Title: Regional Ethics and Compliance Officers, Middle East
Department: Ethics & Compliance
Location: Home-based in US, UK, Turkey, Kenya, Pakistan, Jordan, Lebanon or Yemen (Travel at approximately 25% of time)
Reporting to: Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, with dotted-line to Regional Director
Direct reports: Country Office Focal Points (dotted line)
* This role is classified as requiring standard/ advanced pre-employment checks
ABOUT Relief International.
Relief International (RI) is a leading non-profit organization working in 16 countries globally to relieve poverty, ensure well-being and advance dignity. We specialize in fragile settings, responding to natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and chronic poverty.
RI combines humanitarian and development approaches to provide immediate services while laying the groundwork for long-term impact and resilience. We focus on health/nutrition, education, economic opportunity, and water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) programming while integrating protection, environment/climate change, and conflict mitigation in partnership with the communities we serve. We empower communities to find, design and implement the solutions that work best for them.
RI includes the three corporate members of the RI Alliance: RI-US, RI-UK, and MRCA/RI-France. Under our alliance agreement, we operate as a single, shared management structure.
About our Programs
RI is currently active in 16 countries around the world, including some of the most fragile: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen. Often, RI is the only organization providing assistance to highly vulnerable communities.
RI employs about 5,000 staff and auxiliary workers.
97% of staff are local nationals and there are about 90 international (expat) staff.
2021 programs budget is about $125M
RI receives funding from a broad range of institutional donors – US, UK, Europe, and the UN, to delivery life-saving and resilience building programming with communities and local and international partners. RI supports solutions that reinforce and improve upon existing in-country systems. Where such systems do not exist or are chronically underperforming, RI’s crisis response lays the foundation for long-term, sustainable change.
About our Country Program/ Regional Programs:
Middle East Region
RI in the Middle East has programs in six countries - Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Yemen, with a focus on the 4 main RI sectors: Health, WASH, Education and Economic Opportunity.
Relief International currently employs 3900 staff (direct and indirect) in the region and has a range of emergency response and development programs valued at 70 million USD on an annual basis
Africa/ Asia Region
RI currently operates in eight countries in the Africa/Asia region: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Sudan, and Sudan, with a focus on the four RI sector pillars: Health, WASH, Education and Economic Opportunity.
RI currently employs more than 3,000 staff (direct and indirect) in the Africa/Asia region and implements a range of emergency response and development programs valued at approximately $50 million USD on an annual basis .
Position Summary.
Relief International is seeking two Regional Ethics and Compliance Officers, one for the Middle East and one for Africa and Asia Region to develop, implement and lead ethics and compliance initiatives. The positions will be part of the Global Ethics and Compliance team and work in close collaboration with colleagues at the global, regional, and country levels to drive compliance with RI’s code of conduct and related policies within RI’s country missions. The positions will report directly to the CECO but have a dotted line to the Regional Director as this position will also be integrated within the regional team.
Your role will be to help ensure RI’s compliance program is designed and implemented effectively based on the unique risks, needs and challenges of each country within the region. While reporting directly to the CECO, the role will be a member of the regional team and a key liaison to both country leadership teams and GSO functions (including awards management, legal, finance, supply chain and operations and human resources). The Regional Ethics and Compliance Officer will also support other regional and global compliance program needs as requested.
Key Responsibilities and Duties.
- Establish and mentor Ethics and Compliance Focal Points in each country. This will include having bi-weekly one-on-one meetings with these focal points to support and monitor progress towards initiatives.
- Lead on the roll-out of global compliance initiatives and trainings for the country offices
- Serve as focal point for monitoring and tracking of compliance performance for all country offices, reporting to GSO, RSO and Country Offices as necessary on status and areas for improvement.
- Serve as focal point for supporting country teams in high-risk settings with implementing and tracking Enhanced Due Diligence, which will vary based on country needs but include technical advising, reviewing and providing quality check, and backstopping as necessary for COs
- In close coordination with Regional Awards Manager, Regional Finance Manager, and other relevant Regional Team members, support country offices to be audit-ready by ensuring that RI’s internal policies have been followed.
- Coordinate and conduct ad-hoc and regular regional, country and programmatic risk assessments, with a focus on ethics and compliance-related risks.
- Work with the Global Compliance Team to contribute to ensuring the design and impact of the compliance initiatives are tailored appropriately to local contexts and needs.
- Ensure global policies, especially but not exclusively those related to RI’s Ethics and Compliance program, are accessible, clear, and understood by end-users; this will necessitate tailored training and mentorship sessions for staff in country offices.
- Plan and manage communications and training initiatives to educate staff and higher-risk third parties on RI’s standards of conduct.
- Conduct or assist with audits and ethics and compliance reviews as it relates to the implementation of RI’s internal policies.
- Analyze ethics and internal compliance approval requests for resolution or escalation.
- Resolve or escalate ethics and internal compliance questions, approval requests or issues that arise in the region.
- Engage with RI management on analysis, trends and learnings to recommend improvements to RI’s internal ethics and compliance controls and practices.
Safeguarding
- Uphold and promote RI’s commitment to ensuring the safeguarding and safety of the vulnerable communities we serve
- Ensure that your behaviour inside and outside of work promotes the values outlined with RI’s code of conduct and safeguarding policies
Other related tasks that may from time to time
Role requirements.
Experience and skills required for the role.
- Self-starter with a track record of achievement in the design, implementation and evaluation of ethics and compliance activities.
- 5+ years working in a compliance, assurance, risk management or legal function.
- Experience in the NGO sector or grant-supported organizations, regional and international organizations, or the inspector general function within a large government organization.
- Demonstrated fluency with key risk areas, including: fraud, corruption, procurement integrity, trade sanctions, safeguarding, data protection and donor compliance.
- Demonstrated knowledge of best practices associated with compliance risk management activities, including: risk assessment, communications, training, auditing, monitoring, investigations, donor disclosures and issue resolution.
- Experience supporting teams in remote locations and high-risk settings.
- Excellent relationship management skills and ability to in all forms (written, verbal, negotiation, presentation skills, etc.). High proficiency in English required. Other language skills applicable to the region highly desirable.
- Willingness to travel as safety conditions allow.
- Undergraduate degree required, advanced degree preferred.
- Professional designations such as CCEP, CFE, CPA, CIA a plus.
RI Values.
Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as well as “Do No Harm,” Relief International Values:
We value:
- Integrity
- Adaptability
- Collaboration
- Inclusivity
- Sustainability
How to apply.
- To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button in the job advert page
- You will be asked to upload a CV and Cover Letter. The cover letter should be no more than 2 pages long and explain why you are interested in this post with Relief International and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.
Closing date. Note the closing date as per the job board listing, however, please apply immediately as we will be reviewing applicants on a rolling basis and may withdraw the position before the job board closing date.
Please apply by uploading your cover letter and up-to-date CV on our website.
COVID 19: To ensure a safe workplace, RI follows government requirements, and in some locations a mandatory vaccination policy applies. When working or traveling on RI business, all staff, contractors and visitors must follow the rules and entry requirements of the country.
As this role is US based a mandatory policy for COVID 19 vaccination will be required by the post holder.
Due to limited resources, only short-listed candidates will be contacted
Relief International has a zero-tolerance policy for unlawful harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse. Relief International is committed to protecting our staff and the communities we work with from abuse and harm including sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and sexual harassment.
All staff are expected to abide by our Code of Conduct.
Recruitment to all roles in Relief International include a criminal records self-declaration, references and other pre-employment checks, which may include police and qualifications checks.
