Job Description
Job Title: Technical Advisor II
Reports to: Education Technical Director, PIQA
Department: West Africa Regional Office
Salary Grade: 10
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.
CRS has over 70 education projects in 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, reaching more than 7.6 million children, youth and adults in 2022. In the West Africa Region (WARO), CRS currently has large-scale education programming in 5 countries, youth programming in an additional 3 countries, and aspirations to expand its education work significantly across the region.
CRS improves learning opportunities for all children and youth as part of its overall mission to promote integral human development. CRS’ education projects span early childhood to primary, secondary and higher education in both formal and non-formal education settings. CRS’ education strategy includes a conceptual framework based on the whole child approach, with an overarching goal of supporting all children to learn. To reach this goal, CRS country programs work closely with schools, families, communities, and education systems to ensure that children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and resilient.
Job Summary
You will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of program design and implementation issues with a focus on larger projects in the area of education in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to regional and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ education programming is throughout the West African region as well as across the globe. You will serve as a lead technical expert in one or more of the following thematic areas: education in conflict/crisis contexts; safe and inclusive learning environments; teacher professional development; school health and nutrition; social-emotional learning; and/or research and learning.
Responsibilities
Roles and Key Responsibilities:
- Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in educationthat effectively engage partners, donors and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
- Provide technical solutions to regional and CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and M&E, ensuring high-quality implementation.
- Contribute to West African regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in education. Lead or contribute to the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
- Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in education programming for staff and partner through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching to CP staff.
- Contribute to knowledge management and learning through collecting and analyzing program data, evaluating strategic projects, assisting with measuring program impact, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices, and research and internal reports.
- Establish and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions. Participate in forums in the area of education to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.
- Serve as a core member of the global education team, while also prioritizing support and attention to the West African region.
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.
- Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
- Strong written and oral communication skills
- Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
- Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented
Required Languages – French; English
Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%.
Supervisory Responsibilities: None
Key Working Relationships
Internal: Global Education Team; West Africa regional office; West Africa country program staff (Heads of Programs; Chiefs of Party; Program Managers); Technical Advisors from other sectors (especially Gender; Youth; Social Services); MEAL staff; IDEA Department
External: public/private donor representatives; Peer organization staff; local partner staff; Ministry representatives; education networks; universities and research firms
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications
- Master’s degree in education, international development or a related fieldrequired.
- Minimum of five years relevant international working experience in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years working for programming interventions in education .
- Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding is required.
- Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in education . General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
- In-depth understanding and application of technical principles and concepts in one of the following thematic areas: education in conflict/crisis contexts; safe and inclusive learning environments; teacher professional development; school health and nutrition; social-emotional learning; and/or research and learning
- Experience in business development, project design and proposal development in education,including technical writing.
- Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation and training applying adult learning principles and practices. Experience in designing and facilitating virtual trainings and workshops a plus.
- Experience with program monitoring and evaluation, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.
- Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
- Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.
Agency REDI Competencies (for All CRS Staff)
- Personal Accountability – Consistently takes responsibility for one’s own actions.
- Acts with Integrity - Consistently models values aligned with CRS Guiding Principles and mission. Is considered honest.
- Builds and Maintains Trust - Shows consistency between words and actions.
- Collaborates with Others – Works effectively in intercultural and diverse teams.
- Open to Learn – Seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.
- 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.
Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.
Note: All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside their home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical examination.
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 welcomes candidates from the countries and regions in which we work. In the event the successful candidate is an expatriate or global telecommuter, the anticipated duration of the assignment is informed by a term limit, based on the type and level of the job and the needs of the agency.
CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer 
