Job Title: Director for Value Chain Development
Department Name: Program Impact & Quality Assurance (PIQA)
Location: Baltimore, MD
Band:
Reports to: Director, Agriculture & Livelihoods
About CRS:
Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.
Background: The CRS Agricultural Livelihoods signature program area has a 5 year strategic goal to provide a pathway to prosperity for 2 million rural households. Working through our partner network we aim to provide poor rural farming families with the assets, skills and links to markets and services that they require in order live more dignified, prosperous and resilient lives.
CRS is committed to working with the most vulnerable families all along the pathway. CRS supports rural families in their bid to leave poverty; attain food security and achieve incremental gains in prosperity through three stages Recover, Build and Grow. Each phase includes asset building, risk reduction and changes to systems and structures that support long term resilience and the ability to rebound from adversity, in line with CRS’ Integral Human Development framework.
To deliver on this strategy, CRS is seeking to increase our level of support to value chain development and through this work to improve the market performance of target smallholder farmers. This work will provide additional coverage to the “Build” and “Grow” areas of our project work.
Job Summary:
The Director for value chains will lead the strategic direction for CRS’s value chain projects globally. The candidate will provide direct support to project design and development and work in close coordination with headquarters and country program teams to support effective implementation and program quality. The work will require leadership in developing value chain skills within the global agricultural team and include developing and rolling out new methods and tools in value chains.
The successful candidate will be responsible for leading the agency on strategic growth within these areas, serve as an internal CRS champion of value chains and smallholder commercialization related issues. The Director will represent CRS externally with PVOs, partners, donors, universities and research institutions and work to develop a robust influence agenda with public and private sector partners to advance the prospects of smallholder market engagement. The outcome from this work will be to advance the agency in being able to increase the overall productivity, profitability of smallholder farmers.
General Responsibilities
Provide leadership, as a part of the Program Improvement and Quality assurance (PIQA) senior management team and OverOps leadership, to maintain and improve CRS industry leadership in developing our value chain portfolio.
Manage and lead the agency Value chain strategy, including growth, budget management and programmatic reporting.
Drive our growth and resource acquisition plan with a focus on value chain projects and activities related to market engagement.
Establish and deliver latest best practices to assist our partners in supporting the market linkage of smallholder farmers and develop their business skills.
Establish long-term strategic partnerships with leading private sector partners that seek a shared values approach in terms of developing and deploying new and inclusive business models.
Develop our learning agenda, through internal studies and through establishing relationships with selected international and regional research partners to test and evaluate innovative products and services.
Support CRS and partner technical staff in the field in the evaluation of value chain programs.
Specific Responsibilities:
- Supervise, mentor and support staff engaged in value chains.
- Build the value chain project portfolio
- Ensure staff professional development.
- Manage the development of work plans and budgets.
- Develop effective relationships with CRS and other field staff.
- Provide strategic vision to the value chains research and influence agenda
Represent CRS within and outside the agency on Value chain issues
- Represent CRS to donors, policy makers, and peer organizations.
- Represent CRS’ agricultural livelihoods programming on value chains internally via presentations and meetings with other CRS divisions and departments.
- Influence strategically donor reflections on programs and funding.
- Represent CRS within the framework of Church teachings.
- Lead value chains advocacy engagement, including contributing to legislative advocacy and development of Congressional testimony.
- Provide leadership and guidance on the presentation of CRS program successes and lessons learned to external audiences.
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.
- Serves with Integrity
- Models Stewardship
- Cultivates Constructive Relationships
- Promotes Learning
Professional and Personal Skills:
Evidence of clear ability to manage teams,
Experience and ability to conduct thorough market studies on target products and provide project teams with actionable recommendations to integrate results into a clear value chains upgrading approach, in the project.
Excellent writing and presentation skills.
Strong interpersonal skills with evidence of making a strong contribution to a team’s goals and objectives.
Strong analytical skills and ability to develop a learning agenda, that produces consistently high quality documented outputs, as an individual and as part of a broader team.
Ability to identify short and longer-term opportunities for developing innovative products and services for our clients, partners and donors.
Ability to transition ideas into project proposals, programming and policy documents.
Understanding of and evidence of achievement in advocating for the use of good development practice among decision-makers and development practitioners.
Qualifications:
At least an MSc / M.A. in a development related field, such as agricultural economics, agricultural extension, micro-finance, value chain or agribusiness management.
At least 10 years field experience in agricultural or rural development programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and/or Southern Asia.
Track record in proposal development.
Experience in project management.
Clearly demonstrated capacity to manage a learning and influence agenda
Strong Information Technology skills and capacity to learn, use and deploy new applications and programs.
Fluency in English. French / Spanish language skills also helpful.
Willingness to travel overseas up to 30% of the time.
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.
All interested applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. at the time of application.
Equal Opportunity Employer
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