Technical Advisor II- Health and Nutrition, West Africa Regional Office

Reports to: Deputy Regional Director for Program Quality, West Africa Region

Location: Home-based Telecommuter

Duration: 12 months

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:

You will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to health programs in 11 countries in the West Africa Region, including Burkina Faso (Cote d’Ivoire), Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal (Gambia, Guinea Bissau), and Sierra Leone. Your responsibilities will range from supporting program design and implementation issues in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to providing technical support to country teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to effective, adaptive and innovative health programming in the region.

You will possess strong expertise and experience in health programming, knowledge of industry standards and best practices, and strong capacity in technical writing (in English and French) for products such as proposals and technical studies. You will work closely with your counterpart Technical Advisors (TAs) in other sectors to ensure cross-sectoral integration of activities and to jointly advance WARO’s strategic priorities. You will also collaborate closely with members of the Agency global health technical team. With the current crisis of the global COVID 19 pandemic, you will also serve as the regional focal point for COVID 19, liaising with health staff within the region and across the Agency, and collaborating closely with CRS’s Humanitarian Response Department.

Health projects in the West Africa region include nutrition-specific projects as well as large integrated programs funded by donors such as USAID, USDA and Helmsley Foundation. The West Africa region is home to several national, large-scale malaria programs funded by Global Fund with significant health systems strengthening components. CRS is currently leading emergency or recovery programming in response to the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel, which include health and food security components.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership and strategic assistance to WARO country programs in the design, implementation and monitoring of health activities to ensure alignment with regional and Agency strategic priorities.
• Provide technical solutions to regional and CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and ensure the application of Agency and industry best practices and standards.
• Facilitate learning for evidence-based health programming across WARO. 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 contributing to research and internal reports.
• Share guidance in the use of relevant agency policies and key conceptual frameworks in the development of regional and country level health programs and project proposals.

• Engage in project start-up, monitoring, analysis, course-corrections and evaluations to ensure high quality, impactful program implementation.

• Support funding acquisition by providing technical/design leadership, leveraging existing learning, identifying and cultivating strategic opportunities, and assisting country teams in the development of winning proposals.

  • Participate in the analysis of growth opportunities to ensure strategic alignment and capacity to implement excellent health programs. Provide technical direction and content to project proposals, and assist in writing proposals in health, liaising with other health and social service technical advisors, as appropriate.
  • Lead or participate in design workshops for large and/or complex proposals, as appropriate, including defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators. Review both integrated and standalone health proposals to ensure application of agency and international standards and best practices.
  • Contribute to regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in health. 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 health 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. Mentor staff from across the region working in health, including facilitating community of practice exchanges; advising on staff development plans; participating in recruitment of country program health staff; supporting onboarding; and identifying, organizing, and/or facilitating relevant trainings.

• Establish and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions. Participate in forums in the area of health to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.

• Liaise with CRS Regional Health Technical Advisors from other regions and Technical Advisors in the Headquarters’ Program Impact & Quality Assurance (PIQA) department through virtual and in-person meetings to ensure high impact programming in WARO.

• Conduct technical visits to country programs to support effective implementation, monitoring, evaluation and documentation of ongoing project learning.

• Be familiar with and advise on integrating relevant donor strategies (e.g. USAID and relevant US agencies, Global Fund, UNITAID, WHO, World Bank, CDC, Catholic Donors and other potential donors) and their technical approaches.

• Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in health that effectively engage partners, donors and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in public health, behavior change or health-related field.
• 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 in international health development either as a technical advisor or health program manager, preferably in Africa.
• Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding is required.
• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in health programming. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Experience in business development, project design and proposal development in health 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.

Required Languages – English and French.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 25 %.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• 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

Supervisory Responsibilities: none

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Deputy Regional Director for Program Quality, RTA for Nutrition, RTA for Malaria, PIQA health team; Health RTAs from other regions. Collaborate with the CRS West Africa Regional Director, CRS Country Representatives, CRS Heads of Programming, country Health Program Managers and other country staff; and WARO technical advisors for agriculture, WASH, and MEAL amongst others.

External: Collaborate with host country government health ministries, other national and international NGOs, UN Agencies especially UNICEF (regional and country levels), USAID and EU missions, local bilateral institutions, other funding agencies, WHO, local and US Catholic agencies.

Qualifications

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