Training and Capacity Building Senior Specialist

Job Description

OPPORTUNITY

Environmental Incentives seeks to hire a Training and Capacity Building Senior Specialist to support United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Ethiopia’s Highlands Resilience Platform for Adaptive Learning (R-PAL). R-PAL is a new, five-year project that partners with the Ethiopia Mission, its Transition into Graduation through Enhanced Resilience (TIGER) Program’s Implementing Partners, and the Government of Ethiopia to establish joint action learning, consolidate research and learning agendas, enable partners to adapt approaches as needs arise, drive evidence-based decisions, and identify the most promising innovations to scale.

The highlands of Ethiopia is a complex, multi-layered risk landscape where key indicators of resilience, including poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition keep millions of households in a poverty trap or vulnerability cycle, unable to absorb shocks and stresses, or adapt to changing conditions. The TIGER activity portfolio is composed of more than 20 implementing mechanisms working with the Government of Ethiopia (GOE), the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), and a broad coalition of partners to strengthen resilience in Ethiopia’s highlands. Within TIGER and the broader landscape of highlands resilience partners, there is evident need to better sequence, layer and integrate (SLI) resilience-building relief and development programming. That said, the lack of a finalized resilience learning agenda, shared measurement framework, a highly contextualized evidence base, and weak AM practice, impedes USAID/TIGER’s ability to efficiently distill meaningful feedback, assess potential for scale, and direct investment to the right combination of activities.

As the project’s Training and Capacity Building Senior Specialist will work as part of a dynamic, Addis Ababa-based project team under the direction of the CLA Component Lead and the Chief of Party. You will work closely with R-PAL’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting team, bringing specialized technical expertise to the project and USAID/Ethiopia. You will be a resource for USAID (Client) and implementing teams, improving understanding of the theory and practice of capacity building, and drawing on your expertise to meet the USAID and the TIGER program’s needs. You will be expected to communicate independently and effectively with the Client and other stakeholders, to R-PAL’s services. In this role, you should produce consistently high-quality products requiring moderate review; identify, refine, and share innovations in internal and external fora; and work independently while consulting, seeking input, and receiving oversight from the CLA Component Lead, R-PAL’s leadership team, and other experts or managers with expertise in your area of specialization.

To succeed in this role, you must be willing and able to follow security guidelines and travel safely within Ethiopia.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Capacity assessment, improvement planning, and monitoring

• Develops, leads, and analyzes a skills gap/needs assessment for USAID and a sectoral diversity of its implementing partners and local stakeholders across all implementing partners of the Highlands of Ethiopia. 
• Develops capacity improvement plans that increase USAID and its implementing partners and stakeholders’ readiness to improve learning, adaptive management, and, ultimately, service delivery in the Highlands of Ethiopia.
• Innovatively planning work that identifies and achieves transformation change in terms of stakeholders’ knowledge, skills and abilities in specific work areas.

Training and capacity improvement

• Develops capacity improvement guidelines and a corresponding program with appropriate, best-practice techniques and methods. 
• Leads training activities for USAID/Ethiopia, its implementing partners, and local stakeholders. Encourages and models use of learning practices.
• Coordinates, provides, and monitors targeted technical support to partners in line with capacity improvement plans. 
• Builds target audiences’ trust through excellent preparation, audience-aware communication, and timely follow up.
• Practices situational awareness and adapts appropriately to the communication and workstyles of the Client, partners, and staff. Ensures all parties are respected and understood.
• Guides culture, practices, and direct engagements that inspire belonging by staff and partners with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Creates safe opportunities for engagement for audiences’ diverse communication styles and backgrounds.
• Remains sensitive to stakeholder/user needs and tracks changing context. Proactively identifies needed changes to products, practices, and duties to improve project and personal effectiveness. Works with others to adapt tasks, products, budgets, and roles.
• Rapidly adjusts to changes in job requirements, schedules, and work environment. Sets priorities of self and staff effectively with the Client and staff and adjusts appropriately to avoid frustration and confusion.

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 7 years of relevant experience; Master’s degree and 5+ years relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience in natural resource management, development studies, sociology, anthropology, international development, or other related disciplines. 
• Two or more years of experience working on USAID projects.
• Professional experience developing facilitation plans, workshop and training materials and leading training/capacity building sessions.
• Experience in capacity building programs in collaborating, learning, adapting (CLA), knowledge management, and MEL planning (ideally focused on resilience building, PSNP, food security, etc.) 
• Demonstrated experience establishing, implementing and improving learning plans or capacity building plans, tools and activities.
• Professional working proficiency in English (verbal and written).
• Professional proficiency (verbal and written) in Amharic.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience working on USAID-funded programs or on similar programs funded by other Government of Ethiopia development partners. 
• Professional proficiency (verbal and written) in at least one other local language such as Afan Oromo, Tigrigna or other.
• Demonstrated experience independently translating technical content into actionable products for different audiences and users, both technical and non-technical.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Clear understanding of adult learning principles related to the needs of project beneficiaries.
• Clarity of thought and effective communication.
• Listening and problem-solving skills.
• Independently follows multi-step implementation plans.
• Ability to attend conference calls and virtual meetings with Client and other stakeholders outside of regular business hours approximately 3-6 times per month.
• Proficiency with MS Office suite and Google Apps.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Candidate must demonstrate their ability to legally work and reside in Ethiopia for the duration of the project.
• Criminal background check required.

BASE STATION AND COVID-19 POLICY

The position will be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Compensation will be dependent on and commensurate with years of experience and expertise. Environmental Incentives also offers a competitive benefits package.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit your application no later than September 30, 2022. We will review applications and contact qualified candidates for additional information.

ENVIRONMENTAL INCENTIVES IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER 

We are committed to developing an inclusive work environment for all employees, where diversity of thought, style, culture, and skill is valued in support of individual performance and potential, as well as our business goals and mission. We prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or and other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. 

Reasonable Accommodation:

Applicants with disabilities may contact Environmental Incentives coordinators via telephone, e-mail, and other means to request and arrange for accommodations. If you need assistance to accommodate a disability, you may request an accommodation at any time. Please contact Human Resources:

Brenda Ables

Director of Human Resources

Phone: (202) 525-2450

E-mail: hr@enviroincentives.com

About the Organization

Environmental Incentives’ Mission is to enhance the environments that sustain healthy communities. We empower public and private sector leaders to maximize the effectiveness of their conservation and development programs. Our clients trust us to design and support implementation of programs that (1) use evidence to develop effective strategies within complex systems, (2) center local stakeholder experiences and facilitate collective action, and (3) produce results that support learning about what works. Environmental Incentives is a certified B Corporation with offices located in Washington, DC, South Lake Tahoe, San Diego, Nairobi, and Lima (pending registration). Our remote staff and consultants are based in multiple states within the United States, and across five continents.