Chief of Party, USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program

Counterpart International is seeking a Chief of Party (COP) for an ongoing 5-year USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program which aims to reduce hunger and improve literacy and nutrition among school-age students, especially girls in Southern Mozambique. With the support of the local and headquarters staff, the COP will provide vision, technical leadership, financial and administrative oversight of the program and will serve as the principle institutional liaison to USDA, local implementing country organizations, and host government agencies. The COP should have competence and extensive past experience relevant to leadership, management, project implementation and training of staff. The COP will also provide staff management and development, and ensure the highest quality of project monitoring, evaluation, reporting and communications. This position will report to Counterpart’s Director of Economic Growth.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical and managerial leadership on issues of childhood nutrition and development, literacy, education, food security, commodity management, gender equality and capacity building.
• Lead design and implementation of all program components and activities.
• Overall leadership, recruitment, training and supervision of office staff and partner organization.
• Serve as primary liaison to USDA, home office, local and national governmental authorities, local NGOs, community organizations, and other donor organizations.
• Facilitate learning and integration of Counterpart’s regional best practices on food security and nutrition initiatives and the program’s technical areas.
• Provide mentoring and professional development support to project staff, with emphasis on building capacity.
• Oversee budget preparation and provided overall financial oversight to ensure strict fiscal accountability.
• Ensure the highest quality of program implementation, monitoring, evaluation, reporting and communications.
• Ensure compliance with Counterpart and USDA rules and regulations, particularly with respect to financial and grant management.
• Identify and contribute to new business opportunities as they arise.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 15 years’ experience in food security and nutrition, with a specific focus on school feeding, formal education, literacy training.
• Bachelors Degree in Education, Nutrition, Public Health, Agricultural Economics, International Development, International Relations, or a relevant field.
• Successful track record leading implementation US Government-funded projects (USDA or USAID) in developing country contexts, including oversight and management of personnel, finances, partnerships, host country relationships, and administration.
• Excellent commodity management skills including supervising inventories, stock management and commodity reporting.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, oral and written communications skills.
• Demonstrated supervisory and leadership skills in multi-cultural contexts.
• Professional proficiency in English and French, Spanish, Portuguese and/or Arabic, oral and written
• Good command of Microsoft Office, particularly word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Preferred

• Master’s Degree in a relevant field.
• Experience managing USDA programs.
• Recent developing country management experience in Africa, Asia, and/or the Americas and a thorough understanding of the cultures, opportunities and challenges of those regions.