Technical Advisor II

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:

The WARO PSE RTA will provide guidance and support to regional and country teams in West Africa. The WARO PSE RTA will help teams integrate the most contextually appropriate and sustainable practices around private sector engagement (PSE) and market-based approaches into the design of new programs, while also supporting the implementation of awards. The WARO PSE RTA’s guidance will contribute to effective, adaptive, and innovative PSE within CRS programing across the globe. S/he will also contribute to internal learning processes that help shape and influence CRS’ strategies to better achieve sustainability and expand its ability to reach scale through impactful partnerships and collaboration with private sector actors of all sizes to serve the poor and vulnerable. S/he will be instrumental in supporting WARO country programs to advance their influence agendas, supporting positioning for multi-stakeholder, integrated programming that leverages the unique strengths of private s ector actors.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide, regional, and country program (CP) strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in PSE and market-based approaches in humanitarian and development programming.
• Support CPs to advance their strategic objectives through effective leveraging of private sector actors; influence private sector actors to invest in poverty reduction activities aligned with CRS’ values and/or participate in CRS bids as appropriate.
• Support CPs engagement with governmental actors on common areas of interest between CRS and partners, government at national or subnational level and private sector interests.
• Train CP and regional staff on PSE helping to improve understanding of how the PS functions and how we can collaborate around common objectives.
• Coordinating with the WARO Business Development Manager, support regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in PSE and market-based approaches, especially by contributing to the technical design for large or complex proposals, defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators, and advising teams on integrating donor priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approaches.
• Support knowledge management and learning (KML) through collecting and analyzing regional and CP program data, evaluating projects, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices, and preparing research, case studies, and internal reports.
• Help regional and CP teams to cultivate and manage strategic relationships with peer organizations, aligned private sector actors, business development service providers by leading or supporting assessments, mapping exercises, and relationship management processes.
• Support teams to conduct appropriate levels of due diligence according to the type(s) of proposed private sector engagement or partnership(s).
• Identify regional and CP enterprise strengthening opportunities and advise accordingly with existing resources/tools or engage the Business Development Services (BDS) Specialist.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in International Development or related fields, with a focus on business, market-based approaches and/or finance required.
• Fluency in French and fluency in English required.
• Minimum of five years relevant work experience with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years relevant field-based experience in private sector engagement or market-based approaches to development.
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in private sector engagement, market-based approaches to development and/or impact investing. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Experience in project design, proposal development and program implementation. Experience in writing content for proposals.
• Experience and skills in networking and building relationships with the private sector stakeholders. Understanding of partnership principles.

Required Languages– English and French.

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

Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.