Technical Advisor II – Emergency Program Quality & Management – Central Africa Regional Focal

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.

The Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) provides leadership and support to CRS emergency programming. The HRD strengthens CRS’ impact through high quality, innovative programs; improved technical and management capacity at the field level; and active engagement in global efforts to promote excellence and learning in humanitarian response. The HRD has technical staff that supports emergency program planning, rapid response, and capacity strengthening of staff and partners worldwide.

Note: This is a telecommuter position.

Job Summary:

You will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of program design and implementation issues with a focus on larger projects in the area of Emergency Response and Recovery in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to regional and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable.

This includes:

• providing rapid deployment leadership capacity for breaking and ongoing humanitarian responses with a focus on the Central Africa Region (CARO), where the emergency portfolio includes complex emergencies in conflict-affected areas, as well as responses to natural disasters such as floods, drought or food crises;
• guiding CPs on humanitarian funding opportunities and supporting humanitarian proposal design/development, in coordination with the relevant regional team and the HRD sectoral technical advisors;
• coordinating participation of CARO emergency staff in internal and external learning events and leading knowledge management, capacity building and sharing across the region to ensure best practices and learning are shared across the country programs.
• Engaging with the CARO regional team to bring a humanitarian lens to discussions on broader program quality initiatives

Your technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ Emergency Response and Recovery programming is across the globe.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in Emergency Response and Recovery that effectively engage partners, donors and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Provide technical solutions to regional and CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and M&E, ensuring high-quality implementation. Take on acting emergency leadership roles (e.g., Emergency Coordinator, Head of Office) and support the set up and/or management of emergency field offices, teams, and relief operations as requested during field deployments. Support may also be provided in other response functions such as security, staffing, supply chain/logistics, finance, IT/communications and administration, as needed.
• Contribute to regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in Emergency Response and Recovery. Lead or contribute to the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in Emergency Response and Recovery programming for staff and partner through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching to CP staff. Approaches may include formal and on-the-job training; institutional partner capacity strengthening; development/streamlining of operational policies/systems; accompaniment; etc. as appropriate.
• Contribute to knowledge management and learning through collecting and analyzing program data, evaluating strategic projects, assisting with measuring program impact, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices, and research and internal reports.
• Establish and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions. Participate in forums in the area of Emergency Response and Recovery to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.
• Represent the agency and partners at cluster, donor and coordination meetings in the field and at international cluster meetings, as requested.
• Promote health and wellbeing of CRS and partner emergency staff.

Required Languages – Fluency in English and French.

Travel– Must be willing and able to travel up to 50 % (i.e., six months out of the year) ; duration of a deployment will generally be from 3 to 8 weeks, depending on the needs of the country program. Candidates should have the capacity to live and work in difficult/stressful environments and serve wherever agency needs dictate.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Additional relevant experience may substitute for some education.
• Excellent 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.
• Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented
• Knowledge of Humanitarian principles, standards and system, with specific knowledge of CRS and Caritas Internationalis emergency programming and standards a plus.
• Knowledge of design requirements and regulations of major emergency donors, including the US Government, EU/ECHO and UN agencies
• Highly proficient in security protocols and management of emergency programs in insecure environments
• Ability to work with local partner organizations
• Experience with and enthusiasm for coaching, mentoring and on the job training
• Ability to maintain performance expectations and strong working relationships in diverse cultural contexts, psychologically and physically stressful environments
• Practical knowledge/skills in Information and Community Technology (ICT) and Information Management

Supervisory Responsibilities (if none, state none)

• The position will often undertake temporary supervision/management roles within CRS country programs during deployments, as requested.
• Regular supervision responsibilities for other PQM team members within the HRD may also be assigned (TBD – based on need and interest of selected candidate).

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: HRD PQM team, including other Regional Focal Points, M&E staff and East/Central Africa Rapid Response Fund project staff; HRD technical and operations staff, especially focal points for CARO; CARO DRD/PQ; CARO Country Representatives, Heads of Programs, Emergency Coordinators and Emergency Program staff;

External: Local emergency partners; Caritas Internationalis Member Organization representatives; peer NGO and UN agency humanitarian staff; humanitarian donors; relevant Emergency Cluster and Working Group members in CARO.

Qualifications – External

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in international development, or other field(s) related to humanitarian programming required.
• Minimum of five years relevant international working experience in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years working for programming interventions in emergency response and recovery.
• Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding is required.
• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in emergency response and recovery programming. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Experience in business development, project design and proposal development in emergency response and recovery, including technical writing.
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation and training applying adult learning principles and practices.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.

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