Regional Technical Advisor - Agriculture/Livelihoods/Landscapes

Job Description:

Job Title: Regional Technical Advisor (TA II) – Agriculture, Livelihoods and Landscapes
Job Location: West Africa or telecommuting
Job Type: Regular, Full Time
Reports To: Deputy Regional Director- Program Quality, West Af rica

About CRS
Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, natural resources management, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.
Job Summary: The RTA will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of strategic and programmatic design and implementation issues in the area of agriculture, livelihoods and landscapes in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to regional and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. The RTA’s technic al knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to effective, adaptive and innovative agriculture, livelihoods and landscapes programming in the West Africa region, with particular focus on climate smart agriculture and nature-based solutions, market systems, and resilience.
The RTA II Agriculture, Livelihoods and Landscapes (ALL) position is part of the West Africa Regional (WARO) team supporting program quality in the region and is also linked to the global agriculture and livelihoods team and the Livelihoods and Landscapes Strategic Change Platform (SCP3). The advisor will support the WARO ALL community of practice and provide leadership to country-level strategic, programming and project development, program quality and evaluation for 11 countries (8 country programs) in the WARO region: Burkina Faso (including outreach to Cote d’Ivoire), Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal (including outreach to Guinea-Bissau and the Gambia), and Sierra Leone. The RTA II will supervise and closely collaborate with the RTA II for Financial Inclusion and Business Services as well as collaborate closely with RTA II, Water Environment & Sanitation (WES) to ensure coherent technical support for agriculture, livelihoods, nature-based solutions, youth, SILC and microfinance programming in the region. Recognizing that youth are an increasing important demographic in West Africa, there is a preference for a candidate that has previous experience with youth livelihoods.
Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide and regional strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in agriculture, livelihoods and landscapes that effectively engage partners, donors, governments and the private sector. Facilitate connections between HQ and CP technical staff, including supporting the agency’s Strategic Priority Areas for Livelihoods and Landscapes, Youth Empowe rment, Social Cohesion and Governance, and the WARO Climate Smart Agriculture Livelihoods and Landscapes priority area, to influence and catalyze impact at scale.
• Provide technical solutions to regional and country program 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 country programs in developing a collaborative understanding of underlying drivers and environmental and economic impact of land degradation within agricultural landscapes/water catchments.
• Provide technical advice and guidance to increase country programs’ knowledge and understanding of agricultural landscape planning and spatial analysis to implement sustainable land management and nature-based solutions to restore vital ecosystems services and improve livelihoods.
• Provide technical advice to count ry programs to understand the climate change, environment and agricultural policy and strategies, map key stakeholders and identify entry points to dialogue with government, private sector and civil society
• Reinforce country programs’ capacities in effective stakeholder engagement and communication approaches as a foundation for effective collaboration and sustainable systems change
• Contribute to regional and country program efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in agriculture, livelihoods and landscapes and climate change programming. Lead or contribute to the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including defining and/or aligning appropriate monitoring systems to country level or global indicators.
• Advise project teams on aligning the CRS approach to government and donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements.
• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in agriculture, liv elihoods and landscapes programming for staff and partners through the development of learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching for country program staff.

Required Languages – Advanced or native fluency in written and oral English required, professional proficiency in French required.
Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%.

Supervisory Responsibilities: Supervises the Regional Technical Advisor for Financial Inclusion and Business Services
1https://www.ipbes.net/news/media-release-worsening-worldwide-land-degradation-now-�€˜critical�€™-undermining-well-being-32

Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishop s 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.

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