Chief of Party I- School Feeding, Liberia at Catholic Relief Services

Job Title: Chief of Party I- School Feeding, Liberia
Job type: Regular, Full Time
Job Location: Monrovia
Reports to: Country Manager
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.
Catholic Relief Services has been working in Liberia since 1957 and is currently engaged in the School Feeding Activity III. The School Feeding Activity III (SFA III) will improve nutrition, and school enrollment and attendance f or children and youth of different ages living within target communities, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized. This includes children and youth who are currently enrolled in formal or non-formal, pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools, as well as children and youth who are not currently enrolled in formal or non-formal education. Besides addressing the nutritional, enrolment and attendance needs of benefitting children and youth, the School Feeding Activity III (SFA III) will include a Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) component which will contribute towards Liberia’s efforts to address food insecurity and malnutrition. SFA III will also support the domestic production of safe, diverse, and nutritious food. The activity will likely also include a significant Conditional Cash Transfer component and potentially a WASH in schools’ activity.
Job Summary:
As Chief of Party you will provide overall management of and have respons ibility for key areas of the School Feeding Activity III, including a strong base in agriculture education and WASH activities. In your role, you will act on behalf of the Country Manager as and when needed, including global representation to the donor to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your management and technical knowledge will ensure the delivery of high-quality programming and advance the position of CRS as a leading agency in the School Feeding Activity, Agriculture (specialty crops). As a senior leader you will proactively manage security and mitigate security risks.
Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Lead all aspects of the development, implementation, and consolidation of the School feeding Activity III contract, including sharing how the project contributes to the thought leadership of the industry. Serve as the primary point of contact to USAID as well as public, private and non-government stakeholders.
• Ensure the project is designed and implemented to meet donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results and budget, including strategies for phase out and sustainability. Ensure coordination between program and operations leads. Ensure the CRS program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy and procedures.
• Effectively manage senior programming and operations talent. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching and mentoring. Strategically tailor individual development plans and complete performance assessments for direct reports. Oversee the development of staffing plans and the recruitment process of senior staff.
• Manage and mitigate risk through monitoring national, county 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. Ensure compliance with USAID grants, including financial tracking and oversight of partner budgets, finance, administration and reporting to USAID. Approve program expenditures, budget adjustments, and cost modification requests to donors.
• Oversee the development of communication strategies and materials, complying with donor and CRS’ branding and marketing requirements and procedures.
• Coordinate relationships with consortium partner organizations, including organization of review/planning workshops. 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 ensure the design and delivery of high-quality training and technical assistance.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in International Development, International Relations or a relevant technical area. PhD preferred.
• 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.
• 5 years of staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment. Experience coaching senior program staff.

Required Languages – English
Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 20%.

Preferred Qualifications

• Recognized leader in Education, agriculture, Nutrition and/or WASH sector as demonstrated by peer reviewed publications, conference presentations etc.
• Demonstrated experience of successful program management, including management of complex, high-value, multi-activity projects, with complicated logistics.
• Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Knowledge of CRS partnership strategy a plus.
• Ability to represent and present at high levels.
• Experience in MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications, and information and budget management systems.

Supervisory Responsibilities – DCoP, Programme Manager, Operations Manager, Project staff
Key Working Relationships:
Internal – Country Manager, HoP, HoOPs, Project staff, Finance Manager, Field workers
External – USAID, implementing partners, LWSC key staff, County Heads, Community leaders

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.