About BRAC USA
BRAC is a development success story, spreading innovative poverty solutions born in Bangladesh to 11 other countries and is considered by most measures to be the largest international development organization in the world. BRAC is headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh with 115,000 full-time staff reaching an estimated 138 million people through its holistic approach to alleviating poverty. BRAC USA’s purpose is to raise awareness and mobilize resources to reduce poverty, improve health, provide education, and empower women and girls around the world.
In 2013 BRAC USA launched the Ultra Poor Graduation Advocacy Initiative to catalyze global implementation of the BRAC pioneered Graduation approach. The initiative aims to catalyze adoption across major stakeholders to “graduate” households from the most extreme forms of poverty by 2030, in support of Sustainable Development Goal One, to end all forms of poverty everywhere.
The Initiative works towards the following:
- Increased awareness and uptake of the Graduation approach by stakeholders including policymakers, development finance agencies, national governments, NGOs and MFI implementers as a result of global advocacy efforts.
- Effective implementation of the Graduation approach, supported through technical assistance, training and knowledge transfer from the pioneering Targeting the Ultra-Poor program to external stakeholders interested in, or currently implementing Graduation approaches.
About the Position
This position is contingent on successful closing of a Technical Assistance contract, expected to occur in June 2016.
You will work with a small team of development professionals providing project management, advisory services and technical expertise around BRAC’s Ultra Poor Graduation Approach to a variety of external clients including International NGOs,
Microfinance Institutions and Governments. Previous development consulting experience or individual consulting experience, a strong background in livelihoods and the ability to project manage multiple stakeholder initiatives are required.
You are experienced in program design, evaluation, and capacity building in the international development space. You are extremely comfortable in externally facing roles including advisory, advocacy and public speaking. You have work experience in the development sector in East Africa and have interfaced with NGO leadership or government officials in the region.
In addition to supporting technical assistance to existing clients, you will support the roll out of the BRAC entities’ consulting practice around the Graduation approach, managing product and service development, and business development efforts. You will support the team in delivery of client and donor commitments including immersion visits, events, knowledge management and required reporting.
You are self-starter, entrepreneurial and work well in teams. The Program Manager will report to the Project Director who leads the initiative, while working closely with others on the BRAC USA team.
Primary Responsibilities
Support ongoing technical assistance and advocacy initiatives:
- Support the management of existing technical assistance engagements including program design, rapid livelihoods assessments, implementation oversight, support in training, and input on monitoring, documentation and knowledge management for existing clients;
- Manage potential external technical consultants and partners to ensure high quality outputs for each engagement;
- Coordinate production of Technical Assistance products including Feasibility Reports, Market Assessments, Program Design reports and Budgets, Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks to meet client needs;
- Oversee the production of documentation, donor reporting and communication functions for existing clients and donors;
- Develop key knowledge management products and disseminate client experiences for donor and government audiences, and to share with clients, BRAC entities and external audiences.
Support expansion of the technical assistance initiative:
- Business development efforts including proposal development for large multilateral and smaller scale donors, and developing new client relationships with Africa and Asia NGOs, and social protection programs
- Contribute to the creation of the Graduation related training tools and capacity building content modules currently being developed for existing and new clients;
- Manage hosted immersion visits to BRAC’s TUP program in Bangladesh in partnership with BRAC staff;
- Manage delivery of events and national workshops designed to enhance learning and adaption of the Graduation approach
Skills/ Qualifications/ Experience
Education
- Master’s degree in social sciences, international development, evaluation or another related field;
Experience
- At least 8 years of experience in international development, including program design/management or capacity building; experience working in the field in Asia and Africa required;
- Experience working as a consultant either on behalf of development consulting agencies or multilaterals, or as an individual consultant serving multilaterals, NGOs or government-led initiatives is required for this role;
- Experience designing and/ or managing livelihoods or social protection programs, highly preferred;
- Experience as a technical advisor or trainer/ facilitator preferred
Knowledge and Skills
- Excellent writing and speaking skills in English required. Fluency in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or Bengali a plus;
- Exceptional ability to communicate via written products, oral communications, presentation and public speaking skills required;
- Strong, developed leadership ability, and effective project and staff management skills required;
- Experience with curricula development, training and facilitation preferred;
- Diplomatic and highly effective on an interpersonal level, with a high degree of cross cultural sensitivity;
- Self-starter, proactive, able to juggle competing work streams and deadlines, productive under pressure;
- Able to absorb large volumes of information quickly in fluid situations, highly organized and analytical thinker;
- Creative problem-solver, and adept at working with teams to deliver on client requests;
- Willingness to travel extensively (30-40%) primarily to East Africa, at times in locations with limited amenities.
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