Deputy Chief of Party at USAID

Position Summary: The DCOP for the AHADI project will be based in Nairobi, Kenya. A key element of the position is working effectively with high-profile government and non-governmental interlocutors, USAID technical teams, subcontractors, partners, grantees and other stakeholders. Successful candidates will have demonstrated expertise managing donor-funded projects and technical expertise in decentralization, public financial management, local governance and/or service delivery.

Reports to: Chief of Party

Interrelationships: The Deputy Chief of Party will report to the Chief of Party who bears overall responsibility for Program implementation.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or higher in public administration, political science, law, government, international development or similar field is required.
• Minimum of fifteen years working in international development with progressively greater responsibility.
• Substantial international comparative experience working with USAID Democracy and Governance programs generally and decentralization specifically.
• Experience working on donor-funded local service delivery, local government capacity-building, and/or civil society advocacy activities highly desirable.
• Relevant professional accomplishments, including demonstrated skills in program design, program implementation, monitoring for results, organizing and leading workshops and/or training
• Strong interpersonal, written and oral communication skills
• Fluency in English is required

Specific duties include:

Under the direction of the COP, the DCOP will be responsible for assisting the COP with regards to program leadership, strategic planning, technical direction, and technical quality assurance.

The DCOP will contribute to the overall strategic direction of AHADI’s technical programing including helping to develop, implement and monitor technical program activities. This may include, but is not limited to

• Supporting technical staff to conceptualize and develop work and activity implementation plans and consultant scopes of work; mentoring AHADI staff in the counties (regional coordinators)
• Improving programmatic team’s capacity to identify and use evidence when designing interventions and describing activity outcomes;
• Directly contributing to the implementation of activities that draw upon the DCOPs technical areas of expertise;
• Ensuring that the program has robust tracking and accountability systems for activity implementation;
• Enhancing technical staff capacity and systems to ensure quality of project interventions and quality control over deliverables (i.e. consultant reports, manuals, policy tools);
• Engaging in regular program meetings to maintain and strengthen the team’s strategic focus, to discuss challenges, solutions and outcomes;
• Improving cross-sector/cross team coordination, collaboration and lesson learning;
• Suggesting improvements to work routines that will reduce the bureaucratic and administrative tasks that senior sector staff must undertake, freeing their time for more deliberate and thoughtful programming.

Work under the direction of the COP to liaise with USAID technical staff in the Democracy and Governance office as well as technical teams for those sectors contributing to AHADI. The DCOP will also assist in coordinating with other USAID implementing partners in sectors important for AHADI implementation.

Support and oversee the performance of project technical consultants. This may involve interviewing consultant candidates, writing scopes of work for consultants, and providing guidance and ensuring quality control over consultant activities and reports.

The DCOP will collaborate with the AHADI technical and Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning and Adapting (MERLA) staff, including AHADI home office and sub-contractor staff, to contribute to project learning and knowledge generation. This may involve:

• Overseeing or directly drafting project reports to ensure AHADI’s technical strategies are communicated to USAID in a timely and useable manner.
• Providing guidance on types of information the program team needs to do more evidence based programming;
• Identifying what kind of knowledge the M&E, communications and program teams can extract from programming;
• Overseeing and contributing directly to AHADI knowledge and learning reports, including preparation of short articles, issue briefs, or analyses arising from project activities and reports
• Mentoring Nairobi and county-based staff on ways they can contribute to the project’s evidence based programming, results capture, and learning;

In coordination with the COP, the DCOP will liaise with the SUNY/CID Home Office to help ensure adequate HO support and oversight for the duties listed above.

The DCOP must be a team player, and comfortable working with AHADI project staff, professional associates and clients of all ranks.

Carry out other duties as assigned by the COP.

Location:

• The Deputy Chief of Party will be based in the AHADI Nairobi office.

Travel:

• Travel in country is expected. It is anticipated that travel will be between 30-40%.