Practice Area Director

Company Description

For over 100 years, the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA) has contributed to high-impact international development projects in more than 85 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Grounded in the seven cooperative principles, NCBA CLUSA’s international development work seeks to alleviate poverty through social and economic empowerment. NCBA CLUSA’s work focuses on building resilient communities, creating economic opportunities, and strengthening cooperatives and producer organizations. Our community-led development approach empowers communities to identify, promote, and manage sustainable, locally generated solutions.

 

Job Description

 ESSENTIAL AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

• Provide leadership, management, and oversight to NCBA CLUSA’s Creating Economic Opportunities and Building Resilient Communities Practice Area program portfolio, including quality assurance, program management and performance. In addition, work with M&E staff to ensure project deliverables are monitored and course corrections are identified and implemented as appropriate.
• Lead compelling strategic vision for the growth of the Practice Area; oversee the planning of clear short and long-term program priorities in alignment with strategy to promote NCBA CLUSA as innovative leader in both markets systems, economic growth, and resilience.
• Lead efforts to develop and refine tools to analyze and address issues in the  resilience, food and  market systems environment, identify and groom local institutions and organizations to support practice-area development, and provide targeted level support.  

• Position and shape the organization’s prominent role in both creating economic opportunities and building resilience promoting the cooperative business model as an important development solution through collaboration with the new business team, ensure the growth and sustainability of the Practice Area through support of intelligence gathering and development of innovative programs; and as a representative at various fora and symposia with funders, partners, donors, governments; in collaborating on technical briefs and papers reflecting the organization’s program expertise.

 

ADDITIONAL AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

• Stay abreast of major trends and seminal projects in markets, food systems and resilience and related areas to identify best practices and share key findings internally.
• Collaborate with Communications and Knowledge Management to develop compelling statements on activities, document and present the success stories, lessons learned, etc.
• Liaise between headquarters and field operations and donors.
• Develop systems, processes and a collaborative management approach to address operational challenges and ensure that NCBA CLUSA is following contractual and donor requirements.
• Collaborate with Human Resources to recruit, orient, and develop employees.

Qualifications

Education:

• Master’s degree in Economics, Business Administration, International Development, or related field preferred.

 

Experience:

• Minimum fifteen years of increasing responsibility in relevant program and technical work experience in economic growth and resilience, or related area; including a minimum of five years of field experience.
• Minimum ten years of previous experience working on donor funded projects; USAID and USDA projects preferred; as well as an understanding of compliance with respective donor rules and regulations. 
• Accomplished in leading and/or contributing to new business development; excellent proposal writing skills.
• Successful program management experience required including:  work plan management, planning programs and monitoring progress, resolving cross-program and strategic issues, overseeing Practice Area budget; aligning the deliverables (outputs) to the program’s outcome.
• Experience in design and/or delivery of training and technical assistance programs for creating economic opportunities and building resilient communities.   
• Promote evidence-based learning and leverage insights for program and organizational performance improvement.
• Demonstrated success in motivating, coaching, providing performance feedback, team building and supervising diverse teams of employees; as well as,

Knowledge & Skills:

• Strategic thinker with strong organizational skills.
• Demonstrated problem analysis and resolution at a functional and strategic level.
• Prior experience working with federally-funded awards such as USAID and USDA and knowledge of applicable donor rules and regulations.
• Knowledge of Learning and Adaptive Management principles and models; may include USAID’s Collaboration, Learning and Adapting (CLA).
• Understanding of the cooperative business model in theory and practice
• Prior usage of MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), and Web Conferencing Applications.

Behavioral Competencies:

• An entrepreneurial spirit with excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Innovative and creative thinker, proactive, resourceful, solutions and results oriented.
• Work collaboratively and productively with a variety of individuals at different levels within and outside the organization.
• Sensitivity and appreciation of cultural differences and in working with a multicultural workforce.
• Ability to quickly adapt and be flexible; as well as support teams in adapting to changing contexts.

Additional Information

NCBA CLUSA works in the areas of Building Resilient Communities, Creating Economic Opportunities and Strengthening Cooperative and Producer Groups.

This position strategically oversees and directs NCBA CLUSA’s Creating Economic Opportunities and Building Resilient Communities Practice Area. This position provides leadership and direction in the design and implementation of high-quality, innovative programs ensuring that organizational values, methodology and standards are being uniformly implemented across projects. The Senior Director will provide leadership in the identification and integration of new ideas and evidence-based learning to enhance NCBA CLUSA’s visibility, credibility, and advancement of thought leadership. 

This position is responsible for four primary activities: new business/program development, program quality; supervising a team of global professional staff and, periodically, technical experts; and representing NCBA CLUSA to external partners and donors. 

Technically this position is responsible for providing leadership, expertise, oversight and capacity building in market systems and resilience development for the international programs division.  In the area of markets and economic development this position will provide technical guidance on NCBA CLUSA’s inclusive market systems and approach to private sector and international development projects and initiatives. The approach emphasizes analyzing and designing interventions in the underlying systems that drive market outcomes. Through facilitation-based, stakeholder-led approaches, the development of value chains, market systems  and business opportunities will help poor and disadvantaged people to gain access to job opportunities and to earn a higher and more secure income.  In the area of resilience, this position will support and advance NCBA CLUSA’s food systems and climate smart agriculture frameworks to design and implement multidisciplinary and integrated projects aimed at fostering resilience at the local level as well as moving the needle on malnutrition and poverty and climate adaptation and mitigation through group-based approaches.