Chief of Party I – East Chad Resilience

Chief of Party I – East Chad Resilience

CRS – Catholic Relief Services

N’Djamena, Chad

Job Summary:

Since the onset of the conflict in Sudan, there has been a significant influx of Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees into Chad. These individuals have entered Chad through more than 32 border entry points in the East through the provinces of Ouaddai, Sila and Wadi-Fira. Humanitarian teams, in collaboration with the Chadian Government and local authorities, have been working to provide life-saving assistance and a variety of protection services to these refugees and returnees, and as of February 2024, approximately 44% of refugees have been successfully relocated from the spontaneous arrival sites to more organized settlements. However, the conflicts in Sudan persist and the constant influx of new refugees and returnees continues. As a result, the Chadian government estimates that the number of refugees and returnees could reach approximately 910,000 in Chad by the end of 2024.

CRS is currently designing a multi-year project early recovery and resilience project to address the growing needs of these populations so that individuals, households, and communities can reduce vulnerability to shocks and stressors and effectively utilize their assets and capacities to absorb shocks and adapt to longer-term stressors and changing conditions. This will be done through a multi-sectorial approach focusing on community infrastructure, community WASH rehabilitation and sensitization, improving agriculture and livelihoods and strengthening social cohesion and local governance. As Chief of Party, you will support the technical design and provide leadership and overall management of the project to serve the poor and vulnerable in East Chad, all while ensuring gender is effectively mainstreamed across all sectors. 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 early recovery and resilience. As a senior leader you will proactively manage security and mitigate security risks.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Lead all aspects of the development, implementation, and consolidation of the project, including sharing how the project contributes to the thought leadership of the industry. Serve as the primary point of contact to the donor 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 donor grants, including financial tracking and oversight of partner budgets, finance, administration and reporting to the donor. 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.

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in International Development, International Relations, or in the field of humanitarian response required;
• Minimum of 7 years of international project management experience on projects of similar size/nature (multi-year; multi-sectoral – livelihoods, agricultural development, resilience, market-based approaches to economic development, gender, conflict and social cohesion);
• Minimum of 5 years of experience managing donor funds, including multi-country grants. Strong knowledge and experience in budget management;
• Minimum of 5 years of staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment. Experience coaching senior program staff;
• Required Languages – Excellent French language oral and written communication skills are required. Working proficiency in English strongly preferred. Knowledge of Arabic and local languages is a plus;
• Travel – This position will require regular travel to East Chad (exact location to be determined) as well as remote field sites. Must be willing to travel up to 50%.

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;
• Commitment to gender-sensitive programming and management.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with major donors’ (USAID, Government of Germany, FCDO, EU etc.) rules, regulations and requirements. Understanding of KFW (or German Government) grant provisions, policies, and guidelines, including reporting requirements will be an added advantage;
• Experience in managing moderately complex projects with an international NGO in volatile security environments;
• Experience managing infrastructure rehabilitation and/or construction programming, as well as managing complex procurement/supply chain processes, a plus;
• Experience in managing gender transformative programming a plus;
• Demonstrated experience of successful program management, including management of complex, high-value, multi-activity projects, with complicated logistics;
• Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Knowledge of CRS partnership strategy is a plus;
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with host governments, donors, other donor-funded projects and stakeholders, local organizations, and partners;
• Experience in MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications, and information and budget management systems.

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