Philippines: Chief of Party I, Land Restoration Initiative

Jun 27, 2022 | Catholic Relief Services
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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.

CRS Philippines, established in 1945, is the longest running, continuous CRS country program in the world with extensive programming in peacebuilding, emergency response and recovery, and disaster risk reduction. The Philippines country program has over 100 staff members in Manila, Davao, and Cotabato City offices. CRS Philippines is committed to collaborating with our strong network of church partners, national and subnational government agencies and secular NGOs throughout the country.

Job Summary:

As Chief of Party I, you will manage and provide technical oversight of the development and implementation of a Land Restoration Initiative in the Philippines under the Restore Asia Program of the Global Evergreening Alliance (GEA), of which CRS is a member. CRS Philippines serves as the Lead Implementation Organization (LIO) for the Land Restoration Initiative in the Philippines in partnership with other consortium members. The Chief of Party will manage the large and complex project, ensuring effective systems and processes are in place that supports high-quality programming advancing CRS and Alliance members’ work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that the project delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its Land Restoration Initiative. As a senior leader, you will proactively manage security and mitigate security risks.

** THIS POSITION IS CONTINGENT UPON DONOR FUNDING **

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

  • Lead all aspects of the development, implementation, and consolidation of the Land Restoration Initiative in the Philippines, including sharing how it contributes to the thought leadership of the industry.
  • Serve as the primary point of contact to GEA’s Program Coordination Unit.
  • Ensure the project is designed and implemented to meet donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results and budget, including strategies for phase-out and sustainability. Ensure coordination between program and operations leads.
  • Ensure the CRS program quality standards are adhered to per Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) policies and procedures, and that project Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) of the carbon component is met.
  • Provide management, guidance, and technical oversight of the Land Restoration Initiative in the Philippines throughout the project cycle to ensure project design, start-up, implementation, and close-out are in line with CRS quality and compliance principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices.
  • Ensure programmatic integration of Land Restoration approaches in the Philippines in close collaboration with CRS, Government of the Philippines and partner staff. Ensure national representation of the project with various Government of the Philippines departments and other stakeholders.
  • Manage relationships within the Philippines GEA consortium partners as chair of the steering committee comprised of senior leadership from the partner agencies.
  • Manage the Program Management Unit and the integration of a team of multi-agency, multidisciplinary staff in line with CRS partnership principles.
  • Effectively manage and supervise CRS talent for the Land Restoration Initiative program team. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, and complete performance management for direct reports.
  • Lead the development of program learning - identify opportunities for learning, research and publications in the area of sustainable agriculture practices and implementation of MEAL policies as well as ensure feeding of the Philippines relevant MEAL into the global GEA MEAL system. Facilitate the dissemination of promising practices and lessons learned to contribute to the agency and GEA knowledge management agenda. Ensure integration of innovations and best practices.
  • Contribute to the proactive pursuit of opportunities for new funding to ensure the growth of the Evergreening Initiative portfolio in line with agency, regional, and CP, Government of the Philippines and GEA strategic priorities. Contribute to the technical design and technical writing for the CP to ensure quality proposals per agency and donor standards. Contribute to budgeting and staffing plans and activities for proposals.
  • Oversee technical assistance and capacity-strengthening activities in sustainable agriculture practices for staff and partner organizations to enhance program quality and impact.
  • Oversee the identification, assessment and strengthening of partnerships relevant to climate asset management and the appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.
  • Ensure timely and appropriate project expenditures and partner advances and liquidations in line with financial plans and efficient use and stewardship of project material sources.
  • Manage and mitigate risk through monitoring national and regional issues that may impact staff and programming. Ensure all staff understand and adhere to CRS staff safety and security policies and plans and ensure the updating of such plans.
  • Promote, uphold, and model a commitment to the efficient use of agency and donor resources. Ensure compliance with the GEA grants, including financial tracking and oversight of partner budgets, finance, administration and reporting to the GEA Program Coordination Unit. Approve program expenditures, budget adjustments, and cost modification requests to donors.
  • Represent CRS programming in international circles, highlighting innovative work. Publish program results and deliver presentations. Oversee the development of communication strategies and materials, complying with donor and CRS’ branding and marketing requirements and procedures.
  • Create and maintain proper conditions for learning. Establish a safe environment for sharing of ideas, solutions, and difficulties and the capacity to detect, analyze and respond quickly to deficiencies. Identify performance gaps and training opportunities for CRS and partner staff and ensure the design and delivery of high-quality training and technical assistance.

Basic Qualifications

  • Master's Degree in International Development, Agriculture, Natural Resource Management or similar required, International Relations or a relevant technical area. PhD an advantage but not a requirement. Additional relevant experience may substitute for some education.
  • Minimum of 10 years’ experience in relevant field-based project management experience required, with preferably at least 2-3 years working in the area of Landscape Management and Restoration, Climate Smart Agriculture or Sustainable Agriculture Practices.
  • 7 years of experience in managing complex projects, donor funds, including multi-country grants. Excellent knowledge and experience in budget management. preferably with an international NGO.
  • 5 years of staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment. Experience coaching and mentoring senior program staff.

Required Languages – English. Knowledge of Tagalog is preferred.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 30% in the Philippines.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

  • · Strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
  • · Strong relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
  • · Team leadership abilities with diverse/multi-disciplinary teams. Coaching skills.
  • · Strong communications and presentation skills; able to develop tailored and persuasive messaging for varied audiences.
  • · Consortium management experience preferred
  • · Good presentation and facilitation skills
  • · Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented, and results-oriented.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Recognized leader in CCA or DRR as demonstrated by peer reviewed publications, conference presentations etc.
  • Good experience in project grants management, including project design and sub-grant management, budget management, preferably for grants from multiple public donors, including institutional and government donors and large private foundations.
  • Demonstrated experience of successful program management, stakeholder management, including management of complex, high-value, multi-activity projects, with complicated logistics.
  • Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Knowledge of CRS partnership strategy a plus.
  • Demonstrated ability to write high-quality technical proposals and reports.
  • Experience engaging with partner organizations
  • MEAL skills and experience required, ICT4D skills and especially GIS mapping a plus.
  • Staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to creating a collaborative learning environment.
  • Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

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.

  • Integrity
  • Continuous Improvement & Innovation
  • Builds Relationships
  • Develops Talent
  • Strategic Mindset
  • Accountability & Stewardship

Key Working Relationships:

Supervisory Responsibilities

Value Chain Technical Lead, Program Managers, and MEAL Officers (TBD)

Internal: Head of Programs, Deputy Country Representative, Subregional Country Representative, Operations Manager, Finance Manager, Program Managers, Regional Technical Advisors**

External: Philippine government representatives, GEA representatives, implementing partner program managers, private sector stakeholders

** 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 is an Equal Opportunity Employer

How to apply

Interested applicants must send their updated CV and application letter to PH_HR@crs.org