Country Manager

Country Manager

CRS - Catholic Relief Services

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

Job Summary:

As Country Manager, you will manage and represent the new Cote d’Ivoire country program office in Abidjan, advancing programming and operations objectives and the mission of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your efforts are guided by the mission of CRS to serve the poor and vulnerable.” Specifically, this is a unique opportunity to focus CRS’ presence to support the advancement of our local partner(s). Your management and representation skills will enable you to advance CRS’ reputation and impact of our partner(s)’ journey to self-reliance and local leadership. The CM will work closely with Caritas senior management, in line with our local leadership vision. The position will work closely with the CRS West Africa Regional team to establish robust operations and program management systems. This is a new position, and you will be opening CRS’ office and hiring its team. You will transition the responsibility from CRS’ office in Burkina Faso to Cote d’Ivoire with support from the West Africa Regional Office senior team. This position is only open to Ivoirian nationals.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Manage the design of medium and long-term goals in alignment with the strategy of advancing the leadership and institutional agency of our local partner(s)
• Ensure that all projects meet and exceed donor expectations and are co-designed and their implementation is led by the partner(s) for maximum impact and reach.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching and mentoring of colleagues from partner organization(s). Strategically tailor individual development plans and complete performance assessments for direct reports. Manage the development of staffing plans and the recruitment process of CRS staff.
• Ensure strong representation to key stakeholders, including Church partners, local and national government, US government and international donors with CRS’ local partner where appropriate and possible.
• Manage and mitigate risk through monitoring national and regional issues that may impact staff and programming. Provide training to partners on safeguarding issues and ensure compliance.
• Ensure all staff, including partner(s)’ colleagues, understand/ adhere to CRS-agreed-upon 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. Ensure compliance in operations functions. Provide oversight and analysis regarding monthly expenditures and ensure these competencies are reinforced in the partner organization(s).
• Support the partner(s) to oversee the pursuit of strategic growth opportunities, prepositioning and capture planning.
• Support the partner organization(s) to promote accountability, learning and knowledge management overseeing application of the MEAL policy, as well as cross-sectoral and cross-department learning. Ensure CRS supported programs adhere to the MEAL policy.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in international development, International Relations, Organizational Development, or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience managing high value relief and development programs. Experience in complex development settings preferred.
• Required Languages - Fluency in French and English required.
• Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 25 %.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Excellent relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Experience working with Church partners and knowledge of the Catholic Church and how it functions are essential, as well as knowledge of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) principles.
• Strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented, and results-oriented.
• Team leadership abilities with diverse/multi-disciplinary teams. Coaching/mentoring skills.
• Strong communications and presentation skills; able to develop tailored and persuasive messaging for varied audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience successfully managing high-value projects from multiple international donors, including USAID, DFID, and UN agencies, knowledge of relevant donor regulations.
• Staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment.
• Ability to represent the agency at high levels.
• Experience in MS Office package, Teams, Insight
• Supervisory Responsibilities: This role will supervise a small team including a finance officer and project officer; depending on resources this team may increase.

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: West Africa Regional Director, Deputy Regional Directors for Program Quality and Management Quality, WARO Regional Finance Officer, WARO Regional Global People Officer, WARO Regional Business Development Manager and Regional Team; other Country Representatives and Country Managers in the region; colleagues from IDEA, PIQA (the PSC Unit) and HQ OverOps, CRS Finance, CRS Global People Resources including the WARO HR Business Partner.
• External: Caritas Cote’ d’Ivoire, Cote d’Ivoire Government, donors including USAID, BHA, USAID, USDA, National Director and Diocesan Directors, Episcopal Conference of Cote d’Ivoire, local provincial and district government authorities, UN agencies, peer NGOs.

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Cote d'Ivoire     Development Aid     NGO     CRS - Catholic Relief Services