Chief of Party at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) | Kigali: Deadline: 11-08-2023

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 been present in Rwanda since 1960, and currently implements projects in nutrition, agriculture, youth entrepreneurship and peacebuilding. The Country Program has around 80 staff and implements its projects through local and international partners, with strong coordination/collaboration with Government of Rwanda (GoR) structures. The FY23 program value is approximately $12 million.

Job Summary:

The Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) activity will promote nurturing and responsive care practices, especially in the areas of health, functioning, nutrition, and early childhood development (ECD) for caregivers and children. Specifically, the activity aims to improve health and nutrition outcomes among women of reproductive age and adolescents and improve infant and young child feeding practices. It also aims to address child development gaps and significant unmet physical rehabilitation and assistive technology (rehab/AT) and social inclusion needs for infants and children. The activity will focus on community-level service delivery, community-health facility linkages and district level capacity development, as well as address issues of inclusion and participation, including access to programs and services for children and adults with disabilities, in line with Government of Rwanda (GoR) priorities.

As Chief of Party, you will provide leadership and overall management and delivery of the INECD project in the 10 project districts, and represent INECD and CRS Rwanda to the donor, GoR, and other stakeholders to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your leadership, management and technical knowledge will ensure the delivery of high-quality programming and advance the position of CRS as a leading agency in the field of inclusive nutrition and early childhood development. 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 INECD project, 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 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.
• Lead Partnership and Capacity Strengthening efforts for the INECD program ensuring CRS’ partnership principles are reflected in program implementation and relationships with partners.
  
  
  

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, French (ability to speak Kinyarwanda highly desired)

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 25% outside of Kigali to project sites

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
• Strong relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Team leadership abilities with diverse/multi-disciplinary teams. Coaching skills.
• Strong communications and presentation skills; able to develop tailored and persuasive messaging for varied audiences.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.
• Excellent English writing skills.
  
  
  
   

Preferred Qualifications

• Recognized leader in sector as demonstrated by peer reviewed publications, conference presentations etc.
• Demonstrated experience of successful program management, including management of complex, high-value, multi-sectoral projects with nutrition.

• 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. 

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.

• Builds and Maintains Trust
• Collaborates with Others
• Open to Learn
• Leads Change
• Develops and Recognizes Others
• Strategic Mindset
• Personal Accountability
• Acts with Integrity.
  
  
  

Agency Leadership Competencies:

• Lead Change – Continually looks for ways to improve the agency through a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
• Develops and Recognizes Others – Builds the capacity of staff to reach their full potential and enhance team and agency performance.
• Strategic Mindset – Understands role in translating, communicating, and implementing agency strategy and team priorities.

Supervisory Responsibilities: INECD Program staff 

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: Head of Programming, Country Representative, Programming staff, Finance Manager, Operations Manager, Deputy Regional Director for Program Quality, Regional Technical Advisors, HQ based Public Donor Liaison.
• External: Donor, government agencies, partner INGOs and local NGOs, Caritas, peer agencies, community representatives. 

***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.

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

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. CRS strongly urges women candidates to apply and offers gender friendly recruitment and employment conditions. 

How to apply

Interested and qualified candidates should complete the attached application form, Self -Declaration Clause and submit them together with one page Cover letter plus updated CV (maximum three pages) all in/as one document – via email only to: RW_HR@crs.org no later than Friday August 11^th, 2023, at 01:30 pm.

Please, include below statement in your cover letter:

“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.”

Also include your full names and title “Chief of Party I @ Band 11” in the subject line.

Due to anticipated high interest in this post and the expected number of applicants, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Kigali, July 27^th, 2023. 

Hans Fly

Country Representative

CRS/Rwanda Program