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.

As part of its Vision 2030 agency strategy, CRS is investing in six strategic change platforms to achieve results at scale. One of these key strategic change platforms is Strengthening Families for Thriving Children Strategic Change Platform 5 (SCP5). This Strategic Change Platform is a bold initiative to support vulnerable children to thrive in safe, healthy, and nurturing families, create more resilient and supportive communities, work with our Catholic partners, civil society and governments to establish policies and systems that strengthen families, at scale. SCP5 also aims to influence governments, donors, Catholic actors and other regional and global stakeholders to redirect resources and support to strengthening families.

The platform is implemented across CRS country programs and works around the world to influence other countries, regions and global actors to change practices, policies and resources in support of family strengthening and family care. In addition, Changing the Way We Care℠, the Platform’s flagship initiative, amplifies a global movement to prevent children from entering residential care and to place children currently in residential care in safe and nurturing families. To date, the initiative has been active in five demonstration countries (Kenya, Guatemala, Moldova, Haiti and India).

Job Summary 

The SCP5 Child Protection & Care Technical Advisor III will provide technical support to the SCP5 demonstration countries and CTWWC Kenya as well as facilitate exchanges and learning across country programs within the Southern & East Africa region. This will include liaising and facilitating exchanges with CTWWC team members, particularly the CTWWC technical advisors, to ensure learning is shared across countries and contributes to influence efforts.

You will contribute to strategy development and provide technical support in the areas of child protection and care system reform, including family strengthening, at the country program, regional, and global levels in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Technical Advisors and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to ensure operational excellence. Your technical expertise, advice and influence will significantly contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ child protection and care programming is across Eastern and Southern African regions.

• Contribute to the development, dissemination, and support the use of child protection and care standards, guidance, tools and other resources that allow country programs and partners to implement quality child protection and care programming focused on children vulnerable to family separation; children in residential care and other forms of alternative care settings such as foster care, supported independent living and kinship care; and residential care providers.
• Support country program teams to develop, plan and implement child protection and care related interventions that effectively engage partners, including government, with a priority focus on children vulnerable to family separation and children in residential care and other forms of alternative care settings such as foster care, supported independent living and kinship care.
  • Ensure an approach that integrates disability inclusion, people with lived experience, gender, protection, and disaster risk reduction/climate change, and other program areas such as health, education and economic strengthening.
  • Support the implementation of best practices across CRS country-level child protection and care system reform programming.
• Provide technical support for country program level strategic planning in child protection and care and for how best to apply, adapt and contextualize program design and implementation standards, principles, and tools.
• Provide technical backstopping, advice and technical program quality assurance to CTWWC Kenya, working closely with the CTWWC Kenya senior leadership, technical and other team members.
• Liaise and collaborate closely with the Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC) technical teams, in Kenya, Guatemala, Moldova, India and Haiti.
• Liaise between country program staff and the SCP5 Catholic Engagement SPM around engagement and activities with Catholic actors.
• Contribute to child protection and care related capacity strengthening initiatives for country program staff and partners:
  • Contribute to the development and implementation of capacity strengthening activities
  • Organize and/or facilitate trainings, workshops, small group technical sessions, exchange visits, joint technical support activities, etc.
  • Provide mentoring and coaching to country program staff
• Contribute to country program staff efforts to pre-position CRS for strategic growth opportunities in child protection and care.
  • Provide technical guidance in proposal development and project design with a focus on complex projects to ensure innovative programming solutions and technical excellence.
  • Support CPs to appropriately staff and build capacity of project teams.
  • Liaise with CRS country program level business development team members to ensure seamless and comprehensive support to country programs as concerns growth opportunities.
• Contribute to the agency knowledge management and learning agenda in child protection and care through setting conditions for collective learning that ensure the capturing, documenting, and sharing of key successes, promising practices, lessons learned, and evidence-based implementation research, internally and externally, including publications in peer reviewed journals.
  • Facilitate collaboration, exchanges and joint learning across CRS country programs implementing child protection and care system reform activities and with CTWWC country programs (as appropriate).
  • Document and share sound practices and lessons learned from child protection and care projects and activities with CRS regions and others.
  • Support the monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) and operations research efforts of country-led child protection and care reform projects.
• Contribute to developing strategic plans for how CRS can position itself and maximize opportunities to expand its influence in the child protection and care sector in Eastern and Southern Africa, particularly within the Catholic space or with Catholic actors.
• Lead the development and implementation of a regional influence, learning and engagement plan designed to advance care reform and family care in Eastern and Southern Africa, primarily where relationships already exist (Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania) and with regional faith-based organizations and networks, regional care leaver associations, civil society networks, and inter-governmental platforms within the region.
• Strengthen collaboration and partnerships with the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Learning Platform (UNICEF) – including engagement with Child Frontiers, Continental Working Group on children without parental care in Africa- by extension with African Union Committee of Experts, the Transform Africa Alliance, AMECEA (as needed), and other regional collaborators in Eastern and Southern Africa.
• Represent CRS in targeted regional or global forums to develop opportunities and better ensure collaboration and shared learning in child protection and care reform and to influence technical partner approaches, future funding opportunities, and policies. Network with relevant organizations to increase CRS’ profile in child protection and care.
• Stay abreast of current developments in quality and innovations related to child protection and care reform and share relevant information as appropriate.

• Master’s degree in social work, social sciences or related field.
• Minimum of seven years of work experience in child protection and care system reform with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with three years in multiple countries or regions as a technical advisor and/or program manager of a child protection and care reform project and/or multi-sectoral project with a child protection and care component.
• Experience designing, implementing, and technically supporting country-level initiatives in care reform, child protection system strengthening, family strengthening, alternative care, and/or social service workforce strengthening in low resource contexts/countries.
• Strong understanding and application of technical principles and concepts in child protection and care reform. Good knowledge of related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Track record of contributing to successful business development activities capturing public and/or private donor funding in child protection and care reform.
• Experience in developing curricula, guidance, tools, and other products to support child protection and care reform interventions and programming.
• Demonstrated experience in strengthening the capacity of others and transferring knowledge to diverse audiences through training, coaching, mentoring, and other formal and informal methods.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation including development of indicators, data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.
• Experience and skills to represent the organization at meetings with donors, government, international NGOs, local partners – faith-based and civil society. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams), Web Conferencing Applications and strong understanding of information and budget management systems and knowledge-sharing networks.

Required Languages – Fluency in English is required. Fluency in French is desirable/preferred.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel 30 to 40%.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities 

• Strong relationship management skills with ability to influence and gain the cooperation of CRS staff at the regional and country program level and to 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 use sound judgment and make sound decisions
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Excellent presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Ability to be proactive, resourceful and results-oriented

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.

Supervisory Responsibilities: none

Location: The position will be global, but expected to travel frequently to Eastern and Southern Africa or align with their working hours.

Key Working Relationships  

Internal: Strengthening Families, Thriving Children SCP5 internal and core team, Social Services Unit, Program Impact and Quality Assurance Department (PIQA) Technical Advisors, Humanitarian Response Department (HRD)- Safe and Dignified Programming and MHPSS teams, Country Program and Regional Office staff working on SCP5 initiatives, Overseas Operations and other relevant departments in headquarters, as necessary.

External: Relevant local and national governments, peer agencies, universities, local research institutions, partners, donors/foundations, and stakeholders engaged in child protection and care reform programming.

***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. CRS’ processes and policies reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation. 

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 prioritizes candidates who are citizens/ permanent residents of the countries where we have CRS offices.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer