Liaison Officer

Background

The Liaison function plays a key role in facilitating and maintaining effective coordination and communication between NRC and relevant authorities and stakeholders. The function is responsible for managing sub-agreements and MoUs with authorities, ensuring timely submission of mandatory and ad hoc reports, and addressing issues related to agreements and reporting requirements.

The role also supports the development of constructive and professional relationships with government entities while ensuring full adherence to humanitarian principles and NRC policies. In addition, the Liaison function contributes to strengthening NRC’s representation and visibility through accurate communication on humanitarian needs, NRC interventions, and the organization’s impact on displaced and vulnerable populations.

As part of this role, the Liaison function may represent NRC in coordination meetings and engagements with key stakeholders at different levels to support operational access, coordination, and effective programme implementation.

Responsibilities

Liaison Officer will primarily be responsible for coordinating sub-agreements and MoUs with authorities, mandatory as well as ad hoc reporting to authorities, and problem solving in relation to sub-agreements and reports.

Generic Responsibilities

1. Uphold and promote NRC values, code of conduct and Humanitarian Principles
2. Gives support to relevant NRC staff in developing and maintaining good relationships with local authorities and officials.
3. Actively promote gender awareness and protection and – where the situation demands it – be a champion for gender and protection.
4. Attend coordination meetings with official stakeholders, record meeting minutes and report back to management.

Key responsibilities

Overall coordination in representing NRC with the Government entities and other key stakeholders in the targeted areas including fostering healthy and effective relationship with them:

1. Assist in the development and implementation of NRC stakeholders’ engagement plan to ensure the organization is compliant with local laws and regulations as well as is actively inclusively involving relevant official stakeholders. 
2. In collaboration with the line manager and the Access Adviser, contribute to the development and implementation of NRC access and negotiation strategies and plans to ensure continued as well as sustained access of NRC’s services to the people we serve.
3. Lead in the preparation, submission and signing of NRC agreements with authorities; including, Principle Agreement, Sub-Agreements and MoUs.
4. Lead in preparation, submission and approving of Project/activities modification, top ups and Separate activities permits, 
5. Compile and submit the required monthly/quarterly/biannual and annual reports to relevant government authorities, ensuring adherence to NRC’s policies, procedure, and donor requirements.
6. Lead in Identifying key contacts in relevant government ministries; and develop and maintain good working relationships as well as negotiation with them and the institutions they represent.
7. Lead in preparation, submission and signing of NRC Data Collection tools and approvals.
8. Obtain legal, fiscal, and administrative information (including, but not limited to documents) from local authorities; and share with relevant NRC staff and partner organizations as may be applicable.
9. From time-to-time translates documents from English to Arabic and/or from Arabic to English, to ensure they are fit for the intended purpose and audience and/or edit complex technical materials. 
10. Ensure the sub-agreement tracker and assessment tools tracker are updated and shared with all relevant staff.
11. Lead and accompany senior NRC staff to meetings with government entities as well as field visits whenever demanded including interpretation/translation process and documentation of meeting notes.
12.  Support HR/Admin on submission of and follow up on VISA applications, exit/entry visas, residence permits, and work permits for international staff.
13. Coordinate timely and accurate response to government orders, information, documents, and letters related to NRC’s program.
14. Maintain a complete, up-to-date, and orderly archive for all sub-agreement, reports and official communication with authorities, both in hard copies and electronically, in accordance with NRC filing systems, and in accordance with principles of effective document management.
15. From time to time conduct supportive field visits to Area and field offices and other project activities; and produce back-to-office reports within one week and provide support when needed.
16. Assist in maintaining awareness of relevant governmental laws, policies and procedures that has significant impact on NRC’s operation in the targeted areas.
17. Support the line manager in engaging with relevant authorities, assisting in communication and coordination efforts as needed to ensure effective collaboration and compliance with local regulations. 
18. Any other tasks as assigned by the line manager. 

Learning:

• Support the documentation, archiving, and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices related to liaison, coordination, reporting, and engagement with authorities through maintaining and updating relevant tracking tools.
• Ensure key lessons and operational challenges related to sub agreements, reporting processes, and coordination with authorities are captured, documented, and regularly shared with relevant NRC teams.
• Support the integration of lessons learned into future liaison and coordination processes to strengthen operational efficiency, compliance, and stakeholder engagement.
• Facilitate regular reflection and learning discussions with relevant departments to promote continuous improvement in liaison processes, communication with authorities, and management of agreements and reporting requirements.

Scale and Scope of the Position 

Critical Interfaces

The Liaison Officer works closely with multiple internal and external stakeholders to ensure effective coordination, communication, and compliance in relation to NRC’s engagement with authorities and implementation of agreements and reporting obligations. Key interfaces include: 

Qualifications

Generic Professional Competencies

• University degree in public or business administration or other relevant social sciences.
• 2-3 years’ experience from working in government relations for a humanitarian organization
• Experience of liaison and representation with senior level authorities
• Demonstrated diplomatic communication skills with ability to build a strong network with a variety of stakeholders
• Able to do required regular travel within a designated Local Authority area and may also require travel outside the area, thus flexibility is required to meet this need as it appears
• Ability to engage and influence government authorities and its departments to achieve results.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to effectively advocate on behalf of NRC.
• Native Arabic speaker and advanced English language skills
• Knowledge of humanitarian principles, standards and other humanitarian related issues.
• Demonstrated high attention to details.
• Demonstrated competencies in drafting letters in Arabic

Behavioural Competencies

The following are essential for this position:

• Handling insecure environments
• Planning and delivering results
• Empowering and building trust
• Emotionally intelligent
• Ability to work under pressure and to deadlines.
• Ability to absorb complex written and verbal information and communicate effectively.
• Ability to strengthen effective working relationships at all levels.

About Us

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a global humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. 

Join us in assisting millions of people in areas where others cannot, tackling some of the world's most dangerous and difficult crises. Bring your skills and dedication to an organisation recognised for providing high quality aid and for defending the rights of refugees and internally displaced people. 

At NRC, we give responsibility to employees at all levels and foster professional growth and innovative teams. You can expect a supportive culture and an open dialogue with management. We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Together, we save lives and rebuild futures.

Safeguarding is central to NRC’s work. We expect all employees to: 

• treat everyone with respect and dignity 
• contribute to building a safe environment for all 
• never engage in any form of exploitation, harassment and specifically sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH) 
• always report. NRC has a zero-tolerance approach to inaction against exploitation, abuse and SEAH