Technical Specialist, Refugees and Displaced Persons

About the role

WUSC, a Canadian international development organization, is hiring a Technical Specialist, Refugees and Displaced Persons, for its Phase II initiative (2026-2030) aimed at helping refugee, displaced and host community youth, especially young women, secure work and access education across Africa. The specialist provides demand-driven, standardized technical assistance and expert guidance to donor staff and implementing partners in Rwanda, reporting to the Senior Technical Assistance Manager, Pan Africa, DREEM. The start date is as soon as possible, ideally December 1, 2026.

Key responsibilities

• Help donors and partners co-develop strategies and action plans that mainstream refugee and displaced persons (RDP) inclusion across programs in Rwanda.
• Support the co-creation of concept notes, review of expressions of interest and proposals, giving them an RDP lens.
• Carry out RDP inclusion assessments with partners and build capacity-strengthening plans.
• Support the donor's Rwanda office in developing RDP-specific partnerships and maintaining relationships with donors and partners.
• Help feature RDP at events such as World Refugee Day, workshops, stakeholder meetings and youth forums.
• Build capacity to develop, test and scale programming that improves education and economic opportunities for RDP youth.
• Run a training-of-trainers approach with donor focal points, the Youth Technical Advisory Committee and refugee-led organizations (RLOs).
• Deliver technical assistance and institutional strengthening to RLOs so they can design, implement and sustain solutions for RDP access to education and work.
• Contribute to knowledge on RDP contexts and barriers through research, mapping and analysis, and liaise with the MERL team to track the quality of technical assistance.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in a related field (International Development, Project Planning and Management, Development Studies, Social Work, Public Policy, International Relations, Refugee Studies).
• Minimum 7+ years of experience in development cooperation, technical assistance, education and/or youth employment in Rwanda.
• Experience on projects promoting livelihoods and economic inclusion for displaced/refugee youth, including support for entrepreneurs, tertiary or technical education for displaced youth and young people with disabilities.
• Understanding of market-based approaches to youth employment and livelihoods, especially for refugee and displaced women and young people.
• Experience providing technical support to development organizations and supporting multiple partners, with a participatory approach to capacity development.
• Fluency in English is mandatory; French is preferred but not required. Female applicants are strongly encouraged to apply.