Chief of Party II – Resilience Food Security Activity, DRC

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Job Summary:

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the most populous, vast and resource rich countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Decades of conflict and other challenges over the past decades have left the Congo with 73% of its population living under the internationally recognized poverty rate of $1.90 per day and 43% of children are malnourished due to inadequate social and health services. Given its fragility and weak institutions, the country is susceptible to health crises, including rec ent outbreaks of Ebola, measles, cholera and potentially COVID-19.

CRS has operated in the DRC since 1961, successfully implementing programs in nutrition, agriculture livelihoods, emergency, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health, microfinance, and peacebuilding throughout the country. CRS/DRC currently has around 190 staff operating out of 6 offices in Kinshasa, Goma (North Kivu), Kananga (Kasai Central), Mbuji Mayi (Kasai Oriental), Kalemie (Tanganyika), and Bukavu (South Kivu).

As Chief of Party II you will provide vision, leadership and overall management of a Resilience Food Security Activity to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your strategic leadership, management and technical knowledge will ensure the delivery of high-quality programming and advance the position of CRS as a leading agency in resilience food security programming. As a senior leader you will proactively manage security and mitigate security risks.

Roles and Key Respo nsibilities:

• Lead all aspects of the development, implementation and consolidation of a USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance multi-sectoral Resilience Food Security Activity, including sharing how the project contributes to the thought leadership of the industry. Serve as the primary point of contact to the donor, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as public, private and non-government stakeholders.
• Ensure the project is designed and implemented to meet donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results and budget, including strategies for phase out and sustainability. Ensure coordination between program and operations leads. Ensure the CRS program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy and procedures.
• Effectively manage senior programming and operations talent. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching and mentoring. Strategically tailor individual development plans and complete performance assessments for direct reports. Oversee the development of staffing plans and the recruitment process of senior staff.
• Manage and mitigate risk through monitoring national and regional issues that may impact staff and programming. Ensure all staff understand and adhere to CRS staff safety and security policies and plans and ensure the updating of such plans.
• Promote, uphold and model a commitment to the efficient use of agency and donor resources. Ensure compliance with USAID grants, including financial tracking and oversight of partner budgets, finance, administration and reporting to USAID. Approve program expenditures, budget adjustments, and cost modification requests to donors.
• Represent CRS programming in international circles, highlighting innovative work. Publish program results and deliver presentations. Oversee the development of communication strategies and materials, complying with donor and CRS’ branding and marketing requirements and procedures.
• Manage relationships with consortium partner organizations, including organization of review/planning workshops. Coordinate the roles and activities of staff from other consortium member organizations in implementation in line with CRS partnership principles.
• Create and maintain proper conditions for learning. Establish a safe environment for sharing of ideas, solutions, and difficulties and the capacity to detect, analyze and respond quickly to deficiencies. Identify performance gaps and training opportunities for CRS and partner staff and ensure the design and delivery of high-quality training and technical assistance.

Required Languages – English, French

Travel – Position will be based in D.R. Congo. Must be willing and able to travel up to 40%.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Excellent strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
• Excellent relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Team leadership abilities with diverse/multi-disciplinary teams. Coaching/mentoring skills.
• Strong communications and presentation skills; able to develop tailored and persuasive messaging for varied audiences.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.

Supervisory Responsibilities: Deputy Chief of Party, MEAL Manager

Key Working Relationships:

Internal – Country Representative, Head of Programming, Deputy Country Representative for Operations, Deputy Head of Programming, MEAL/ICT4D Coordinator, Business Development Specialist, Gender and Protection Technical Advisor, Finance Manager, Deputy Regional Director for Program Quality, Regional Technical Advisors, Director of Food Security Donor Engagement, HQ based Public Donor Liaison.

External – Donors, partner INGOs and local NGOs, Caritas, and peer agencies.

Basic Qualifications

· Master’s degree in International Development, International Relations or a relevant technical area. PhD preferred.

· 10 or more years’ relevant management and technical experience.

· 7 years experience managing donor funds, including multi country grants. Excellent knowledge and experience in budget management.

· 5 years of staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment. Experience coaching and mentoring senior program staff.

Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.