Senior Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) Advisor, USAID Sahel Regional Resilience Activity

Save the Children is seeking a Senior Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) Advisor for the anticipated USAID-funded Regional Resilience Leader with Associates Activity for the Sahel Region. This Activity aims to expand resilience in the Sahel, improving the ability of individuals, households, and communities to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from perennial shocks and stresses. The Activity will address the unequal impact of shocks, stresses, and climate change on women and youth, and their implication on households and the local economy. The focus of the Activity will be Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Cha

The Senior CLA Advisor will help design and lead implementation of a strategic approach to CLA and build a culture of collaboration, adaptive management, continuous learning and high-quality program delivery. They will work closely with program teams and other stakeholders to ensure knowledge and learning are captured and shared to drive adaptations across the Activity. They will also be responsible for overseeing and managing CLA tasks, working collaboratively with senior-level project staff, including the Chief of Party and the Senior Capacity Strengthening Manager. They will develop and facilitate knowledge sharing and learning, evidence generation and application, and collaborative community building across the Activity, Save the Children, and consortium partners. The Senior CLA Advisor will also work on developing an internal CLA capacity strengthening strategy that trains and mentors staff and promotes a culture of learning

Applications for this position are being reviewed on a rolling basis with a final deadline of July 10th, 2024. The successful candidate must be fluent in both French and English. Qualified candidates based in West Africa are encouraged to apply. Hiring for this position is contingent on donor funding and approval. This is an accompanied position to be based in Dakar, Senegal.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

• Develop, refine, and implement a robust CLA strategy and implementation framework for continuous learning, collaborating, and adapting for project staff, partners, donors, and other stakeholders for an initial set of target programs.
• Create a stakeholder map and stakeholder analysis to guide collaboration with other programs, initiatives and institutions to link beneficiaries to sustainable outcomes and enable the program’s theory of change.
• Create and manage a linkage plan to ensure collaboration between local actors, USAID-funded activity stakeholders, host country government stakeholders, donor agencies, the private sector, and other implementing agencies managing programs and creating policy in the target geographic areas.
• Contribute significantly to host country government relationship building and collaboration.
• Lead the formulation and implementation of a detailed program learning plan/learning agenda and manage associated learning partnerships and processes.
• Manage a program “change log” during as both the leader and Associate awards adapt to changing conditions and circumstances. This would include the Refine period of the Leader program (program Year 1), documenting changes to program design required as a result of formative research findings and operational planning discussions.
• Manage learning events and processes. Work with MEAL team members to ensure adaptations to the program theory of change as new information comes to light.
• Lead the creation and management of a detailed program knowledge management platform, ensuring full integration with other relevant knowledge management platforms.
• Create guidelines for CLA in the context of the program. Manage CLA ‘pause and reflect’ events and resulting adaptive management analysis, decision-making, program/approach adjustments, training and follow-through.
• Contribute to the creation of a culture of openness, trust, and continuous improvement within the program team and with partners. Train team members on CLA in addition to ensuring peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing and application, activity-based capacity strengthening, evidence and data utilization within the team.
• Lead the production and dissemination of documentation pertaining to the above.
• Support overall effective external communication for the program.

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated understanding and application of CLA on similar USAID-funded programs is required.
• Track record of building collaborative relationships and driving adoption of new program approaches.
• Experience in working with a variety of stakeholders including partners, donors and other stakeholders.
• Experience developing and implementing learning agendas, theories of change scenario planning, and other collaborative learning activities.
• Excellent written communication and presentation skills in French and English. Knowledge of other languages spoken in countries covered by this activity will be considered an asset.
• Strong tool/curriculum development and training skills.
• Well versed in gender equality, women’s empowerment, and positive youth development (PYD) principles and approaches.
• Demonstrated, structured approach to coordination, sustainability planning, and linkage formulation.
• Demonstrated experience in facilitating learning and knowledge sharing processes, in establishing and managing dynamic feedback systems to capture experiential learning and unintended consequences, and fostering collaboration across teams or organizations is required.

Why you should join the Save the Children Team

Save the Children US offers outstanding benefits that include health, dental, vision and life insurances, pet insurance, short-term and long-term disability coverage, an Employee Assistance Program, 403(b), generous vacation, personal sick leave, family leave, parental/adoption leave, commuter benefits, dress for your day, and much more

Click here to learn more about how Save the Children US will invest in YOU

About Save the Children

No matter your role when you join Save the Children, each and every day you will challenge yourself to devote your skills, talent and expertise to changing the world for kids. It’s an ambitious goal, and a meaningful one no matter how you see yourself professionally: an accountant, a writer, a data analyst, a teacher, a driver, a designer, or any one of the hundreds of dozens of roles we’re looking to fill every day.

You see, Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond. As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.

We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.

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Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.