Senior Resilience and Sustainability Advisor, RFSA
Senior Resilience and Sustainability Advisor, RFSA
CRS - Catholic Relief Services
Haiti
Job Summary:
The Resilience and Sustainability Senior Advisor (RSSA) will provide strategic vision and leadership, and ensure accountability for promoting and achieving RFSA resilience and sustainability goals. The RSSA will also be responsible for establishing and managing systems to ensure resilience and sustainability and ensure that the technical RFSA sectors and support functions work together to create multiplier effects. The RSSA will ensure resilience and sustainability results are delivered, including the development and achievement of resilience and sustainability metrics, phase out plans, exit strategies, etc. The RSSA acts as a specialist in resilience and sustainability and maintains a depth of understanding of local, departmental, and national policies and guidance related to resilience and sustainability.
The RSSA should also promote appropriate integration, layering, and sequencing of technical interventions within the RFSA and USAID Mission investments to amplify sustained impact. The RSSA will also be responsible for providing vision and leadership in fostering effective community engagement and development strategies and approaches and identifying local solutions that will ensure buy-in and ownership of the communities’ own development, and contribute to the durability of RFSA investments after the completion of the program. The RSSA will help maintain overall strategic coherence, coordination, including stakeholder engagement and communications with Haiti Mission teams, the international donor community, Government of Haiti (at the local, departmental, and national levels), and other stakeholders.
Roles and Key Responsibilities:
- Manage key aspects of the development, implementation and consolidation of the Haiti RFSA project. Serve as a point of contact to USAID as well as public, private and non-government stakeholders, when needed.
- Manager key functions of the project, resilience and sustainability efforts in particular, to meet donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results and budget. Contribute to ensuring coordination between program and operations leads. Contribute to ensuring the CRS program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy and procedures.
- 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 rules and regulations, 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.
- Create and maintain proper conditions for learning. Establish a safe environment for sharing of 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 trainings and technical assistance.
- Required Languages – English and French fluency required.
- Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 30-50 % domestically with periodic international travel.
- Supervisory Responsibilities: one or more project advisors, to be determined.
Key Working Relationships:
Internal: CRS Country Representative, Head of Operations, Finance Manager, Cayes Head of Office
External: Country Directors of Partners, Steering Committee, Donor, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Affairs, other related government authorities and suppliers
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and 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/multi-disciplinary 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.
- Experience working with large donors, USAID/FFP and/or USAID/FTF preferred.
- In-depth understanding of gender, age and other socio-cultural factors along with familiarity with community mobilization and participation principles and approaches in the context of food and nutrition security programming.
- Demonstrated capacity to lead the collection, analysis and use of data and information from a broad range of sources in order to ensure the development of effective approaches, messages and tools throughout the project's implementation.
- Demonstrated experience in leading participatory analytical processes and learning required.
- Demonstrated capacity to understand and advise on critical technical and operational issues related to resilience and sustainability: health and nutrition, WASH, inclusive governance, social cohesion, education, job skills, employment creation, etc.
- Demonstrated capacity in developing resilience strategies in contexts of low literacy.
- Demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge to diverse audiences (capacity strengthening) through training, mentoring, and other formal and non-formal methods, using adult learning methodologies.
- Experience with facilitation, capacity strengthening and partnership building through formal and informal training, with the capacity to empower staff through opportunities for professional growth and development.
- Ability to self-manage and succeed in matrix management model, with demonstrated proactive and flexible nature in resolving problems and leading a productive, committed team.
- Cultural sensitivity, patience, flexibility and ability to work well in a multi-sectoral and multi-cultural team and to work closely, understand and support local Church partners.
- Detail-oriented and excellent time management skills with the ability to meet deadlines and deliver required results in a timely and quality manner.
Qualifications:
Basic Qualifications
- Master’s degree in development studies, international relations, agriculture, nutrition, public health, business administration, or a related field. 7 or more years’ relevant management and technical experience.
- 5 years’ experience managing donor funds, including multi country grants. Strong knowledge and experience in budget management.
- Recognized technical experience and qualifications in sector as demonstrated by peer reviewed publications, conference presentations etc.
- Demonstrated experience in participatory community governance, local advocacy, local capacity building, and/or management and use of grassroots level-generated data.
- 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.
