EMPOWER West Africa Emergency Business Development Technical Advisor II

Job Description

Job Title: EMPOWER West Africa Emergency Business DevelopmentTechnical Advisor II Reports to: EMPOWER West Africa Coordinator (Program Manager II)

Department: West Africa Regional Office Salary Grade: 10

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) 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.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a global telecommuter position; CRS will give preference to candidates who are based in countries where we have existing offices. CRS does not sponsor visas for telecommuting employees.

Program Background

The EMPOWER (Empowering Partner Organizations Working on Emergency Responses) project began in 2018 in the Latin American and Caribbean Region to increase and advance local leadership of humanitarian responses through institutional strengthening and direct funding of Local Humanitarian Actors (LHAs). EMPOWER expanded in 2021 to CRS' Asia Regional Office and was being launched in CRS' West Africa Regional Office (WARO) at the start of 2023. Leveraging lessons learned and recommendations from the preceding EMPOWER projects, EMPOWER West Africa will grow a team of emergency response technical advisers whose primary role is to strengthen the emergency response capacity of LHAs in West Africa and support them to implement high quality emergency responses. Based on local organizations’ self-assessment of their self-identified operational and technical support needs and requests for support, EMPOWER provides participating organizations with demand-driven technical resources, on-the-job support, training and accompaniment, and organizes regional workshops to facilitate shared learning and strengthening of peer networks among local humanitarian actors. EMPOWER also manages a rapid response fund, through which, participating local organizations propose and receive funding for emergency response programs to support communities impacted by crises in West Africa.

Job Summary

The EMPOWER West Africa Emergency Business DevelopmentTechnical Advisor II (Emergency BD TA) will provide technical advice and accompaniment to local organizations participating in the EMPOWER West Africa program to produce high-quality funding applications. You will support participating organizations to strengthen their institutional capacity for business development, informed by CRS program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. As a part of the EMPOWER team, you will support local national organizations to achieve their institutional objectives for humanitarian response resource mobilization.

Responsibilities

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Provide technical assistance and lead capacity strengthening activities for EMPOWER West Africa Local Humanitarian Actors (LHAs) on emergency business development including resource mobilization, capture planning, and proposal and budget coordination and development processes for timely submission of high-quality proposals that are responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and humanitarian technical standards. Capacity strengthening may be achieved through remote or on-site trainings, workshops, learning events, peer-to-peer exchanges, simulations, coaching, and on-the-job training.
• Provide capacity strengthening to participating organizations on the development of well written, well organized, and cohesive concept notes, expressions of interest, proposals and proposal annexes, aligned with donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements.
• Contribute to, and in some cases lead, the development of the non-technical content for proposals, developing technical narrative outlines and integrating diverse inputs into a coherent whole. Support the process of preparation, design, review, revision, submission and approval of project concepts and full-fledged proposals.
• Assume a direct support role during emergency responses via remote or on-site secondment to participating organizations, as needed/requested.
  
  

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications [OK1]

• Master’s degree in International Development, International Relations, Communications, or related field required. A bachelor’s degree with significant relevant work experience may replace the requirement for a master’s degree.
• 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 complex emergencies in partnership with local humanitarian actors.
• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in emergency program design and business development. General knowledge of other related disciplines such as local organization capacity strengthening, food security and market-based approaches, protection mainstreaming, safeguarding and MEAL to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Previous experience providing technical assistance, coordinating, and writing successful proposals and cost applications for competitive, external donor funding is required.
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation, and training applying adult learning principles and practices.
  
  

Required Languages – English and French oral and written language proficiency required, with excellent English writing skills and capable of conducting trainings, writing reports and proposals, holding meetings, conducting interviews and communicating with Local Humanitarian Actors in both English and French.

Knowledge of West African languages or Portuguese a plus.

Travel - Willingness and ability to travel internationally up to 40% of time (5 months out of the year).

Willingness and ability to deploy quickly to support responses to rapid onset emergencies, when necessary, primarily within West Africa but may include opportunities to deploy to other regions as agency needs dictate.

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.
• Excellent strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to ability to quickly adapt technical guidance to any given operating environment.
• Knowledge of capacity strengthening best practices and partnership principles.
• Extremely flexible and able to cope with stressful situations in emergency environments
• Proactive, resourceful, results and service-oriented.
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills including remote and online settings.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Candidates from/presently based in the West Africa region are highly preferred.
• Familiarity with humanitarian donor landscape and experience prepositioning for and writing winning proposals for humanitarian donors such as BHA, ECHO, FCDO, and UN, and foundations.
• Experienced trainer/teacher of adults and multi-cultural groups, in both in-person and virtual settings.
• Experience managing humanitarian programs and budgets a plus.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.
  
  

Agency REDI Competencies (for All CRS Staff)

Agency competencies clarify expected behaviors and attitudes for all staff. When demonstrated, they create an engaging workplace, help staff achieve their best, and help CRS achieve agency goals. 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.

• Personal Accountability – Consistently takes responsibility for one’s own actions.
• Acts with Integrity - Consistently models values aligned with CRS Guiding Principles and mission. Is considered honest.
• Builds and Maintains Trust - Shows consistency between words and actions.
• Collaborates with Others – Works effectively in intercultural and diverse teams.
• Open to Learn – Seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.
  
  

Agency Leadership Competencies

• Lead Change – Continually looks for ways to improve the agency through a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
• Develops and Recognizes Others – Builds the capacity of staff to reach their full potential and enhance team and agency performance.
• Strategic Mindset – Understands role in translating, communicating, and implementing agency strategy and team priorities.
  
  

Supervisory Responsibilities: None.

Key Working Relationships

Internal: EMPOWER West Africa Coordinator and Team members, WARO Regional Team and Country Program Staff, HRD Technical Advisors

External: Program, Operations, and Management Staff from Participating Local Organizations; UN, NGO, and Cluster agencies operating in targeted countries

• 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. CRS’ processes and policies reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.
  
  

Disclaimer:  This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

CRS' talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer

• Familiarity with multiple donors including BHA, northern Caritas, ECHO, FCDO, etc.)
• Experience working on various types of proposals including non-competitive vs. competitive proposals, unsolicited vs. solicited proposals, traditional vs. non-traditional donors.
• Knowledge of donor's landscape
• Experience with donor mapping an pre-positioning