Catholic Relief Services - CRS

Position: Deputy Chief of Party

Job Time: Full-Time

Job Type: Contract

Place of Work: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Posted date: 11 minutes ago

Application Deadline: Jun, 23/2021 (8 days left)

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:

As Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) II, you will provide overall management of and have responsibility for program quality of the USAID funded Resilience for Food Security Activity (RFSA) project in Ethiopia, leading a team of technical sectoral experts/program managers and act on behalf of the Chief of Party as needed, including global representation to the donor to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your management and technical knowledge will ensure the delivery of high-quality programming and advance the position of CRS as a leading agency in food security programming (economic livelihoods, health, nutrition, gender, local government systems support, youth and food for work). You will coordinate the development of annual work plans, strategic plans, and donor reports, while also maintaining systems to track program quality. As a senior leader, you will proactively help manage security and mitigate security risks.

Note: This is a key position that requires USAID approval. The project is for 5 years.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Manage key aspects of the development, implementation and consolidation of the RFSA project. Serve as a point of contact to USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) as well as public, private and non-government stakeholders, when needed. 
• Manager key functions of the RFSA to meet USAID/BHA expectations in terms of timely and quality results and budget.
• Contribute to ensuring coordination between program and operations leads. Work with the RFSA COP, DCOP for Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics, DCOP for Grants Management and DCOP for MEAL in preparing RFSA work plans with clear objectives and achievable benchmarks, reflecting strategic long-term and short-term priorities and program assessments over the life of activity. This includes close collaboration with other USAID Awards and the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP).
• In consultation with the COP, CRS/Ethiopia CR and HoP, and where necessary, USAID, make efforts and support a strategy to complement services under the RFSA through identifying, leveraging and creating linkages with other projects where appropriate.
• Contribute to ensuring the CRS program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy and procedures.
• Accompany partners in drafting quarterly and annual reports in a timely manner and according to project requirements. Address capacity issues to strengthen the quality of reporting.
• Ensure all RFSA approaches are aligned with the GoE food security and resilience-building priorities, plans and policies especially to PSNP V (the current round of PSNP).
• Address bottlenecks, communicate security responses/adaptations, identify appropriate programmatic pivots or shifts in consultation with COP and USAID/BHA and scale up best practices to achieve high-quality program implementation.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching and mentoring. Strategically tailor individual development plans and complete performance assessments for direct reports. Contribute to the development of staffing plans and the recruitment process of senior staff.
• Manage and mitigate risk through monitoring national and regional issues that may impact staff and programming. Ensure all staff understand and adhere to CRS staff safety and security policies and plans and ensure the updating of such plans. 
• Promote, uphold and model a commitment to the efficient use of agency and donor resources. Help ensure compliance with USAID grants, including financial tracking and oversight of partner budgets, finance, administration and reporting to USAID.
• Maintain relationships with key staff of consortium partner organizations. Contribute to coordination of the roles and activities of staff from other consortium member organizations in implementation in line with CRS partnership principles.  Ensure program staff cultivates and supports partnerships with Federal, Regional and Woreda authorities, including Woreda Food Security Task Forces.
• Create and maintain proper conditions for learning. Establish a safe environment for sharing ideas, solutions, and difficulties and the capacity to detect, analyze and respond quickly to deficiencies. Identify performance gaps and training opportunities for CRS and partner staff and recommend training and technical assistance.
• Regularly review the RFSA strategy to ensure relevance and enhance program impact by suggesting appropriate alternative strategies and changes to the technical working groups as well as CRS and RFSA’s Advisory Board.

Required Languages - English

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 40 % to project sites with occasional international travel.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with the capacity to see the big picture and the ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
• Strong relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Team leadership abilities with diverse/multidisciplinary teams. Coaching skills.
•  Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Knowledge of CRS partnership strategy a plus.
• Experience in MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications, and information and budget management systems.

Supervisory Responsibilities: RFSA Program Managers for WASH, Economic Livelihoods, Health and Nutrition, PSNP and the RFSA Environmental Lead

Key Working Relationships:

Internal to CRS: Country Representative, Head of Programs, RFSA COP, RFSA DCOP Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics, RFSA DCOP for Grant Management, RFSA DCOP for MEAL, RFSA Purpose Leads, all Country Program staff, Regional and Headquarters technical staff.

External to CRS: Officials at USAID, the government of Ethiopia organizations, representatives from for-profit and other non-profit organizations, representatives of non-traditional public donors including UN, World Bank, and others, and implementing partner managers, programming directors and development heads.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in International Development, International Relations, or a relevant technical area. 
• 7 or more years’ relevant management and technical experience.
• 5 years of experience managing donor funds, including multi-country grants. 
• Strong knowledge and experience in budget management.
• Recognized technical experience and qualifications in the sector as demonstrated by peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, etc.
• Demonstrated experience of successful management, including management of functions of complex, high-value, multi-activity projects, with complicated logistics.
• Staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment. Experience coaching.

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's 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 is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

How to Apply

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