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.

Job Summary:

You will be responsible for coordinating the overall delivery of Start Network activities in West Africa. The main objectives for the Program Manager I – Disaster Risk Financing Regional Advisor for West Africa designing and implementing projects advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that the CP delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its programming.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Manage and implement all activities throughout relevant project cycles – project design, start-up, implementation and close-out – to ensure efficient and effective implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate systems and tools.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Analyze and evaluate project performance data following MEAL policy. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles.
• Act as a key resource person in project design and proposal development in respective programming area, gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed.
• Coordinate the identification of staff capacity and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation.
• Help identify, assess and strengthen partnerships relevant to disaster risk financing, applying appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.
• Coordinate and monitor financial and material resources relevant to project needs. Through planning and oversight ensure efficient use of project resources

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Finance, Insurance, Econometry, or in a field relevant to disaster risk financing   required. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in coordinating or managing light to moderately complex projects required, or multi-country initiatives.
• Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Required Languages – English and French required
• Travel – include percentage of required travel, if applicable. Could be stated as Must be willing and able to travel up to 25 %.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented

Preferred Qualifications

• Project management experience in humanitarian context is highly desirable.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
• MEAL skills and experience preferred.
• Data science modeling experience I highly desirable.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

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 (if none, state none)

Key Working Relationships:

Internal

The post holder will report on a day-to-day basis to the Regional DRF Coordinator (Africa) hosted by CRS Senegal,

External

The post is based in Senegal but will be part of the Operations unit of the Start Network Anticipation and Risk Finance team based in London and dispersed global locations.   Start Network Members in West Africa.

***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

Supervisory Responsibilities None

Please send your application including a resume, a letter of motivation in PDF and the names of three people designated as professional references to the following email details no later than August 3, 2022

• subject: Program Manager I