Technical Advisor II, Social Protection & Cash Programming

You will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of program design and implementation issues with a focus on child-sensitive social protection programs, graduation programming, and on integrating cash in these and other development sectors; support will mostly focus on strategic projects in the areas of poverty alleviation, food security, HIV, family strengthening and alternative care, education, and health. Technical assistance will be in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, government policies, donor guidelines, and industry best practices and be provided to global, regional and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ child-sensitive social protection programs, graduation programming, and cash programming integ ration is across the globe. You will work closely with CRS’ humanitarian response team as a key counterpart within the Program Impact and Quality Assurance (PIQA) department, ensuring consistency in approaches to response analysis, and cash and voucher assistance (CVA) implementation; leveraging best practices from emergency and early recovery work for development programing; and sharing best practice and technical guidance from social protection, graduation programming and CVA in development projects within the agency.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:
* Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in child-sensitive social protection programming, graduation programming and cash integration that effectively engage partners, donors and governments. Ensure a cross-sectoral approach that is child-sensitive and integrates gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
* Provide technical solutions to regional and CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and M&E, ensuring high-quality implementation.
* Support CPs to engage with governments as they design, develop and roll-out social protection programs.
* Work with Cash and Markets Technical Advisors on the CRS humanitarian team to better integrate social protection and linkages in emergency cash programming.
* Provide technical assistance to CP teams and/or governments to design, implement, monitor and evaluate child-sensitive social protection programming, graduation programming and the use of cash in development programming – including relevant analyses to select the most appropriate modality, delivery mechanism, participant selection criteria, and staffing for the context and use case.
* Contribute to regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities that include child-sensitive social protection programming, graduation programming and the use of cash in development programming. Lead or contribute to the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including determining appropriate modalities, defining appropriate targets, monitoring systems and indicators. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
* Strengthen the capacity of staff and partners in child-sensitive social protection and graduation programming through developing learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching to CP staff.
* Actively contribute to agency efforts to align and harmonize its approach to cash programming across its humanitarian response and development efforts; Represent PIQA in agency-wide initiatives to mainstream consistent approaches to quality cash programming, and facilitate input from relevant team members.
* Coordinate with CRS’ humanitarian response team, supply chain and finance teams to develop or roll-out protocols that include cash programming, including vouchers, mobile money and other delivery methods, as necessary.
* Contribute to knowledge management and learning through collecting and analyzing program data, evaluating strategic projects, assisting with measuring program impact, capturing, and sharing lessons learned and best practices, and research and internal reports.
* Establish and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, research, and other institutions. Participate in forums in the areas of child-sensitive social protection programming, graduation programming and CVA to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.

QUALIFICATIONS:
* Master’s Degree in Economics, International Development or related field required.
* Minimum of 5-7 years (10 years preferred) relevant international working experience in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, international organization or government, with minimum of eight years in the design and implementation of child-sensitive social protection and/or graduation programming.

Required Languages – English. Additionally, French language skills are preferred.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%, conditions permitting.

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
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.