Country Representative, Ghana - Catholic Relief Services

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.

Background

CRS has been implementing humanitarian relief and development activities in Ghana since 1968. Through local partners, CRS has development programming in WASH, agriculture, youth livelihoods, migration and health; with donors USAID, The Helmsley Charitable Trust and AGRA. CRS' main programming, office and staff are concentrated in the northern regions of the country with a small representation office in the capital city of Accra. The CRS Ghana country program has over 70 national employees and 3 international staff. With an FY20 board approved budget of $5.7 million, coupled with strong donor and private sector interest in supporting CRS' work in the country, significant growth opportunities exist for the country program especially from innovative financing mechanisms.

The CRS Country Representative for Ghana is responsible for overall leadership and management of the country offices including stewardship of agency resources, projects, and personnel. The Country Representative is CRS' principal representative to the Catholic Church in Ghana, the Government of Ghana, the private sector, donors, international organizations, and local civil society organizations. This position requires an individual with strong leadership abilities; representational, communication, and risk management skills; and a facility for developing networks to build partnerships and expand and diversify program resources, including innovative financing. S/he will be responsible for the overall coordination and direction of the country program; provide necessary coaching and supervision for department managers directly under his or her supervision; ensure high quality program design and implementation; ensure efficient management of public grants and private funds for compliance and high quality reporting; and provide oversight of the financial management systems.

Job Responsibilities

• Champion and lead the vision, mission and strategy. Lead the design of medium and long-term goals. Ensure program and operations leads coordinate their objectives in alignment with the strategy.
• Ensure that all projects meet and exceed donor expectations and are designed and implemented for maximum impact and reach. Ensure the CRS program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy and procedures.
• Effectively manage senior programming and operations talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching and mentoring for HOP and Head of Operations. Strategically tailor individual development plans and complete performance assessments for direct reports. Oversee the development of staffing plans for large and complex projects and the recruitment process of senior staff.

• Lead the development of strategic partnerships with national and international organizations that leverages resources, reputation, and expertise in line with CRS partnership principles. Ensure strong representation to key stakeholders, including Church partners, local and national government, US government and international donors.
• 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 in operations functions. Provide oversight and analysis regarding monthly expenditures.
• Lead and direct the pursuit of strategic growth opportunities, prepositioning and capture planning.
• 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. Promote accountability, learning and knowledge management overseeing application of the MEAL policy, as well as cross-sectoral and cross-department learning.

Education and Experience

Typical Background, Experience & Requirements:

• Master's degree in international development, International Relations or a related field.
• 10 or more years' experience managing complex relief and development programs.
• Demonstrated experience successfully managing a variety of complex, high-value projects from multiple international donors, including USAID and other USG donors, the EU, DFID, and foundations; understanding of relevant donor regulations.
• Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Experience working with Church partners, host governments and the private sector, a plus.
• Staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment. Experience coaching and mentoring senior program staff.
• Ability to represent the agency at high levels.
• Experience in MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications, and information and budget management systems.

Personal Skills

• Excellent strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
• Excellent 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/mentoring skills.
• Strong communications and presentation skills; able to develop tailored and persuasive messaging for varied audiences.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.

Key Working Relationships:

• External Host country government officials at all levels, Catholic Church leadership, donors, private sector, heads of international agencies, partners, etc.
• Internal: WARO Regional Director, WARO DRD/PQ, WARO DRD/MQ, WARO RFO and WARO Regional Technical Advisors, OO_HQ departments, including IDEA and PIQA, Mission and Mobilization, Charitable Giving, Finance and Human Resources.
  
  
• Supervisory Head of Programs (HoP), Head of Operations (HoOPs) and the Ghana and Liberia Business Development Specialist

Travel Required: 30%-40% in-country travel with occasional trips outside of Ghana, twice per year

Required/Desired Foreign Languages: English

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