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, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

The Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) provides leadership and support to CRS emergency programming. The HRD strengthens CRS’ impact through high quality, innovative programs; improved technical and management capacity at the field level; and active engagement in global efforts to promote excellence and learning in humanitarian response. The HRD has technical staff that supports emergency program planning, rapid response, and capacity strengthening of staff and partners worldwide.

NOTE: This is a global remote position; CRS does not sponsor visas for telecommuting employees. 

Country/Program Background

The EMPOWER (Empowering Partner Organizations Working on Emergency Responses) project is a joint initiative piloted in FY18 of the CRS Latin American and Caribbean Regional Office and the Humanitarian Response Department (HRD). In 2020, CRS expanded this program to Central America and Mexico and it continues to grow a team of LACRO-based emergency responders whose primary role is to support strengthening the emergency response capacity of local partners response in the Caribbean, South and Central America and Mexico and support them implementing high quality emergency responses.

Through EMPOWER, CRS staff accompany local organizations in institutional capacity self-assessments. Based on self-assessment results, as well as institutional mission, vision, and strategy, participating local organizations develop institutional strengthening plans. In response to expressed priorities and requests, CRS provides participating organizations with demand driven technical resources, support, training, and accompaniment, and organizes zonal and regional workshops to facilitate shared learning and strengthening of peer networks among local and national humanitarian response organizations.

Job Summary:

You will lead a team of technical advisors providing technical support to EMPOWER partners on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)/Safeguarding, Safe and Dignified Programming (SDP)/protection mainstreaming & Mental Health/Psycho-Social Support. You will ensure your technical support is in line with the EMPOWER program goals and objectives, and with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to advance the delivery of high-quality, safe programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your technical advice, leadership, knowledge, and support will provide capacity strengthening for partners in Latin America and the Caribbean.  You will be part of the global Humanitarian Response Department (HRD), within the Safe & Dignified Programming & MHPSS teams.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Supervise a team of two TAI for SDP to provide comprehensive and streamlined support to all partners.
• Support partners to complete MHPSS self-assessments to assess their current skill sets and resources available to effectively refer participants to specialized protection actors as well as provide direct PSS support during an emergency response.
• Support partners to design and implement referral procedures and PSS activities.
• Support partners to design and recruit appropriate supervision structures for MHPSS activities.
• Provide technical leadership in designing a capacity strengthening approach in PSEA/safeguarding and SDP for CRS EMPOWER staff and partners by developing learning and training strategies, standard training agendas/curriculums/tools, and follow-up plans for coaching and accompaniment.
• Develop an MHPSS capacity self-assessment tool for roll out to partners
• Support 20+ national/local partner organizations in the EMPOWER project to strengthen SDP  and Safeguarding practices in humanitarian response programs by:
  • Conducting self-assessments to identify their strength and gaps in PSEA/safeguarding and SDP.
  • Developing action plans based on self-assessments to address gaps and prioritized areas, in conjunction with EMPOWER team members.
  • Taking appropriate efforts to strengthen partner capacity, as per the action plans.  This will include a combination of methods, such as formal trainings, TA accompaniment, write-shops to develop policies/SOPs (or review of existing policies), on-the-job learning, simulation exercises, etc.;
• Work with CRS EMPOWER team and partners to ensure coordinated SDP messaging and practices are integrated in program implementation.
• Oversee and coordinate the work of the SDP team with Partner Safeguarding Policies and Procedures compliance
• Contribute to knowledge management by documenting and promoting the sharing of learning, best practices and experience on supporting partners’ SDP, MHPSS and PSEA/safeguarding application within CRS as well as with Partner staff, the Caritas Internationalis Safeguarding Task Force, IASC AAP PSEA Taskforce, and the CHS Alliance.
• Lead or contribute to the development and review of technical content related to SDP, MHPSS and PSEA/Safeguarding for project proposals, including defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators.
• Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into project proposals.
• Establish and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions, and participate in forums in the area of safe and dignified programming and PSEA/Safeguarding to collect and share learning/best practices and promote CRS’ work.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in safe and dignified programming that effectively engage partners. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Ensure quality partnerships between CRS and target partners in line with CRS and Caritas Internationalis (CI) partnership principles.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities  

• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Extremely flexible and able to cope with stressful situations in emergency environments.
• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings
• Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports
• Proactive, resourceful, results and service-oriented
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills

Required Languages – Oral and written language proficiency; capable of conducting trainings, writing reports and proposals, holding meetings, conducting interviews and communicate with partners in English and Spanish is a requirement. 

Travel: 

• Willingness and ability to travel internationally 50% of time (i.e., 6 months out of the year)
• Willingness and ability to deploy as soon as possible when disasters strike, primarily within Latin American and the Caribbean; may include deployments to other regions, as needed

Supervisory Responsibilities: Supervise two Safeguarding/SDP TAI’s on the CRS EMPOWER LACRO team

Key Working Relationships

Internal: HRD Safe & Dignified Programming & MHPSS Team Members; EMPOWER Project Team Members; CRS Safeguarding Unit; relevant LACRO DRDs & Regional Technical Advisors; PIQA Senior Technical Advisors; Partnership Capacity Strengthening Unit.

External: All partner staff targeted on the projects, IASC AAP/PSEA Task Team, Local PSEA or Protection Networks in the projects target countries, other PSEA actors in target countries (INGOs, NGOs, UN Agencies, Donors), Caritas Internationalis Safeguarding Task Force, Caritas members in target countries.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Psychology, Mental Health, Social Sciences or another related field required.
• Minimum of five years relevant international working experience in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with a minimum of three years working applying PSEA/safeguarding, SDP/protection mainstreaming and MHPSS approaches in humanitarian response contexts.
• Experience supervising and coordinating a team of people to achieve a common objective
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, and training facilitation using adult learning principles and practices.
• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in PSEA/Safeguarding, SDP/Protection Mainstreaming and MHPSS. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding is required.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation and analysis.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society organizations.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams), web conferencing applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.

Preferred Qualifications

• Candidates from/presently based in the LAC region are highly preferred.
• Experienced trainer/teacher of adults and multi-cultural groups, in both in-person and virtual settings.
• Experienced in establishing and implementing community-based feedback, complaints and response mechanisms, protection referral procedures, and protection risk analyses.
• Knowledge of a third language (Portuguese and/or French) is highly preferred.
• Demonstrated knowledge of and ability to navigate the humanitarian coordination system.

Agency REDI Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

Agency competencies clarify expected behaviors and attitudes for all staff. When demonstrated, they create an engaging workplace, help staff achieve their best, and help CRS achieve agency goals. These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Personal Accountability – Consistently takes responsibility for one’s own actions.
• Acts with Integrity – Consistently models values aligned with CRS Guiding Principles and mission.  Is considered honest.
• Builds and Maintains Trust – Shows consistency between words and actions.
• Collaborates with Others – Works effectively in intercultural and diverse teams.
• Open to Learn – Seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.

Agency Leadership Competencies:

• Lead Change – Continually looks for ways to improve the agency through a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
• Develops and Recognizes Others – Builds the capacity of staff to reach their full potential and enhance team and agency performance.
• Strategic Mindset – Understands role in translating, communicating, and implementing agency strategy and team priorities.

Emergency Competencies

These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each staff working in emergencies to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.

• Communicates strategically under pressure.
• Manages stress and complexity.
• Actively promotes safety and security.
• Manages and implements high-quality emergency programs.

***Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

Note:  All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside their home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical examination.

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people – especially children and vulnerable adults – to live free from abuse and harm.

CRS welcomes candidates from the countries and regions in which we work. In the event the successful candidate is an expatriate or global telecommuter, the anticipated duration of the assignment is informed by a term limit, based on the type and level of the job and the needs of the agency. 

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer