Lebanon’s economic, political, and social contexts have been significantly impacted by multiple, concurrent crises since 2019. Already experiencing a financial crisis, a massive explosion in the Port of Beirut (POB) in August 2020 caused considerable loss of life and injury, displacement, physical damage to infrastructure, and further affected the country’s economic standings. The COVID-19 pandemic and political deadlock worked to further deepen this crisis. Consequently, Lebanon's overall socio-economic welfare has significantly deteriorated, impacting various segments of the population including, but not limited to, the host community, internally displaced persons, forcibly displaced individuals, and migrant workers. Within this context, the NGO sector has been an essential lifeline for vulnerable groups, providing them with critical social services and supporting their immediate- and longer-range social recovery needs while national systems remain unable to fill these gaps. 

Project Description:

Supporting Lebanon’s Social Recovery Services

The project will focus on reducing vulnerabilities of groups who are identified to be significantly impacted by Lebanon’s enduring social, economic, and political fragility: (i) survivors of Gender-Based Violence (SGBV); (ii) those suffering from deteriorated psycho-social wellbeing; (iii) and/or those facing limitations related to being a person with disabilities and older persons. The project’s scope will entail providing grant financing directly to a selected number of NGOs, to enable them to provide social services to reduce vulnerabilities in these groups while strengthening their capacity to participate in the broader social recovery and reconstruction process. 

The World Bank has selected the IRC to act as the Project Implementing Agency to implement the Supporting Lebanon’s Immediate Social Recovery Services project. The IRC will take on project management, grant provision and/or procurement of services from NGOs and will be responsible for the fiduciary supervision of the selected NGO partners, in addition to improving their environmental and social safeguards capabilities. 

Job Purpose:

The Partnership Finance Manager will play a pivotal role at the core of the project's success. With responsibilities that extend beyond finance, this position serves as a key link in supporting critical project objectives. The role offers a unique opportunity to work closely with a dynamic, passionate, and highly motivated team, contributing to initiatives that directly impact vulnerable groups in Lebanon. The individual’s involvement will not only shape the financial framework but also foster meaningful partnerships, ensuring the project's impact reaches those who need it most.

 

Key Responsibilities:

 

Program Delivery

 Contribute to the development of the Request for Applications (RFA) and the scoring criteria for the selection of partners. Participate in the Partner's Project Capacity Review (PPCR) of potential partners as appropriate and contribute to efforts to collaboratively analyze and manage material risks identified. Work collaboratively and supportively with partners to develop and finalize budgets and budget amendments, and (in the case of milestone-based partnership agreements) in determining the costing of milestones. Review partnership agreement terms relating to advances, reporting and any special conditions relating to finance before sharing with finance and HQ for final sign off. For cost-reimbursable partnership agreements, agree with partners the specific documentation required to support each type of cost, adjusting standard requirements to the operating context and the partner. Participate in Partnership Project Opening, Review and Closure Meetings, including review successes, challenges, and lessons learned with the partner, and capture effective finance practices for future partnerships. Collaborate with partners to ensure timely disbursement of funding as per the partnership agreement, facilitating clear communication and swift resolution in cases where challenges arise preventing timely provision of funds. Prepare cash requests and process partners' payments, ensuring all necessary supporting documentation and journal vouchers are provided as required. Review partner financial reports (and narrative reports for consistency) and supporting documents to ensure compliance with the partnership agreement, donor regulations and IRC policy, and provide feedback to the partner as appropriate. Monitor partner budgets and actual spending in collaboration with project lead, identifying issues and working proactively and collaboratively with partners to resolve them. Lead timely and effective finance review, checking and reflection with the partners (monitoring), identifying appropriate follow up actions, and providing completed reports to Project Lead. Assist in the close-out phase of partnership agreements, Participate in the review of the performance of the partner, of the IRC, and of the partnership, including successes, challenges and lessons learned. Assist during the audit process for the partnership portfolio. Ensure the availability of all necessary financial documentation and records for audit purposes. 

Program Support and Capacity Sharing

 Provide finance and accounting training and mentoring support to partners, in accordance with financial management best practices, donor compliance and partner project support plans.  

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: World Bank Project Lead

Position directly supervises: N/A

Indirect Reporting: N/A

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

   Internal: IRC Lebanon Finance, Human Resources and Supply Chain Departments, Headquarters and Regional Grants and Compliance teams, Partnerships team, Program coordinators, Regional Partnership team and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning teams.    External: Partner organizations.