Executive Director
Position description
ICVA is looking for an Executive Director to harness the power of its large global membership and lead its secretariat to see the 2030 Strategy through to its close and shape what comes next.
About ICVA
Founded in 1962, the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) is a global network of NGOs. Our mission is to make humanitarian action more principled and effective by working collectively and independently to influence policy and practice.
Our members range from local and national organisations to large international NGOs. Working together, the Secretariat leads the network across three areas: Forced Displacement, Humanitarian Coordination and Humanitarian Financing, with the promotion of humanitarian principles running through all areas of work.
The secretariat is based in Geneva, with regional representation across Middle East, Asia Pacific, West, Central and East Africa and Latin America.
Managing the Secretariat
The Executive Director heads a dispersed secretariat team, headquartered in Geneva, with staff currently in Amman, Bangkok, Bogota, Dublin, Nairobi, and Yaoundé. Yet leading ICVA is more than running an organisation. The secretariat exists to convene, support and amplify its members, so much of the Executive Director's leadership is exercised through influence, trust, and consensus.
Success depends on multiple factors: ensuring a well managed effective and funded secretariat, building a strong team, working under pressure in a constrained resource environment; listening to members across regions, bringing differing views to common ground and making sure the network as a whole is present in the decisions that affect humanitarian action and representing the vision of the members at Principal level in senior policy fora.
Why the network matters
ICVA's value lies in both its members services, providing the members with tools, information, collective platforms and partnership, networking opportunities to facilitate their work and doing what members could not do alone, representing the collective NGO vision to forge an effective humanitarian system. The network brings the experience of NGOs working alongside people affected by crisis into the places where humanitarian policy is decided and carries those decisions back to the organisations that put them into practice.
It is also a space where NGOs of very different sizes, origins and mandates can test ideas, agree common positions and speak with one voice. That collective voice carries more weight with UN agencies, member states and donors than any single organisation could achieve on its own.
Influential Representation
ICVA holds a number of representative roles on behalf of the NGO community. The Executive Director represents the network among the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the most senior forum for international humanitarian coordination with the UN system, where ICVA is one of three NGO consortia invited on a permanent basis.
The Secretariat hosts key initiatives in the humanitarian sector - including the CBPF Resource Facility, the newly launched NRG Facility under the Grand Bargain, the Interagency PSEA Community Outreach and Communication Fund and is currently serving as PSEA Champion.
These roles carry real responsibility. In them, the Executive Director speaks for a diverse membership, and must earn and keep the trust of members, member states, UN and other international agencies and donors alike.
Shaping the next strategic period
ICVA is nearing the close of its 2030 Strategy. With three years of the current strategy still to run, the incoming Executive Director will see it through to completion while leading the development of the new strategic plan that will underpin the next phase for ICVA.
That means taking stock with members of what has been achieved, reading a changing humanitarian landscape, and working with the Board to set a direction that keeps ICVA relevant and useful to the organisations it exists to serve.
Purpose of the role
Working closely with Board members and reporting the Board Chair, the ED will lead the development and implementation of ICVA's strategy, oversee its financial and operational performance, and strengthen fundraising and partnerships. The ED will provide strong an effective leadership for the Secretariat Team.
The ED will represent an influential global network of civil society members, working with the members, partners and governmental bodies.
The ED will be responsible for the further development of the ICVA network by building on its strengths, maintaining the confidence of its Members, donors and stakeholders, and ensuring that ICVA delivers measurable, sustainable, and demonstrable impact for people affected by crisis.
Application instructions
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