Project: The International Rescue Committee’s health programs comprise the largest proportion of its overall program budget and are essential to both IRC emergency response and long-term programming worldwide. The Health Technical Unit is a dynamic team of more than 70 professionals in Primary Health Care, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Nutrition, Mental and Environmental Health. They provide IRC’s 40-plus country offices and emergency response team with world-class technical expertise, capacity building, and a cross-country view of what works to achieve outcomes in terms of both evidence and practical experience. They also lead a focused research agenda, influencing donor policy to support interventions and innovations proven cost-effective to achieve positive change in people’s lives.
Role: The health technical unit is seeking a fellow to help revise, finalize, and disseminate a toolkit for designing climate-resilient health programs in humanitarian settings. The draft toolkit was developed by health technical advisors and reviewed by country program staff last year, but we need support in making the revisions and finalizing the toolkit. This would involve developing one-pagers on different topics related to climate and health, writing case studies of program examples, and revising program design tools to be more user-friendly for country program teams. The fellow would also support efforts to disseminate the toolkit to country programs, including through webinars, learning sessions, etc. It will be important for the fellow to work closely with technical advisors from different humanitarian sector areas to understand how to shape materials in a way that will be most useful.
Potential deliverables:
- Final, simplified climate and health program design framework
- Revised needs assessment and program design tools
- 5 one-pagers on opportunities to integrate climate and health with other IRC sectors
- At least 3 case studies illustrating climate-resilient health programming
- Other toolkit revisions, as necessary.
- Toolkit dissemination plan and draft slide deck.
Potential travel involved: No travel will be involved for this position.
Desired Skills:
- Demonstrated interest in climate change, health, and humanitarian action
- Excellent writing and evidence-synthesis skills
- Experience developing tools and resources for global audiences.
- Ability to summarize technical concepts in an easy to use/digest format
- Strong presentation and public speaking skills are a plus
- Ability to work independently and meet deadlines.
Requirements: Students must be a matriculated graduate or Ph.D. student at The New School. Fellows are hired as Research Associates by The New School.
Work Environment: This fellowship will work with the Airbel Impact Lab based in the IRC’s HQ in New York City. While this fellowship is remote, all Fellows must be physically located in the US.
Fellowship Length: This fellowship carries a maximum of 35 hours/week during the summer semester (May 20 – August 25, 2024), and a maximum of 20 hours/week during the Fall 2024 semester (August 26 – December 22, 2024). Continuation into Spring 2025 is potentially available. The ideal candidate will be able to commit to both the Summer and Fall semesters.
How to apply: The deadline to apply is March 30, 2024. Please submit one PDF document containing a cover letter, CV/resume, and two work samples (writing and/or design portfolio – 5 pages maximum per sample) to Catherine McGahan, McGahanC@newschool.edu, and Nicole Tuszynski, tuszynsn@newschool.edu.
Interviews will be conducted in early April via Zoom.
Team: Airbel Impact Lab, Research and Innovation at the IRC. The Airbel Impact Lab designs, tests, and scales life-changing cost-effective solutions for people affected by conflict and disaster. By applying the IRC’s deep technical expertise and field experience with a range of skills from the behavioral sciences, human-centered design, research, and multi-disciplinary problem-solving in humanitarian contexts, we work to develop breakthrough solutions that combine creativity and rigor, openness and expertise, and a desire to think afresh with the experience of a large-scale implementing organization. Within Airbel, the Best Use of Resources team provides analysis and decision-making support to improve the cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness of IRC programs.