Catholic Relief Services seeks to engage a Technical Advisor II – Health

Reports To:                                                        Head of Programming

Country/Location:                                           Kenya/Nairobi

Length of Contract:                                         8 months

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 worked in Kenya since 1965. Over the years, CRS’s focus shifted from direct relief and food distributions to a comprehensive development program that works with partners and enhances the local capacity. CRS Kenya programs now support care reforms, children affected by HIV, and community-based efforts to increase household incomes, improve family health and sanitation, and enhance agricultural livelihoods. In Somalia, CRS currently focusses on supporting vulnerable communities emerging from crises through the provision of emergency relief and recovery in the sectors of protection, WASH, health and nutrition. Working through local implementing partners and civil society organizations, CRS is committed to building local capacity for transformational change.

Job Summary: 

You will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of program design issues with a focus on business development in Health & Social Services in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to the Country Program (CP) team 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’ Health & Social Services programming is in Kenya and Somalia.

Through both internal and external networking, you will keep up to date on the major trends in donor funding, partnership opportunities and operating context in the health and social services sector for Kenya and Somalia. You will be tasked with facilitating broad engagement on Business Development (BD) processes from a variety of programming and operations-focused colleagues across the country program.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

  • Contribute to the development and implementation of CP-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in Health & Social Services that effectively engage partners, donors and government of Kenya and Somalia. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
    • Develop a long-term positioning plan for CRS to engage in Presidents Malaria Initiative (PMI) funding
  • Provide ongoing support to the Kenya/Somalia Growth Working Group in close collaboration with the CP BD Manager
  • Lead in the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, this includes serving as Technical Lead on both anticipated and unsolicited Health and/or Social Services opportunities
  • Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
  • Take lead in conducting scoping, piloting and packaging activities in pursuit of funding for the Blended Finance Quality Improvement initiative for Kenya’s catholic health facility network
  • Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in Health & Social Services 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.
  • Provide leadership to CRS team supporting the capacity development of local implementing partners and  Local OVC Prime partners, including securing additional external funding
  • 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 Health & Social Services to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.
    • Represent CRS at the Ministry of Health  meetings and participate in various Technical Working Groups
    • Represent CRS at county stakeholder meetings and other external meetings as needed
  • Provide up to @30% Level of effort (LOE) Technical assistance to health programming for Somalia team

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 – English, Kiswahili

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 40% within Kenya and Somalia.

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) – None

Key Working Relationships: 

Internal: Head of programming, Somalia Head of Office, Deputy head of programs, Program managers, Senior Management Team, regional Program Quality and BD team and CRS headquarters IDEA team.

External: Leadership and Health/Social service counterparts at key partner organizations (INGOs, Caritas partners, other local implementing partners, prospective partners and private sector leaders). Health and Social Service Points of contact at key donor and prospective donor organizations for Kenya and Somalia.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

  • Master’s Degree in Health and or Social Services, or related fields required.
  • Minimum of five years relevant 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 Health & Social Services
  • Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding is required.
  • Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in Health & Social Services. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
  • Experience in business development, project design and proposal development in Health & Social Services, including technical writing.
  • Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation and training applying adult learning principles and practices.
  • 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.
  • Demonstrated commitment to respect, equity, diversity and inclusion including gender equality.

Disclaimer:  This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

What we offer:

CRS offers a comprehensive benefits package and the opportunity to work in a collaborative, mission-driven culture that is committed to improving the lives of the poor throughout the world.

**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.

CRS Kenya strives to be a place where a diverse mix of talented people want to come and work, stay, and do their best.

CRS provides equal employment opportunity to all qualified employees and applicants for employment and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin, sex, age, marital status, physical or mental disability or handicap, medical condition and any other status protected by law. As an equal opportunity employer, CRS will recruit, hire, train and promote persons solely on their qualifications and abilities.

By applying to this job, I understand and acknowledge that CRS requires its staff to treat all people with dignity and respect and to actively prevent harassment, abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking. Further, I understand that if I am a successful candidate, I will be subject to a comprehensive background check, and my personal/professional references will be asked to evaluate my behaviors related to the above safeguarding-related topics.

For all details and application: https://crs.taleo.net/careersection/ex_crs/jobdetail.ftl?job=22000012&lang=en&rb

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