The Country Representative is a member of the Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization (CPS) Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) Asia Regional Team, reports to the OTI Regional Team Lead or their designee and will initially be worldwide but will be reassigned to a post in Southeast Asia upon the receipt of a NSDD-38. The incumbent may be required to travel regionally as necessary. The Country Representative’s principal responsibility will be development, oversight, and management of CPS/OTI’s Burma country program. The incumbent will represent OTI’s mission and programs to senior-level government officials, in-country visitors, senior officials from other international organizations, bilateral donors, and local government officials. This program anticipates prioritizing civilian protection against Regime violence by working with local communities in Ethnic Organization controlled areas of Burma, to advance U.S. and Congressional policy objectives reflected in the passage of the 2021 BURMA Act. The position will require close coordination with OTI staff and regional missions/embassies supported by USAID’s regional staff in Southeast Asia.
Manage a high-profile program in a dynamic environment and provide strategic, programmatic, and operational guidance to OTI’s implementing partners (contractors and/or grantees) while leveraging critical local staff input, and the partner’s role in strategy co-creation, to ensure that activities are contributing to OTI’s program objectives;
● Conceptualize and design program strategies and objectives in close coordination with OTI staff in Washington and in the Field, the Embassy, Host Country Government, implementing partner staff and local civil society actors based on political and context analysis and U.S. Government policy; Initiate strategy reviews as needed in line with changes in context and policy;
● Analyze, synthesize and report on current political developments, security concerns, and other pertinent information required to achieve OTI’s program objectives; Monitor local and regional political developments and regularly brief OTI and partner staff on their potential programmatic impact;
● Responsible for managing program effectiveness; ensuring strategic accountability;
setting realistic intended program results and program achievements by utilizing OTI’s programming principles and processes and regularly engaging with the resourcesavailable to support and measure program effectiveness;
● Articulate program strategy, as well as communicate and coordinate OTI’s in-country
activities between OTI and its implementing partners, USAID, the Embassy and other donor organizations; prepare and disseminate programmatic, financial and periodic reports to the USAID Mission, OTI/Washington and other organizations as appropriate;
● Serve as OTI’s primary liaison with USAID Mission personnel, U.S. Embassy staff, Host-Country Government Officials, UN Organizations, Indigenous and International Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholder organizations. Develop and maintain collaborative relationships to ensure close coordination at the field level, identify the widest range of potential local partners and opportunities, and achieve maximum synergy with other programs;
● Build, lead, supervise, and motivate a team composed of USPSCs and a significant number of implementing partner staff. In close coordination with the Implementing Partner, continuously review and design staffing plans to meet overall program objectives; Recruit, train, supervise, and evaluate the performance of in-country OTI staff. Maintain staff morale in a difficult security and work environment;
● Provide recommendations to the Washington-based Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and/or the Regional Team Leader on implementing partner performance, budgets, contract modifications, among other partner related issues;
● Provide USAID concurrence on all implementing partner activities, including final approval of grantees for grants under contract, in accordance with the USAID’s Automated Directives System (ADS);
● Ensure the use of OTI systems and procedures to maintain effective and efficient management of funds and programming;
● Ensure that OTI’s programs and activities are monitored and evaluated and that lessons learned are applied to ongoing or future activities;
● Prepare operational plans in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy, including logistics and property use guidelines, closeout and hand-over, security procedures, and contingency and evacuation plans; Review and concur on OTI program budgets for field operations;
● Ensure that all OTI field staff adhere to in-country security guidelines set by the U.S. Embassy Regional Security Officer and other organizations such as the United Nations or host government, as appropriate; Coordinate closely with Implementing Partner senior management to provide relevant security related information from the Embassy;
● Travel within the country/region to monitor and assess political conditions, and mplementing partner operational platforms, meet with potential grantees, senior host- country government and other program counterparts, and develop recommendations to respond to evolving dynamics; and,
● Serve on temporary details within OTI, other USAID bureaus/offices, or other U.S.
Government (USG) agencies under this scope of work for a period not to exceed six (6) months. Duties performed while on detail must be directly related to the scope of work, but may not be directly related to OTI programs or activities. Contracting Officer (CO) approval is required for the temporary detail. Any extension past the six (6) months requires CO approval.
Please direct questions about this position or the offer process to the OTI Recruitment Team at otijobs@usaid.gov.
In support of U.S. foreign policy, USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives seizes emerging windows of opportunity in the political landscape to promote stability, peace and democracy by catalyzing local initiatives through adaptive and agile programming. We work in critical crises at critical times to make critical differences that help countries transition from conflict and turmoil toward peace and democracy. Our programs put comparatively small amounts of money on small targets, stressing speed, calculated risk-taking and innovation, to strengthen the resilience of our partners and beneficiaries, keeping transitional countries on a positive trajectory.