Chief of Party for RFSA

Responsible for overall strategic, technical leadership, financial, and administrative oversight of the program and will serve as the principal institutional liaison to the donor and local government entities. For management, you must have proven leadership skills managing projects of a similar size and scope in developing countries. You must have prior experience effectively managing USAID development activities.

This role is contingent on approval of a USAID grant, donor approval, and funding.

Food for the Hungry (FH) is searching for an experienced Chief of Party for the anticipated BHA/DRC Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) with an anticipated budget of $100m-299 million over 5 years. The program will seek to improve and sustain the food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations through multi-year resilience food security activities. These activities work at the individual household, community, and institutional level to address the underlying causes of food insecurity and malnutrition and strengthen transformative opportunities. RFSAs are intended to strengthen resilience in populations vulnerable to acute, chronic hunger, and malnutrition; recurrent shocks, stresses, and crises; and to reduce the need for ongoing or future emergency food assistance.

FH Culture

All we do, and how we do it, seeks to promote God’s beauty, goodness, and truth in a broken world. As such, we are defined by our ability to make people’s lives measurably better; our ability to deliver impact is the measure of our collective success. For we know that we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has already prepared in advance for us to do. At Food for the Hungry, we operate under a set of values called Heartbeat Values.

Principal Responsibilities

Program Leadership

• Provide vision and direction, strategic planning, staff motivation and overall leadership to the program.
• Coordinate activities for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting including drafting and reviewing quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reports and managing donor- and organization-mandated evaluation processes.
• Lead development of the program’s annual activity plan and budget and ensure their timely performance (ensure timely and proper achievement of activities and budget, provide monthly variance analysis, initiate corrective action, and project adaptations as needed to reach set targets and goals).
• Ensure regular monitoring of activities and submit timely feedback to FH Country Director, FH headquarters, USAID, and other relevant partners.
• Oversee all communications and reporting to the donor and FH headquarters.
• Ensure the development of CLA and internal/external engagement strategies are developed and implemented.
• Ensure that cross-cutting themes such as gender, youth, sustainability, and resilience are fully integrated into programming across all sectors.
• Inform the development and contribute to the design of proposals that enhance or overlap with the RFSA.
• Escalate grant management issues early and openly; resolve grant management issues quickly and fully.
• Coordinate and guide programmatic, financial, and administrative performance of all program sub-grantees and contracting agencies.

Management and Administration

• Ensure appropriate coordination of all sub-awards or sub-contracts, including supporting management of these partners and ensuring reporting and compliance with USAID and FH policies and requirements.
• Ensure strong coordination/collaboration among consortium members through regular coordination.
• meetings/program reviews, joint field visits and action planning.
• Routinely travel to the field programs to provide capacity support for extended periods of times as needed.
• Monitor and manage all financial and programmatic issues (including commodities) and ensure timely, accountable, and appropriate reporting and transactions to ensure successful performance, taking corrective action, as necessary.
• Coordinate regular programmatic and financial progress reviews and lead budget harmonization processes.
• Ensure quality donor reporting submissions and donor and sub-grant compliance.
• Oversee operations and the team managing shipment of food commodities from the US and timely pre-positioning to all destinations as per the approved plan.
• Ensure proper warehouse management and food commodity handling in all the woredas are done based on USAID commodity management standards.
• Ensure appropriate project quality support to consortium members through purpose leads.

Representation and Coordination

• Serve as the primary liaison with USAID Mission, government of DRC, program partners, key local stakeholders, INGOs, and FH Country Office and headquarters, and maintain responsibility for appropriate communication and consultation.
• Actively engage in DFSA coordination working groups and meetings.
• Facilitate networking, negotiation, and other external actions for advancement of the program.
• Organize learning and sharing opportunities between project and external stakeholders on a regular basis.
• Promote program results and organizational interests in national program and policy forums.
• Build and maintain relationships with host governments, donors, other donor-funded projects and stakeholders, local organizations, and partners.

Staff management, development, and security

• Oversee the hiring, onboarding, training, directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees etc., to build a technically strong, well supported, motivated team; Carry out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws.
• Identify and facilitate opportunities for staff professional development by providing adequate mentoring, clear orientation, feedback and learning opportunities.
• Ensure appropriate duty of care provisions are in place for all staff and visitors, with particular attention paid to security concerns.
• Provide leadership and people management expertise in managing change initiatives within the country, bridging different ways of working and diverse working cultures within the teams.
• Keep abreast of environmental, economic, social, political, and religious conditions in the field, and report on such conditions as needed.

Safeguarding and Risk Management

• Ensures appropriate protection and well-being of FH staff, community partners, assets, and organizational reputation.
• Ensures that children and vulnerable adults are protected from safeguarding issues by all staff and FH representatives in the delivery of projects and programs in the country.
• Ensures that systems, policies, and procedures are properly developed and implemented in order to strengthen safety and security of all staff and FH resources.
• Actively identifies, mitigates, and monitors all risks to the organization and initiate corrective action where organizational gaps or weaknesses heighten risk.

Other duties as assigned.

Job Level Specifications

• Demonstrated computer-operating skills, including proficiency in Google platforms, Microsoft Office products, and virtual technologies such as Skype and/or Zoom.
• Demonstrated knowledge and significant familiarity with latest USAID rules and regulations.
• Advanced level Excel user and knowledge of sun systems, SPSS, and EPI INFO.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a collaborative management style.
• Strong networking and representation skills.
• Strong written English skills as reporting will be compiled in English.
• Commitment to work with the poor as demonstrated by past positions.
• Fitness to live and travel in rural and urban areas with extreme conditions and limited medical support.
• Ability to travel up to 40% of time to fragile contexts, and/or locations.

Experience

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in managing large scale grants from major donors such as USAID, UN, EU.
• At least 10 years of relevant work experience out of which four or five years on managerial and senior leadership positions.
• At least five years of experience working as a Chief of Party and in another senior position on USAID funded programs.
• Experience from working in an African context.
• Prior experience in a complex, matrixed organization, with the ability to scale processes in a global, professional, service organization.

Education/Certifications

• Master’s degree in agriculture, agricultural economics, forestry, natural resources management, and other related rural development fields sectors related to RFSA programs.

Language

Proficiency in spoken and written English. French working abilities are highly desired. Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public.

Supervisor Responsibilities

Directly supervises staff. Carry out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints, resolving problems, etc.

Safeguarding Policy

FH strives to provide an environment free from sexual exploitation and abuse and harassment in all places where relief and development programs are implemented. FH holds a zero-tolerance policy against sexual exploitation and abuse and harassment. FH expects its employees to maintain high ethical standards, protect organizational integrity and reputation, and ensure that FH work is carried out in honest and fair methods, in alignment with the Heartbeat Values, safeguarding, and associated policies. Violations to stated policies will be subject to corrective action up to and including termination of employment.

An application and resume through our online system is required. Click here to access our system.