DEPUTY REGIONAL DIRECTOR, PROGRAM QUALITY – ASIA At CARE USA

At CARE, we seek a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live with dignity and security. This has been our vision since 1945, when we were founded to send lifesaving CARE Packages® to survivors of World War II. Today, CARE is a global leader in the movement to eradicate poverty.

CARE worked in 95 countries and reached 65 million people with an incredible range of life-saving programs. We also put women and girls at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities. We seek dynamic, innovative thinkers to further our mission.

The Deputy Regional Director – Program Quality (DRD-PQ) is a strategic position that drives program quality and impact, using CARE’s programming principles and standards. This position ensures that CARE’s programs in Asia are designed and implemented in alignment with CARE’s Vision 2030 as well as CARE’s USA’s Global Strategy. S/he will also support in knowledge capturing, packaging and in strategic dissemination, based on CARE’s work in the region, in order to enhance visibility of CARE’s work in the region.

S/he will support the Regional Director (RD), in developing and rolling out of an overall regional strategy, including regional strategic road-maps, and annual plans (CANVAS) of the country offices and the region, as well as in developing and submitting progress reports on those, as needed by various internal and external stakeholders of the organization.

S/he would also coordinate with the regional humanitarian coordinator, and regional advocacy coordinator to ensure synchronization of their interventions with CARE’s overall program journey in the region and thus maximize the impact of CARE’s programming in the region. The position contributes significantly to advance CARE USA global strategic program priorities in the region – six impact areas, and three impact drivers, namely gender equal, locally led and globally scaled, to help pursue the overall impact goal of Care International (CI) in Asia, as outlined in CARE’s 2030 vision.

The DRD-PQ will collaborate with the RD, DRD – Program Support, and Regional Leadership Team (RLT) in facilitating and supporting required programmatic changes and organizational changes, as CARE would work towards repositioning itself in Asia to enhance its impact on poverty, social inequality and crisis within a rapidly changing context. The position will also play a leadership role, jointly with country offices, in advancing various programmatic innovations and getting high-potential innovative programs to scale-up, with required evidence and partnerships for multiplying the desired impact.

The position will be responsible to work closely with country offices in resource mobilization, building on the efforts and outcomes of high quality program development and implementation. A component of that role will be to provide focused business development support to country programs, building country capacity to win multi-year and high value projects.

Job Responsibilities:

Continually improve quality and impact of CARE’s Program in Asia

Work predominantly with Assistant Country Directors (or equivalents) of CARE Asian Country Offices, and provide guidance, support, and help to connect with and mobilize other technical resources in the CARE network, to enhance quality programming in line with agreed upon quality definition and standards.
Work to advance six CARE strategic program areas and three CARE USA global strategic program priorities – gender equal, locally led and globally scaled through all aspects of the role.
Collaborate with Regional Humanitarian Coordinator to promote coherence between development and humanitarian work and ensure quality across the regional portfolio.
Collaborate with Regional Advocacy colleagues to ensure alignment between advocacy and programming in support of scaled-up impact for women and girls living in poor and marginalized communities.
Support and undertake quality assurance of annual PIIRS (Program Information and Impact Reporting System) reporting process, and deliver annual “sense-making” sessions to dig into our data to promote learning and improvement.
Work alongside Deputy Regional Director – Program Support to advance ICT4D in regional programming, and identify and advise on mitigation of risks in programming across the five CUSA country offices in the region.

Strengthen Monitoring, Evaluation, Analysis, and Learning (MEAL) of CARE’s program

Lead commissioning of a diagnostic exercise to determine current status of MEAL component of CARE’s Asia program.
Develop and roll-out a plan for strengthening the MEAL based on the findings of the diagnostics.
Lead the ongoing roll-out of the Asia-Pacific Regional Learning Agenda, including the development of the regional learning dashboard, and strategy for resourcing research and ensuring learning is informing our interventions; ensure appropriate connections with global and thematic research agendas in CARE.
Convene regional MEAL Community of Practice (COP) in support of ongoing capacity strengthening of MEAL and showcasing of good practices and promising initiatives.
Join CARE global conversations on MEAL to ensure dissemination and diffusion of good MEAL practices in the Asia-Pacific region.
Support the Regional Director in positioning CARE as a “knowledge partner of choice” amongst other stakeholders in the region.

Support in the strategy development and roll-out process

Support the Regional Director and Regional Leadership Team of CARE in Asia in leading and overseeing regional and country office strategy development process. Also, play a key role in getting regional road-mapping and annual planning canvas development and roll-out processes that are aligned with the six Global Impact Area strategies.
With guidance and support of the Regional Director and RLT, advise and follow the roll-out and implementation of country strategies, in conjunction with Country Directors and Assistant Country Directors (or equivalents).
Oversee the monitoring and reporting of the progress made in and lessons learned from the implementation of these strategies.
Organize and manage processes of quarterly review and reflections of regional performance, against the annual plans.
Getting progress reports developed on each of those and any additional reports, and finalizing those for submission.

Lead program innovations in the region and oversee regional and multi-country programs

With guidance and support of the Regional Director, work with the regional country offices in innovating, testing, assessing effectiveness, and developing prototypes of programmatic solutions (along with rights based programmatic solutions) of emerging and re-emerging socio-economic challenges encountered by people living in poverty and inequality.
Partner with academic, research and donor partners in assessing some of the innovative solutions, and lead scaling those up through partnership and advocacy.
Provide an overall leadership to the ongoing multi-country program, “Made by Women”, including line management of its two staff. Made by Women is an 11-country initiative focused on dignified work for women in the garment sector.
Oversight of the Forecast Based Early Action (FBEA) South-East Asia project, a regional consortium project focused on forecast based early action and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia, including line management of one of its staff, and participation in regional steering committee.

Coordination and Resource Mobilization

Lead the development of regional bids in support of regional and multi-country programming.
Reach out to regional donors, in consultation with Regional Director, and mobilize resources for regional programs, as well as support / complement country office’s fundraising efforts.
Support capacity development and planning of country offices resource mobilization effort contributing to improved win-rate and healthier funding pipelines.
Provide insights and perspectives relating to new funding opportunities through Go/ No Go process, and review high-value country proposals when appropriate.
In consultation with the Regional Director, represent CARE in relevant regional fora, and with external stakeholders and donors.
Positively engage with wider CARE members in the region (and globally), with CARE International Secretariat, and with CUSA Headquarters in support of shared goals and impact for women and girls
Chair Asia Pacific Program Leadership Team (APPLT) and push forward shared programming agenda in the Asia-Pacific region, with other CARE members in an inclusive and constructive manner.

Educational / Training:

Master’s degree or equivalent in relevant field
Desired: PhD in relevant field

Experience / Technical Skills

At least 5 years experience in strategy, design and implementation and institutional fundraising – and in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning.
Skilled in coordinating networks and building synergies across teams.
Experience of working in a country office in the Asia Region
Strong demonstrative experience in strategic and business planning and leading organizational transformation from a program perspective.

Desired