Senior West Africa Regional Advisor

Overview

Credence Management Solutions employs hard-working, passionate individuals who bring innovation, accountability, and a growth mindset to the many missions we support across the US Federal Government. Employee empowerment is part of the fabric of our corporate culture through which we emphasize opportunity, recognition, reward, and retention. At Credence, we follow the principles of servant leadership and believe that serving and supporting others is critical to both our individual and collective achievements. We have only one measure of success. Yours.

We are hiring for positions under the Global Health Training, Advisory, Support Contract (GHTASC) in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Global Health (GH). These roles deliver institutional support services in a wide range of technical areas at the junior, mid-, senior, and expert levels.

We are a diverse, enthusiastic family of subject matter experts, business professionals, and practitioners who all share a common goal of providing excellent services to our government customers. If you want to work in a dynamic and fast-growing environment with highly motivated colleagues, then Credence is the right place for you!

Credence Management Solutions is seeking a Senior West Africa Regional Advisor. See below for more information on this exciting opportunity and apply to join Credence today!

Position Summary

The Senior West Africa Regional Advisor will primarily support the GHTASC office as a Credence Institutional Support Contractor (ISC). In this role, the selected candidate will serve as a nexus for informing and coordinating field programs, strategy development and implementation, and communicates directly with USAID mission health teams. OCS manages the USAID/Washington Country Health Team System ensuring strong, strategic support to the field and undertakes analysis and documentation of Agency best practices, working closely with GH staff and across other Bureaus in USAID/Washington. The OCS priorities are as follows:

• Stewards of a strong Global Health Country Team System
• Mobilize support to Missions from across the Bureau and Agency to effectively operationalize the Program Cycle
• Create and manage a variety of communication strategies/platforms that create a bridge between the Field and Washington
• Support interpretation and implementation of Agency and GH Policies and Priorities.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership and vision to ensure strong, responsive, strategic technical assistance to USAID missions. Identify, monitor and communicate best practices and bottlenecks for successful practices and programming.
• Serve as a Country Team Lead on multiple GH Country Teams and ensure areas of expertise are represented and integrated and have an eye to ensuring and identifying appropriate synergies across programming.
• Serve as the OCS Point of Contact on other Country Teams within the sub region, and support the Country Team Lead to ensure areas of technical expertise are represented and integrated.
• Serve as the expert on the sub Region and for those countries for which the Senior Country Advisor is the GH Lead. Specifically:
• Provide institutional memory and in-depth knowledge of USAID and USG country health program, USAID mission portfolio and relevant country and sub regional context.
• For the USAID mission and GH, act as the first point of contact/primary country backstop in Washington, take the lead on required briefers, taskers directly related to country’s programming, and lead/participate in briefings.
• Assure regular communication between the Mission and the Country Team, informing and engaging Missions on key policy and other assistance and their implications for country health programs.
• Maintain broad knowledge of the health portfolio for all Missions and the Regional Mission(s) within the sub region.
• Maintain broad knowledge of the overall Mission portfolio as potential connections to the health portfolio.
• Stay abreast of key health and other policy developments and donor funding trends, both within countries and with regional bodies that may influence host country policy, and share / disseminate information, as relevant.
• Analyze data on Agency priorities, including primary health care, localization, private sector engagement, and key health and socioeconomic indicators in the sub region, and share.
• Elevate critical issues to OCS leadership for Front Office attention and follow-up.
• Coordinate with Africa Bureau and other technical bureaus, including Resilience, Environment and Food Security, Humanitarian Assistance, and Democracy, Human Rights and Governance, and other USAID initiatives. Engage closely with the Desk Officer to understand issues affecting the Mission from the Regional Bureau perspective.
• Proactively ensure lessons learned and success stories are documented and disseminated through appropriate channels, shared across countries, and identify opportunities for leveraging innovations. Identify opportunities for Mission-to-Mission support and learning. Support state-of-the-art (SOTA) conferences and other learning events, where possible. Facilitate technical exchanges and sharing of lessons learned across Country Teams in the sub region.
• Advocate for support and other resources for countries, such as staffing, technical assistance, strategic support and budgetary resources, for a robust and successful health program. Provide coverage for key Health Office staff absences, when possible, and collaborate with OCS staff to identify solutions for requests from Missions to fill long term staffing gaps.
• Organize and/or participate in Country Team assistance for strategic planning, such as Project Appraisal Document and activity designs, to Mission Health Offices. Support other aspects of the Program Cycle, including reviewing and helping develop annual Health Implementation Plans and Performance Plan Reports.
• If needed, support the activity management for OCS managed awards, assisting with all aspects of award management.
• Identify and/or participate on GH working groups addressing key agency and GH priorities. Currently, these include primary health care and Primary Impact, localization, Foreign Service National (FSN) empowerment, private sector engagement, operating in non-permissive environments, climate adaptation, digital health, and other cross-cutting / cross-office efforts.

Qualifications

• Master’s and 10 years, Bachelor’s and 12 years, Associate’s and 14 years, or High School and 16 years of professional experience
• Ability to travel 20-40% of the year.
• Knowledge of the theories and principles of global health and international development to analyze and evaluate factors and conditions involved in the administration of U.S. foreign policy programs related to health.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of how to achieve public health development results in developing countries, including fragile states.
• Prior experience in public health in West Africa, with broad knowledge of the context and political environment.
• Broad knowledge of Family Planning/Reproductive Health (FP/RH), Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN), Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases, including malaria, tuberculosis or Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD), Health Systems Strengthening (HSS), Global Health Security (GHS), and/or other key health issues within the sub-Saharan Africa context.
• Ability to identify and build appropriate linkages across sectors and Bureaus within USAID, such as Humanitarian Assistance, Resilience, Environment and Food Security, Democracy, Human Rights and Governance, and with other U.S. Government initiatives and programs is highly desired.
• Experience with leading and/or participating in strategic planning processes, including developing five-year strategies in the health sector, developing and/or responding to requests for assistance/proposals, and leading or facilitating design workshops, preferably in sub–Saharan Africa.
• Experience managing health projects in developing countries, preferably with USAID supported activities in sub–Saharan Africa, including strong project management skills; AOR/COR training desirable.
• Proven ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships at all levels particularly across U.S. Government agencies.
• Ability to provide expert advice and consultation to management officials with regard to the policy implications of issues and developments of health within USAID strategic goals and priorities.
• Skills in oral and written communication to prepare and present analyses, provide assistance, solicit information, defend proposals and negotiate agreements.
• French language proficiency.
• US. citizenship and ability to obtain a secret security clearance are required.

Competencies/Performance Criterion

• Innovation: Employee takes initiative to propose new ideas/approaches, and demonstrates ability to find new and better ways to accomplish work.
• Customer Service: Handles customer questions and complaints, communicates with customers, handles service problems politely and efficiently, always available for customers, follows procedure to solve customer problems, understands company products and services, maintains pleasant and professional image.
• Accountability: Takes ownership of work responsibilities and holds high standards. Keeps commitments and takes appropriate actions to ensure obligations are met. Pursues efficiency and effectiveness and adheres to Organization policies and procedures.
• Interpersonal Skills: Employee demonstrates ability to work in cooperation with others and communicate effectively with co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, clients and other outside contacts.
• Continual Learning: Assesses and recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues professional development that is aligned with organizational role, contribution, and goals. Proactively shares knowledge with others to foster learning across the Organization.

Full salary range for this position is: $133,380 to $200,720 per year with the starting salary determined based on candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, and education, in addition to budget availability.