Regional Technical Advisor II

Job Description

About the Role

Regional Technical Advisor II – Youth & Social Inclusion, Central Africa Regional Office

Baltimore, MD, United States (Remote)

Job Title: Regional Technical Advisor II – Youth & Social Inclusion, Central Africa Regional Office

Job Location: Remote, Telecommuting

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 areas of youth and social inclusion programming 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. Your technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ youth and social inclusion programming is across the globe.

Responsibilities

Roles and Key Responsibilities

Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide and regional strategies, standards, tools and best practices in youth and social inclusion that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Help to 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 and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools and M&E, ensuring high-quality implementation.

Contribute to, and in some cases lead, regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in youth and social inclusion programming and integration in key sectors. Lead or contribute to the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including conducting relevant youth assessments or other social analyses, defining subsequent appropriate youth strategies, and defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators, as relevant. As needed, act as a technical writer on proposal development teams. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.

Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in youth and social inclusion programming for staff and partner through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching CP staff.

Contribute to the Central Africa Regional Office (CARO) youth and social inclusion knowledge management and learning by collecting and analyzing program data, evaluating strategic projects’ youth and social inclusion strategies, assisting with measuring impact, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contributing to the youth and social inclusion learning agenda.

Lead CARO’s staff working on youth programming through regular coaching of key staff, online and in-person training and learning initiatives, and effective remote communications.

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

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

Master’s Degree in International Development, or related fields 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 youth and social inclusion.

Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding is required.

Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts of positive youth development, systems thinking and youth livelihoods, including youth workforce development and youth entrepreneurship. General knowledge of other related disciplines, especially peacebuilding and social cohesion, education, health and nutrition, emergency response, and disability and protection mainstreaming, to ensure proper cross-sectoral approaches.

Experience in business development, project design and proposal development in youth and social inclusion, 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 – Fluency in English and professional proficiency in French

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 50%.

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

Preferred Qualifications

Previous experience as a technical advisor or program manager for youth and social inclusion programming. Experience mentoring, coaching or training staff.

Experience with participatory techniques and adult learning methods and training facilitation. Additional considerations for experience mentoring a remote team of experts/community of practice.

Ability to produce high quality evidence-based advice for programs.

Experience managing processes to collaboratively produce deliverables under tight deadlines and at exceptional quality.

Experience with applying social inclusion frameworks, data collection tools, and methodologies for programmatic and operational assessments, audits, and analyses, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, with particular experience in qualitative data analysis, and data presentation.

Experience with ICT4D (mobile technology, market information, etc.).

Youth entrepreneurship and value chain development experience.

Locations Baltimore, MD, United States(Remote)

Job ScheduleFull time