Innovative Finance Advisor

We are looking for an Innovative Finance Advisor to the Humanitarian Innovative Finance Hub (HIFHUB)   to take the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement beyond grants  

Do you have a financial background and experience of humanitarian or development contexts?  Are you eager to apply your financial skills and literacy to make a positive impact? Can you translate innovative financing models to fit and sustain humanitarian and/or development contexts? Are you excited by working in a truly global movement that supports millions of people and communities living in vulnerable situations?  And do you enjoy engaging with different stakeholders from diverse cultures and backgrounds supporting idea generation and new approaches to future humanitarian financing? If so, you might be our new Innovative Finance Advisor!  

Background  

Humanitarian needs are growing and outpacing the availability of traditional funding. New financing models are emerging, projected to unlock private capital, transfer risk, and help leverage public or philanthropic funding to mobilise new sources of financing for humanitarian challenges.  

Historically speaking, humanitarian actors – including the Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement – have generated impact funded by grants. In the current global context grants alone are not enough to meet the needs of people affected by conflict, natural disasters, climate change and crises. Meanwhile, holders of public and private capital are looking for ways to deploy their financial resources, capacity, and skills in fragile settings.  

Innovative finance has entered the humanitarian sector as a menu of proven financial models and instruments such as blended finance, parametric and indemnity insurance, impact investing and endowment funds etc. The innovative part is applying them to the humanitarian sector, through new kinds of partnerships and ways of working. 

Over the past few years, the RCRC Movement and other humanitarian actors have tested innovative financing models to generate replicable and/or scalable proofs of concept.  We cannot and do not seek to replace grants as the core business model in neutral, impartial, and independent humanitarian action. Humanitarian innovative finance can, however, articulate much needed partnerships across sectors, for example blending grants with public and private capital, generating humanitarian impact and impact across the humanitarian-development nexus.  

The Humanitarian Innovative Finance Hub (HIFHUB) 

Launched in early 2023, the HIFHUB is hosted by the Danish Red Cross and co-sponsored by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Kenyan and Swedish Red Cross. In late 2023, supported by the Foundation for the ICRC, part of ICRC's New Financing Models (NFMs) team was merged with the HIFHUB, to further develop and promote innovative finance within the RCRC Movement and in the wider ecosystem. 

The HIFHUB aims to act as an anchor point for innovative finance to the wider RCRC Movement; offering a repository of knowledge, technical advisory and modelling services, and sector learning. We have defined three key functions for the coming years:  

• Promote, facilitate, and enable the conceptualisation, piloting, replication and scale-up of a portfolio of innovative finance models. 
• Engage and enable RCRC partners to leverage innovative finance partnerships by building capacity and literacy on innovative finance. 
• Mobilise and engage actors from different sectors to participate and build an enabling, supportive ecosystem for innovative finance.  

The position 

You will be part of the core team of the HIFHUB and work closely with other team members with expertise within finance, humanitarian programming, capacity development, partnerships, and communication. You will also work closely with key RCRC Movement stakeholders and key external stakeholders, such as investors and other private sector partners.  You will be the focal point for the portfolio- and pipeline-related collaboration between the ICRC and the HIFHUB and its other partners, and for the engagement with African, and Scandinavian Innovative Finance Stakeholders.   

Your main tasks include to:  

Promote, facilitate, and enable the conceptualization, piloting, replication and scale-up of a portfolio of innovative finance models 

• Together with HIFHUB’s other Innovative Finance Advisors, ensure that this priority function evolves and progresses. 
• Identify innovative finance trends and opportunities and present ideas and approaches to internal and external stakeholders. 
• Support the RCRC National Societies, IFRC and ICRC in generating ideas, matching humanitarian challenges with finance structures, and identifying and assessing innovative financing opportunities.  
• Conduct analyses of risks, benefits, and potential impact of various financing models. 
• Support the design, development, and implementation of financing models, through the provision of technical advisory and strategic support.  
• Ensure that new models are conceptualised, tested and peer reviewed before piloting and further scale-up. 
• Facilitate the development of partnerships with key partners such as the financial sector, industry, and academia, bringing people together and unblocking challenges.  
• Support resource mobilisation through the identification of promising ideas and collaborations, and guiding colleagues to develop high quality proposals. 

Develop literacy, knowledge, and capacity on innovative finance in the  RCRC Movement  

• Contribute to the development of research pieces, lessons learnt, best practices, explainers, and guidelines. 
• Contribute to the conduction of organisational readiness assessments.  

Other 

• Contribute to other team priorities and dynamic tasks.  

Your profile 

The HIFHUB is seeking a dynamic, ambitious, and adaptable professional who is excited by working on big global challenges and new approaches. We are looking for an energetic colleague, who will thrive as part of our small and globally distributed team currently working or being supported from Denmark, the UK, Malaysia, Geneva, Kenya, and Sweden. Dedicated to establishing this new flagship initiative we offer a lot of opportunities to influence the Hub’s development and success. The right candidate will be proactive self-starters capable of working independently while being committed and supportive team player appreciating a not-for-profit environment.  

• Minimum 7-10 years of relevant working experience in finance and areas such as blended finance, insurance, impact investing, sustainable investment and risk analysis and modelling, debt swaps, debt and/or equity product loans or development of finance fields.   
• A proven track record of designing, structuring and/or implementing finance solutions and developing innovative finance partnerships.  
• Experience from humanitarian or development sectors or working with Not-for-Profits or NGOs.  
• Ability to engage with a variety of stakeholders from diverse contexts and supporting them in generating ideas and finding new approaches to financing humanitarian challenges. 
• Analytical skills (financial and business modelling skills) and business acumen ideally gained in a financial environment such as insurance markets, capital markets, investing or in strategy consulting.    
• Critical thinker with strategic vision, strong problem-solving skills and results oriented mindset. 
• Ability to move things forward and work autonomously, as part of the team, with flexibility to adapt to a dynamic environment where things develop all the time.   
• Some experience of working as an advisor or consultant, either in an internal or external role, is desirable. 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English; The working language of the HIFHUB is English (French/Arabic/Spanish skills are an advantage) 

Application and further information

We look forward to receiving your application and CV no later than June 5th. Application and CV in English are accepted only through our online recruitment system.

Interviews are expected to take place during the month of June with an expected date of commencement no later than August 2024. (We make use of a case as part of the recruitment process and we will prior to an employment with your consent contact persons for references.) 

The position is a full-time position (37 hrs per week) hosted by the Danish Red Cross. The salary and employment conditions are comparable with sector and equivalent roles and based on the Danish Red Cross collective bargaining agreement, incl. pension scheme. 

Location: Flexible, if possible, the location would match the current or future set-up of HIFHUB’s globally distributed team (the team generally observe CET working hours). Regular travel should be expected.  

Contract type: Initially, 1-year, full-time contract, which we expect to renew based on results. 

Desired start date: As soon as possible.  

Deadline for application: June 7th (applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis). 

In case you have any questions or might need more information please contact Anne-Sofie Munk, anmun@rodekors.dk, +45 26 74 40 48. 

We look forward to hearing from you!

The HIFHUB is an independent entity, hosted by the Danish Red Cross, for the benefit of the entire Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement: The world’s largest humanitarian movement comprised of the ICRC, IFRC and member National Societies in 191 countries. The HIFHUB works within the strategies and priorities of the Red Cross Red Crescent movement, always in close partnership with the ICRC, IFRC and Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies. Our work is guided by seven fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.