Catholic Relief Services
Job Title: Technical Advisor I
Reports to: TA for Field Operations Risk Management
Department: Humanitarian Response Department (HRD)
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.
Note: This is a telecommuter position.
Job Summary:
You will provide technical advice and support to a range of program design and implementation issues in the area of Protection Mainstreaming and PSEA in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your advice, knowledge, and support will contribute to support the mainstreaming of protection and PSEA, thereby improving the safety, access and dignity of our humanitarian programming is across the globe.
Roles and Key Responsibilities:
- Support the development and contribute to the implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools and best practices in protection mainstreaming that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender and disaster risk reduction.
- Support the development, updating, and maintenance of tools and guidance, as well as ensure proper use of tools, on protection mainstreaming and PSEA in coordination with PMWG, other HRD team members and other CRS HQ Departments.
- Provide technical solutions to CP teams and advocate the importance of protection mainstreaming in emergencies, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools and M&E, helping to ensure high-quality implementation.
- Carry out technical review of concept notes and project proposals. Provide feedback in line with CRS guidance on protection mainstreaming, and industry best practices.
- Support capacity strengthening initiatives in protection mainstreaming in humanitarian programming for staff and partners through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and coaching.
- Design and develop tailored trainings on protection mainstreaming to address contextual challenges and make use of local capacity.
- Collect and analyze program data, capture and share lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to protection mainstreaming learning and good practice.
- Facilitate the appropriate level of visibility as mandated by partners, CP, donor, and CRS HRD management.
- Contribute to maintaining relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions, participate in forums, and represent HRD in internal working groups in the area of protection mainstreaming to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.
Required Languages– Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English, and good working proficiency in French. This position will likely support programming in Central and West Africa predominantly. Candidates from countries in these regions will be given priority.
Travel –
- Ability to live and work in disaster affected areas.
- Ability to deploy on short notice (within 48-72 hours) when needed
- Must be willing and able to travel in the region of 50%
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Strong relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings
- Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
- Good technical writing skills
- Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
- Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented
- Ability to work independently but also coordinate effectively as part of a team.
- Ability to lead a multi-cultural team with a high level of respect for local culture.
Preferred Qualifications
- Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.
Supervisory Responsibilities: None
Key Working Relationships:
Internal: HRD Protection Mainstreaming/PSEA Team, Program Quality Team, and Technical Advisors; CP and regional staff; HQ staff as relevant.
External: Partner staff, PMWG members, international and local non-governmental, members of Protection Mainstreaming technical forums, organizations, and relevant government representatives.
Qualifications – External
Basic Qualifications
- Master’s degree in Social Sciences, International Development or another related field.
- At least three to five years of experience, including three years of relevant field-based experience in development or humanitarian response settings, preferably in a conflict setting.
- Experience with participatory approaches to protection and/or gender mainstreaming.
- Good knowledge of concepts, approaches and application of PSEA policies and best practices.
- Demonstrated understanding of international protection standards.
- Experienced trainer/teacher of adults and multi-cultural groups
- Demonstrated ability to conduct assessments, develop strategy, write technical papers, develop training materials, and developing monitoring and evaluation tools.
- Experience with capacity strengthening and partnership building.
Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)
These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.
· Integrity
· Continuous Improvement & Innovation
· Builds Relationships
· Develops Talent
· Strategic Mindset
· Accountability & Stewardship
***Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.
Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.
Note: All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside their home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical examination.
CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people – especially children and vulnerable adults – to live free from abuse and harm.
CRS welcomes candidates from the countries and regions in which we work. In the event the successful candidate is an expatriate or global telecommuter, the anticipated duration of the assignment is informed by a term limit, based on the type and level of the job and the needs of the agency.
CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer