Health Keep abreast of global trends and publication of new resources for effective approaches, lessons learnt, and innovations related to Climate and Health and share with technical counterparts within the Movement. Ensure that relevant Climate and Health evidence, guidance, tools, and examples are regularly updated and mainstreamed across IFRC programme teams. Develop new and strengthen existing relationships with technical partners, donors, government authorities and relevant operational partners (both international and national) in the area of climate and health. Networking, coordination and partnership Collaborate closely with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Center to ensure alignment within the IFRC network.

Duties applicable to all staff

Work actively towards the achievement of IFRCโ€™s goals. Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles. Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager.
Education

Required

Advanced university degree (masterโ€™s degree or equivalent) in a subject related to climate, health, social sciences, statistics. In lieu of masterโ€™s degree, candidates with at least 2 additional years of relevant professional experience could be considered. Certification in project management or equivalent experience.
Experience

Required

Minimum of 5-7 years of relevant work experience including at least 5-years of involvement in climate and health initiatives. Experience in resource mobilization and project management. Experience in designing, coordinating, and implementing multi-sectoral climate and health programs and/or initiatives. Experience in working with multiple stakeholders to develop and manage shared strategies, workplans with joint results. Experience in building and maintaining partnerships. Experience of leading and supporting multi-disciplinary and geographically remote teams. Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team in a challenging and highly fluid environment, flexibility and the ability to handle constant change.

Preferred

Experience in community led initiatives with a focus on health.
Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

Fluent spoken and written English. Deep understanding of the intersection between climate change and public health, including adaptation and mitigation strategies Strong interpersonal and communications skills with the ability to negotiate and to influence others. Knowledge of global health and climate policy landscapes; skilled in representing organizational positions in high-level forums. Proven ability in donor engagement, proposal development, and securing financial and technical resources. Highly motivated, self-starter and team player able to lead a process, engage others and create ownership. Ability to provide high-quality technical advice and strategic guidance to internal and external stakeholders. Ability to multitask, work under pressure and with tight deadlines. Ability to work and communicate effectively in multicultural, cross-functional and geographically dispersed teams, with a high degree of cultural sensitivity, diplomacy, and respect for diversity. Skilled in synthesizing complex information, promoting knowledge exchange, and contributing to public communication efforts.

Preferred

Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic). Familiarity with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and experience working in international humanitarian or development settings is highly desirable.
Competencies, Values and Comments

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

Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.

Application Instruction

Please submit your application in English only.

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