Technical Advisor III, Child Protection

***NOTE: This is a remote position; work authorization required at the time of application. Preference will be given to applicants located in areas where there is a CRS presence ***

About CRS

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.

Job Summary:

As a member of the Social Services Unit, you will contribute to advancing child protection and child safe programming and policy throughout the agency at the global, regional, and country program levels. In line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices, you will provide technical advice and leadership in child protection and child safe programming and policy at a global, regional, and country program levels to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the people we serve. This position will support strategy development, growth opportunities and represent CRS and the work of the Social Services Unit both internally and externally. Your expertise, advice and influence will significantly contribute to ensuring that all CRS programming—particularly child-focused programming—is safe for all children and responsive to child protection concerns that arise.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Advocate for and contribute to the design and implementation of agency-wide and country program strategies, policies, standards, tools, and best practices in child protection and child safe programming that effectively engage diverse CRS sectors, initiatives, country programs, partners, governments, and donors.
• Provide global, regional, or country program technical advice and solutions for the integration of child protection and child safe programming practices into new and existing strategic plans, assessments, tools, principles, proposals, and projects. Ensure alignment with program quality standards as well as relevant policies and procedures.
• Contribute to headquarters, regional, and country program efforts to pre-position CRS for strategic growth opportunities in child protection. Provide technical guidance in project design and proposal development with a focus on complex projects to ensure innovative programming solutions and technical excellence. Support country programs to appropriately staff project teams to ensure proper oversight of child protection concerns.
• Collaborate with and contribute to capacity strengthening efforts across CRS’ diverse sectors related to child protection risk assessment and mitigation, appropriate responses, child safeguarding, child participation, and safe identification and referral of children.
• Support the delivery of capacity strengthening initiatives in child protection and child safe programming globally for staff and partners by develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums; organizing and/or facilitating trainings, workshops, and conferences; and mentoring and coaching staff in innovative CRS approaches and tools.
• Provide coaching and capacity development, including recommendations for strategically tailored individual development plans for staff to build child protection and child safe programming capacity.
• Support agency knowledge management and learning agenda in child protection and child safe programming through facilitating and/or contributing to collective learning and capturing, documenting, and sharing of key successes, promising practices, lessons learned, case studies, and implementation research, internally and externally, including publications in peer reviewed journals.
• Represent CRS in targeted regional or global forums to develop opportunities and better ensure collaboration and shared learning in child protection and child safe programming to influence technical partner approaches, future funding opportunities, and policies. Network with relevant organizations to increase CRS’ profile in child protection, influence in the regional or global child protection community, and donor diversification.