Technical Advisor III – Health and Nutrition (Central Africa)

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.

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.

Job Summary:

You will contribute to strategy development in health and nutrition for the 10-country Central Africa region (Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Rwanda) and provide technical advice and leadership in health and nutrition to programs within the Central Africa region, in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. CRS’ health and nutrition portfolio in Central Africa currently includes 19 projects with a total program value of over $600 million serving over 42 million people in 2021. The portfolio includes malaria, nutrition, HIV and AIDS, COVID-19, vaccination, and health systems strengthening activities. Your expertise, advice and influence will significantly contribute to determining how effective, adap tive and innovative CRS’ health and nutrition programming is across the region.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the design, advocate for, and ensure implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in health and nutrition that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Ensure a cross-sectoral approach that integrates food security, WASH, emergency response, gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Provide technical solutions for regional and CP teams for strategic planning and how to best apply and adapt program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, ad M&E in health and nutrition, including for social and behavior change concepts.
• Contribute to HQ, regional, and country program staff efforts to pre-position CRS for strategic growth opportunities in health and nutrition. Provide technical guidance in proposal development and project design with a focus on complex projects to ensure innovative programming solutions and technical excellence. Support CPs to appropriately staff project teams.
• Oversee and lead the delivery of capacity strengthening initiatives in health and nutrition for staff and partners in Central Africa through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums; organizing and/or facilitating trainings, workshops and conferences; and mentoring and coaching staff in innovative CRS approaches and tools. Provide mentoring and coaching to TAs, as well as CP staff.
• Oversee and lead the regional knowledge management and learning agenda in health and nutrition through helping implement conditions for collective learning that ensure the capturing, documenting, and sharing of key successes, promising practices, lessons learned, and evidence-based implementation research, internally and externally, including publications in peer reviewed journals.
• Represent CRS in targeted regional or global forums to develop opportunities and better ensure collaboration and shared learning in health and nutrition to influence technical partner approaches, future funding opportunities, and policies. Network with relevant organizations to increase CRS’ profile in health and nutrition, influence in the regional or global health and nutrition community, and donor diversification.
• Train and mentor staff across the region in understanding how our Catholic identity influences our health work; assist country teams in reviewing and designing activities and partnerships that are response to local needs while remaining faithful to Church principles.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Public health, or medicine, nursing, nutrition, biochemistry, or a similar/related field. PhD a plus.
• Minimum of seven years of work experience in health or nutrition projects with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with three years overseas in multiple regions as a technical advisor and/or program manager of a health/nutrition project and/or multi-sectoral project with a health or nutrition
• Strong understanding and application of technical principles and concepts in public health/health systems strengthening. Good knowledge of related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Track record of contributing to successful business development activities capturing public and/or private donor funding in health and nutrition.
• Experience in the development and production of curricula, tools, and other products to support health or nutrition interventions and programming. Demonstrated experience to transfer knowledge to diverse audiences through training, mentoring, and other formal and informal methods.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation including development of indicators, data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.
• Experience and skills to represent the organization at meetings with donors, government, international NGOs, local partners – faith-based and civil society. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications and strong understanding of information and budget management systems and knowledge-sharing networks.
• Technical and/or academic publications a plus.

Required Languages – Fluency in English and French required

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 40 %, including to remote locations across Central Africa.

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.
• Very strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Very strong written and oral communication skills
• Very strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented

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

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Key Working Relationships:

Internal : Chiefs of Party, Program Managers and Technical Staff based in the country programs; Heads of Programming; Other regional technical advisors (WASH, Ag/Livelihoods, Emergency Response, Gender, etc.); Global Health and Social Services Technical Team; Global Fund Support Unit

External : Donor representatives (especially USAID and GF), UN agencies (UNICEF, WHO), Government Counterparts; Consortium partners and peer organizations

***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.

To ensure the safety of our staff, our partners, and the people we serve, CRS requires that staff be vaccinated against Covid-19. CRS complies with all federal and state laws to allow for accommodations, as needed with supporting documentation. However, accommodations may limit the roles that candidates are eligible for based on role requirements (e.g., travel, meetings with staff, partner, donors).

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 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

Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.