CHARITY JOBS IN AFRICA

Organization: Catholic Relief Services
Country: Senegal
Closing date: 15 Nov 2014

Position Title:Regional Technical Advisor for Strategic Growth and Business Development

Dept/Location:WARO/Senegal

Reports To:DRD Program Quality and Growth (DRDPQ)

Est. Length of Service:3-4 Years

About CRS:

Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

Job Background/Summary:

The Regional Technical Advisor for Strategic Growth and Business Development (RTA/SG-BD) position is part of the regional program quality and growth team, and will lead CRS efforts in marketing, prepositioning, capture planning and pursuit of opportunities in West Africa, including identification and development of new public donor funding relationships and increasing CRS’ capacity to respond to opportunities from a variety of donors. Working closely with the Deputy Regional Director for Program Quality and Growth (DRDPQ), other Regional Technical Advisors (RTAs), Program Managers for Strategic Growth and Business Development (PMs/SG-BD), Heads of Programming and Country Representatives – and the headquarter-based Business Development Team (BDT) – the advisor will be responsible for: supporting regional and country efforts in planning strategically; leading state-of-the-art business development practices in West Africa; researching and building relationships with current and potential donors; working closely with a CRS/Marketing staff and outside firms on strategies and materials; gathering and managing information to support pursuit of opportunities; providing assistance to Heads of Programming to ensure sound project design and proposals; writing proposals; and monitoring progress towards the region’s growth objectives.

Specific Job Responsibilities:

Resource Mobilization Plan (ReMAP), Coordination

• Implement the WARO ReMAP, in close coordination with the DRDPQ, updating it as necessary; support country programs in development of country-level growth plans
• Lead West Africa SG-BD Team with DRDPQ support and participation from five PMs/SG-BD
• Liaise with the HQ-based Resource Acquisition Department (RAD) to ensure that relevant information is disseminated to country programs and RTAs and appropriate follow-up is carried out.
• Work with country, region and HQ staff in to analyze WARO past performance for both publicly- and privately-funded awards, by donor, sector, and region, with an emphasis on public resource proposal submission and success rates and lessons learned

Prepositioning and Representation:

• Lead and coordinate processes to build country level and regional level relationships with donors and other stakeholders, developing new relationships at USG and other donors with regional presence in Dakar, Accra or elsewhere; disseminate information as appropriate.
• Guide Country Programs and build capacity to gather information about donor trends and potential upcoming opportunities, and record encounters and information gathered.
• Maintain a Donor Map and other intelligence management tools for tracking regional and global donor trends

Identify Funding Opportunities:

• In coordination with the BDT and regional team, explore, identify and track both regional and country program funding opportunities, including those with the USG and non-traditional donors;
• Develop and maintain a roster of available consultants for proposal development and proposal writing.

Capture Planning

• Train CP staff on capture planning
• Mentor CP business development staff to facilitate capture planning trainings.
• Once significant opportunities are identified, work together with HoPs and CP business development staff to create and implement capture plans using CRS models.
• Coordinate participation of other regional staff to support CP capture plans.

Proposal Development:

• Form and coordinate regional and HQ technical teams to support country programs in the development of appropriate responses, and based on participatory project design process, coordinate proposal development of new funding sources.
• Assist country programs to develop and write project proposals, including DFAPs and other large grant opportunities. Assistance may also include seeking consultants who can provide specific services for proposals, and liaising with the donor regional offices as necessary;
• Ensure that proposals conform to agency quality standards (i.e., Propack,TAG/CAG, IHD, etc.) and donor requirements.
• Provide direct technical assistance to and strengthen the capacity of country program staff in project design and drafting of proposals (including both program and resource planning).

Marketing and Evaluation of Potential Funding Opportunities

• Coordinate with marketing staff and possibly a firm to develop strategies, marketing tools, including written materials, videos, and a process to market widely and successfully to donors and other key audiences.
• Coordinate marketing activities at the country program and regional level.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Maintain WARO’s tracking sheet of up-coming funding opportunities and post an update every week to the BDT’s “early intel” library for Regional and HQ use.
• Participate in agency-wide BD community learning and knowledge management by sharing experience and lessons learned virtually.
• Ensure WARO proposals are accurately tracked in the CRS Win/Loss Database and ensure WARO projects are reflected in agency-wide past performance tables, corporate capacity statements, and other boilerplate proposal sections housed in the online Public Proposal Toolbox.

Supervisory Responsibilities:Partial supervision of PMs/Business Development (dotted-line).

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.

• Serves with Integrity
• Models Stewardship
• Cultivates Constructive Relationships
• Promotes Learning

Key Working Relationships:

*INTERNAL:* Regional Director; Deputy Regional Directors/Program & Management Quality; Regional Finance Officer; Regional Technical Advisors; Country Representatives; Country Program technical staff and project managers; HQ Business Development Team, HQ Program Quality Support Department, Resource Specialist, and Foundations & Corporations Team.

*EXTERNAL:* USG officials; Representatives of non-traditional public donors including UN, World Bank, Regional banks, Caritas agencies, international research centers, and others.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in development, international relations, or relevant field preferred; equivalent experience acceptable.
• Familiarity with funding solicitation mechanisms, regulations and standard provisions, and programming priorities of USAID – preferred candidates would be familiar with others US agencies and funding sources as well, e.g., USDA, US State Department, US Department of Labor, Global Fund, Buffet Foundation, Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation.
• Minimum five years international development management experience, including at least three years of work in a developing country.
• Proven experience drafting proposals for food and/or non-food public resources highly desirable and experience with RFAs, strongly preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication and negotiation skills.
• Exceptional writing ability.
• Strong analytical skills, budget development skills and ability to build consortia.
• Knowledge of CRS programs, justice agenda and Catholic Social Teaching principles a plus.
• Knowledge of and comfort level with Microsoft Office software (Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet) required, experience with Access or other data base programs is a plus.
• Willingness/ability to travel 30-50% of the time.
• Native level ability in written and spoken English
• Fluency in written and spoken French.

****Disclaimer Clause:****

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

****EOE/M/F/D/V****

How to apply:

Please submit a cover letter and resume to www.crs.org. Go to About Us, Careers and click on Search. Look for Req. #I 1847. Click on the job title and scroll to bottom of job to apply directly.