BACKGROUND ON REACH AND IMPACT

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative, AGORA, and PANDA. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis, and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organisations have a strong complementarity relationship formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support in its fields of intervention.

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT and ACTED) and the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction, and development contexts. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) needs and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

We are currently looking for a Deputy Country Representative to oversee humanitarian programming for the IMPACT Ukraine mission.

Position: Deputy Country Representative (Programmes)

Contract duration: 12 months

Location: Kyiv, Ukraine

Starting Date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

IMPACT has been active in Ukraine since 2015, working primarily in government controlled and non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. Following the full-scale invasion in February 2022, IMPACT significantly scaled-up its activities, operating across the whole country to support and facilitate evidence-based planning and prioritization in the humanitarian and stabilisation responses. IMPACT Ukraine’s research portfolios are structured across four strategic objectives:

Providing timely and relevant data and analysis to inform decision-making in response to new and evolving information needs.

Ensuring systematic and independent tracking of humanitarian needs and vulnerabilities to inform effective prioritization, accountability to affected populations, and coordination.

Making information and analysis available to support sustainable and community-focused planning, policy, and programming in response to long-term challenges associated with the conflict.

Strengthening the capacity of civil society and authorities to use data to collaborate and respond sustainably to current and future needs.

IMPACT provides operational data and analysis to support delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid in areas close to the frontline and informs countrywide humanitarian prioritisation. In addition, we work closely with partners and coordinating bodies to support stabilisation, early recovery and community-planning initiatives that offer longer-term solutions to mitigate the effects of the war, such as protracted internal displacement.

Since 2022, IMPACT has worked to establish itself within the coordination bodies and mechanisms underpinning its research portfolios. The delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance to frontline areas will continue in Ukraine for as long as the war persists, and the need to ensure evidence-based and effective prioritisation continues to be essential. As humanitarian funding in Ukraine is expected to contract further in 2025 and onward, prioritisation and effective targeting of aid will become increasingly important. Doing so will require an evidence-based approach to decision-making ensuring the response in Ukraine remains needs-based and people-centred. Likewise, the need local leadership of the humanitarian response will be increasingly pursued and prioritised, ensuring that demand for IMPACT’s efforts to inform and support this process, both via research and direct, tangible support to civil society continues to grow. This work is primarily delivered through a number of units/teams consisting of approximately 44 programmatic staff (+24 support staff), with a projected activity budget of approximately 3,5 million USD in 2026.

FUNCTIONS

IMPACT is looking for a Deputy Country Representative (DCR) to oversee the programme management across the strategic objectives of the mission. The role will involve oversight of research cycles (RCs), external representation, strategy development, human resource management, and project and grants development. The DCR functions as a Deputy to the Country Representative and is thus a leading member the Senior Management Team (SMT) which also includes Research Managers, Team Leads (RM/TLs) and Technical Specialists. The position will be based in Kyiv, with regular travel across the country anticipated.

The ideal candidate for this position will have experience working with the humanitarian coordination architecture as well as experience working with programmatic and operational actors, and the ability to differentiate between the objectives, priorities, and roles of a diverse range of stakeholders within this ecosystem. The role has a heavy external focus, and the ideal candidate will be confident representing IMPACT in high-level meetings and forums, as well as directly to donors and Government of Ukraine (GoU) representatives. As the context in Ukraine shifts, the DCR will be charged with ensuring that activities continue to be contextually relevant and are meeting the identified information gaps within the response, whilst the DCR themselves must be well-rooted into the various coordination fora (formal and informal) that guide decision-making within this space in Ukraine. This DCR will serve as the co-chair for the Ukraine Assessment and Analysis Working Group (AAWG) under the Data Management Group (DMG) and represent the AAWG at the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG).

Although primarily dedicated to overseeing programmes informing the humanitarian response, the DCR is also expected to hold close working relations with other stakeholders in the stabilisation, early recovery and community-planning spheres, as well as with the research managers and team leads implementing such activities to proactively identify linkages between different workstreams. The DCR will in addition be expected to work closely with various cross-cutting teams, to ensure quality research and impactful dissemination, including the Data/GIS team, Translation Team, and the Project Development (PD) Team. The DCR is also expected to maintain close communication with the large IMPACT dedicated Operations Team (OT), via active membership of the SMT + Operations forum. The DCR will support the CR in operational management of the mission, providing regular inputs and guidance as required to deliver on programme-identified operational priorities.