Int'l Alert
We are looking for an exceptional candidate to join our DRC team, Alert’s largest country programme. This is for the Deputy Chief of Party – Technical position, which is a senior management position within Alert’s DRC programme and reports directly to the Director of Programmes, International Alert (direct line manager) with functional supervision of the Chief of Party (Wildlife Conservation Society/WCS). This is anticipated to be a four-year activity anchored around three protected areas which will contribute to USAID’s Journey to Self-Reliance and social resilience. The D/COP post will be located in Bukavu, South Kivu. This position is contingent upon award.
The D/COP assists the COP in management of technical and programmatic aspects of the USAID activity. This individual will oversee day-to-day implementation of all three objectives, including the design, quality, development and production of all assessments, analytical reports, field-based research, activity implementation and monitoring and evaluation. She/he must ensure that high-quality, results oriented interventions are carried out for all three objectives.
The D/COP must participate and engage in technical meetings and maintain positive relationships with GoDRC officials and other stakeholders. She/he will need to balance social inclusion programming with USAID/DRC’s development programming in agriculture, health, education, economic growth, environment, and governance sectors to ensure sustainability and overall regional coherence. She/he should also plan to spend significant time traveling in eastern DRC (Tanganyika, Mambasa in Ituri, Bukavu) assisting with activity start-up as well as conducting continuous monitoring throughout the life of the activity.
Essential qualifications include at least 6 years of relevant management, supervisory and technical experience with progressive responsibility working with activities that are of similar scope and scale to this project in the DRC or in a similar context as well as an excellent working knowledge (spoken and written) of both French and English.
Role duties and responsibilities:
1. Oversee day-to-day implementation of the project objectives
• Take the technical lead and ensure quality assurance of conflict sensitivity and social cohesion across thee ARIP programme.
• Ensure that high-quality, results-oriented interventions are carried out for all three objectives.
• Ensure planning, technical support and execution of partners activities in line with conflict sensitivity and social cohesion principles.
• Work with USAID/DRC technical office personnel to design any required research/analyses tools and /field visits.
• Contribute to team-wide communications and knowledge management and participate in organization-wide events and discussions on related topics/projects.
2. Provide leadership for effective project implementation and reporting
• Under the supervision of the ARIP COP, provide technical leadership for the ARIP project technical team.
• Ensure quality assurance for all objective design, planning, and implementation.
• Monitor and assess the conflict context and its interaction with project activities and recommend changes or adjustment in approach accordingly.
• In collaboration with the ARIP COP, ensure clarity about roles and responsibilities among project stakeholders involving them in planning and informing all stakeholders of implementation plans.
• Provide input to the ARIP monitoring and evaluation plan as well as social inclusion and conflict- and gender-sensitive design, monitoring and evaluation (DME) tools, and work with the COP and relevant ARIP staff to ensure effective data collection, analysis and reporting.
• Under the guidance of the ARIP COP, liaise and coordinate with relevant local, regional and international stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with ARIP operational policies and with Congolese laws.
• Support ARIP technical staff to monitor project expenditure, ensuring rational and efficient use of resources, compliance with the project contract and budget and preventing overspending or underspending.
• Provide quarterly, annual progress reports and ad hoc narrative reports as requested.
3. Maintain effective communication and coordination with other USAID projects, actors in the East of DRC and region
• Establish effective and adequate communications and coordination with other actors in the DRC and region (working on social inclusion and social cohesion), including the World Bank, GIZ, other NGOs and private sector actors.
• Participate and engage in technical meetings and maintain positive relationships with GoDRC officials through Consultative Committee and other Congolese stakeholders.
• Participate and engage in quarterly technical meetings and maintain positive relationship with other USAID projects particularly DFAP, IGA, GBV and protection project, Kivu Value Chain.
• Interact professionally with senior Mission, Embassy, and US government officials ensuring effective start-up, implementation and monitoring of the flexible response mechanism in eastern DRC, under the direction of the ARIP COP.
4. Advocacy, communication and quality programming
• Ensure integration of socially inclusive and community approaches, conflict and gender sensitivity, and capacity building into all activities as appropriate including project beneficiaries’ identification.
• In collaboration with M&E team, ensure monitoring and evaluation of project indicators, knowledge management activities, and advise changes in program direction and focus as needed.
• Provide technical oversight to ARIP local partners and other collaborating agencies, to ensure that lessons learned, and best practice are documented and shared.
• Ensure active, jointly and coordinated participation of all Component MEL team, Advocacy & Communication team in ARIP monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual planning and review.
• Provide information and updates to the ARIP COP regarding activities implementation, ensuring sustained and responsive communication.
5. Contribute to wider organizational goals within Alert
• Participate actively in the management processes of the DRC International Alert team, including team meetings, sharing of information, context analysis, and strategy development.
• Participate and contribute to other Africa Programme activities and events in the Great Lakes and beyond, including regional meetings, and also promote cross-learning and help create linkages between different country programmes.
Please note that these are just some of the requirements for this role. To view the full job description, please click here.
How to apply
Please follow this link to apply.
While International Alert will endeavour to contact all candidates within a reasonable time, this may not always be possible due to limited resources. Therefore, if you have not heard from us within two weeks of the closing date, you can assume that your application has, on this occasion, been unsuccessful.
International Alert prides itself on being an Equal Opportunity employer and particularly welcomes applications from underrepresented people including women, people from the Global South, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled people, and other historically marginalised people.