Technical Advisor at BRAC USA

The BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) seeks to hire a Technical Advisor for a growing team that provides advisory services, and technical assistance around the Ultra-Poor Graduation approach to a variety of partners, ranging from governments, multilateral institutions, and NGOs.

Reporting to the Director of Technical Assistance, the Technical Advisor will lead and support technical assistance engagements to partner organizations including governments, multilateral institutions, and BRAC entities; ensure satisfactory service delivery to technical assistance partners and clients; contribute to business development; and mentor junior technical staff. The Technical Advisor will also play a critical role in supporting the Director with strategy development and strengthening the technical capacity of a globally-dispersed team. This position can be based globally and will work most closely with team members based in the US (East Coast timezone) as well as assigned country teams in Africa and Asia. In particular this role is likely to support an ongoing engagement with the Government of the Philippines.

Primary Responsibilities

Technical Assistance

● Lead discrete technical assistance engagements and manage partner relations with governments, multilateral institutions, and NGOs implementing the Graduation approach through overseeing contract teams conducting assessments, program design, planning, implementation oversight, and monitoring and learning from program implementation.

● Support country engagement teams liaising with and advising national and local government and multilateral institution partners such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and various UN agencies on the design and delivery of impactful Graduation and other economic inclusion approaches integrated into social protection systems globally.

● Strengthen capacity of global technical assistance team members and other BRAC colleagues to deliver effective services and support to our partner organizations.

● Deliver timely and accurate reporting to relevant partners for existing engagements.

● Oversee and contribute to the development of technical assistance tools and products, including capacity assessments, market assessments, program design reports, operations plan, training curriculum and tools, budgets, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and client partner reporting.

● Provide technical inputs in knowledge products and represent UPGI in global and local events to disseminate knowledge, enhance learning and adaptation of the Graduation approach, as needed.

● Travel (estimated 30%), at times in locations with limited amenities when safe to do so pending impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Work travel is not expected for 2021.

Business Development **

● Support the Director of Technical Assistance with business development as needed:

• Technical inputs to scopes of work and concept notes for prospective partners
• Proposal development for multilateral partners and relevant donors
• Cultivation of new and existing relationships with key stakeholders

Organizational Development **

● Contribute to the the expansion of UPGI’s global and country teams by providing inputs into the operationalization of a new operating model strategy and emerging structure

● Provide inputs in country landscaping and relevant team change management activities

● Support internal capacity-building of new staff through onboarding and training activities

Team Management

● Manage direct reports where assigned including Technical Associates and/or Officers

● Oversee contract project teams for discrete technical assistance engagements

● Support the recruitment and onboarding process, train and mentor a team of dedicated and enthusiastic Technical Officers, Coordinators, and Associates, providing guidance and technical insight on partner engagements as needed

Qualifications:

Education and Experience:

● Master’s degree in social sciences, international development, monitoring and evaluation or another related field required

● 8-10 years of experience in international development, including program design and management, and/or capacity building with governments or large NGOs required

● Sector expertise in livelihoods and economic inclusion, social protection, gender, or financial inclusion required; Graduation, cash-plus, or similar experience highly preferred

● Experience in the Asia Pacific region necessary for team leadership of a current existing engagement with the Government of the Philippines

● Experience working on behalf of or partnered with multilateral institutions, such as the UN or World Bank, NGOs, or government-led initiatives highly preferred, particularly experience with the Asian Development Bank.

● A proven track record in new business development with experience supporting proposal development and fundraising or new contract acquisition efforts

● Proactive leader with ability to prioritize and effectively manage competing work streams

● Exceptional ability to communicate with partners and clients

● Experience managing teams and mentoring young professionals

● Diplomatic, with strong interpersonal skills, and a high degree of cultural sensitivity

● Excellent writing skills in English required. Fluency in French, Swahili, or Arabic, a plus

About the Organization

About BRAC

BRAC is one of the world’s largest development organizations, dedicated to empowering people living in poverty. Working across 12 countries in South Asia and Africa, BRAC touches the lives of more than 120 million people worldwide. BRAC takes a holistic approach to alleviating poverty with programs that include microfinance, education, healthcare, food security programs and more.

About the Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative

The Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (“UPGI”) is a global unit of BRAC that was founded in 2016 to build off of the success of BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation program in Bangladesh. BRAC UPGI aims to position the Graduation approach as a key driver to eradicate extreme poverty worldwide. It does this by:

● Advocating for uptake of the Graduation approach by policymakers, national governments, multilateral institutions, and non-governmental organizations; and

● Effective adaptation and implementation of the Graduation approach in countries around the world, supported through technical assistance and capacity strengthening for external stakeholders.

In 2002, BRAC pioneered the Ultra-Poor Graduation (“Graduation”) approach in Bangladesh – a holistic intervention to help people lift themselves from extreme poverty – after recognizing that existing poverty alleviation programs were not reaching the poorest people. Through the provision of livelihood assets, cash transfers, and continued mentoring and training, the Graduation approach addresses participants’ multidimensional needs within the local context and ‘graduates’ people from extreme poverty into sustainable livelihoods.

Graduation is an evidence-based, scalable intervention proven to break the poverty trap for the long term. So far, BRAC’s flagship Graduation program has impacted over 2 million Bangladeshi households—totaling over 9 million people. To help eradicate extreme poverty, BRAC UPGI is working to scale globally by integrating Graduation into existing government programs and help 21 million more people lift themselves from extreme poverty by 2026.

But BRAC UPGI cannot do it alone. This is beyond the means and capacity of a single organization- no matter how ambitious or innovative. Sustainability and scale demands change at the systems level with active government engagement. BRAC UPGI is committed to creating effective solutions that leverage the available resources and existing programming to achieve the long-term benefits demonstrated by Graduation. The organization is partnering with governments, as well as multilateral institutions, NGOs, and civil society, in countries where BRAC UPGI thinks it can have maximum impact and drive greater uptake for Graduation.