Global Advisor - Private Sector Partnerships and Business Engagement

Do you have experience creating shared value partnerships between non-profits and private companies and are you motivated by innovation and multi-stakeholder collaboration for social good? Do you want to put your experience and skills to use to help people affected by conflict and displacement? Then this position might be for you.
 

Who are we?

DRC is Denmark's largest international non-governmental organisation. We work with humanitarian and development activities to ensure a dignified life for refugees, the displaced, and displacement-affected people and communities in 40 countries. See more at www.drc.ngo

This position is part of the Program Innovation and Business Engagement Division. The division works to advance innovation across DRC and develop the partnerships necessary to do so. Partnerships with the private sector is key in this regard. More and more, solutions to displacement challenges are found through new forms of collaboration between humanitarian actors and private companies, where the relationships go beyond funding and mobilizes the respective areas of expertise of each partner. This position focuses on developing such partnerships for DRC.

About the job

The advisor will become part of a small team across our global HQ and regional offices that focuses on mobilizing private partnerships in support of our strategic ambitions, and work closely with colleagues in DRC’s private- and corporate fundraising teams and across our strategic priorities and sectors, regional and country offices. More often than not, these partnerships support the development of new solutions to address challenges in our sector and work with new business and financing models and as such the advisor role is placed in the intersection between partnerships and innovation, and becomes part of the wider Program Innovation and Business Engagement team. The advisor will share specific geographic responsibilities with other advisors, supporting regions and country offices in developing their private sector partnerships and innovation portfolios and lead on selected global engagements and be responsible for partnerships development

Main responsibilities

Develop and maintain a private sector partnerships portfolio and pipeline

• Map the potentials of shared value private sector partnerships for DRC, and maintain and develop a dynamic mapping, portfolio and pipeline of partnership opportunities
• Based on this mapping, develop a prioritized list and strategy of engagement that maps DRC’s private sector engagement efforts to selected strategic objectives
• Lead the strategic engagement, in collaboration with relevant technical leads, with priority private sector partners based on this portfolio
   

Contribute to delivering the private sector partnerships and innovation service offer to DRC regions, country offices and global sectors

• Contribute to the development and roll out of the ‘private sector partnerships’ toolbox for DRC, a fit-for-purpose toolbox and guidance to accelerate DRC’s private sector partnerships ambitions
• Oversee and/or directly deliver technical assistance to selected regions, countries and sectors to map private sector partnerships opportunities and develop engagement strategies
• Function as lead advisor and/or ‘key account manager’ on selected shared value private partnerships at global, regional or country levels, working in close collaboration with technical teams to take partnerships from conceptual stages to delivering results
• Advise regions, countries and global technical leads on innovation and partnerships methodologies, incl. in relation to design of innovation projects with partners and scaling of initiatives through partnerships, incl. through workshops, trainings, development of online resources and case-by-case advisory support.

External representation

• Develop and maintain a mapping of relevant external engagements and based on this, represent DRC in relevant networks, working groups and events where partnerships opportunities between private sector and humanitarian/development organisations exist
• Together with other advisors in the PIBE team, and relevant colleagues across press, advocacy, private fundraising and business development develop case stories, reports, articles, pitch decks and other material that showcases DRC’s private partnerships experience and ambitions

About you

You may come from the private sector, the humanitarian, development, social or public sectors or have experience across several of these. You may have particular insights in sectors of priority to DRC where we see particular partnerships opportunities, such as climate partnerships, innovative finance or digital collaborations, or be more of a generalist.

This is a senior position that works independently but also becomes part of an existing team. You therefore need to be able to operate fairly independently, represent DRC externally with confidence, build relations and support a wide range of internal managers and technical specialists and work with the immediate innovation and business engagement team on a range of cross cutting activities. What we will be looking for is someone who brings:

• A successful track record of developing and managing multistakeholder partnerships, ideally between non-profits and private companies, that go beyond fundraising relationships and involve the mutual investment in producing new solutions to social challenges. These can be in any sector of relevance to DRC’s strategic priorities.
• Experience in process facilitation that can be deployed towards both private sector partnerships and more general innovation process facilitation in collaboration with the rest of the team, and the willingness to work across the two disciplines of private sector partnerships and innovation
• A network in one or more sectors relevant to DRC’s work that the candidate can draw on in building DRC’s external engagement and partnerships portfolio. Ideally this network includes the Danish and/or Nordic eco-systems for private sector-non-profit collaborations
• Understanding of the role of the private sector in development, humanitarian assistance and/or refugee contexts, and an ability to translate this understanding into value propositions for DRC’s external engagement, assessment of private sector partners’ relevance for DRC, development of relevant screening and partnerships tools, development of relevant business models for collaboration, and external communication on DRC’s partnerships experiences and priorities

Education: Relevant university degree at Master’s or equivalent level

Languages: Fluency in English, spoken and written, is a must. Ability to work in Danish (or another Nordic language) and French will be considered an advantage.

We offer

Contract length: permanent

Workplace: DRC Head Quarters in Denmark. Expect travel of 20-40 days annually

Start date: 1 April, earlier if possible.

The terms will be based on DRC’s agreement with AC, and the position will be a national position for which local terms and conditions apply.

Application process
All applicants must send a cover letter and an updated CV in English. Apply online on our page Current Vacancies at www.drc.ngo. Applications sent by email will not be considered.

Closing date for applications: 26th January 2024. First round of interviews will be held on 1st and 2nd February, with a possible second round on 8th February.

Further information

For questions regarding the vacancy please contact Morten Hoegnesen, Head of Program Innovation and Business Engagement. If you have questions or are facing problems with the online application process, please use our job support at drc.ngo/jobsupport.

For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website drc.ngo.