Senior Collaborating Learning & Adapting (CLA) Advisor

The Organization We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

· No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday · All children learn from a quality basic education and that, · Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information: Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/jobs We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

JOB TITLE: Senior Collaborating Learning & Adapting (CLA) Advisor – USAID Sahel Regional Resilience Activity

LOCATION: Dakar, Senegal

CONTRACT: International, accompanied

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

Summary

Save the Children is seeking a Senior Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) Advisor for the anticipated USAID-funded Regional Resilience Leader with Associates Activity for the Sahel Region. This Activity aims to expand resilience in the Sahel, improving the ability of individuals, households, and communities to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from perennial shocks and stresses. The Activity will address the unequal impact of shocks, stresses, and climate change on women and youth, and their implication on households and the local economy. The focus of the Activity will be Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Chad.

The Senior CLA Advisor will help design and lead implementation of a strategic approach to CLA and build a culture of collaboration, adaptive management, continuous learning and high-quality program delivery. They will work closely with program teams and other stakeholders to ensure knowledge and learning are captured and shared to drive adaptations across the Activity. They will also be responsible for overseeing and managing CLA tasks, working collaboratively with senior-level project staff, including the Chief of Party and the Senior Capacity Strengthening Manager. They will develop and facilitate knowledge sharing and learning, evidence generation and application, and collaborative community building across the Activity, Save the Children, and consortium partners. The Senior CLA Advisor will also work on developing an internal CLA capacity strengthening strategy that trains and mentors staff and promotes a culture of learning.

Applications for this position are being reviewed on a rolling basis with a final deadline of July 10th, 2024. The successful candidate must be fluent in both French and English. Qualified candidates based in West Africa are encouraged to apply. Hiring for this position is contingent on donor funding and approval. This is an accompanied position to be based in Dakar, Senegal.

What You'll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

• Develop, refine, and implement a robust CLA strategy and implementation framework for continuous learning, collaborating, and adapting for project staff, partners, donors, and other stakeholders for an initial set of target programs.
• Create a stakeholder map and stakeholder analysis to guide collaboration with other programs, initiatives and institutions to link beneficiaries to sustainable outcomes and enable the program’s theory of change.
• Create and manage a linkage plan to ensure collaboration between local actors, USAID-funded activity stakeholders, host country government stakeholders, donor agencies, the private sector, and other implementing agencies managing programs and creating policy in the target geographic areas.
• Contribute significantly to host country government relationship building and collaboration.
• Lead the formulation and implementation of a detailed program learning plan/learning agenda and manage associated learning partnerships and processes.
• Manage a program “change log” during as both the leader and Associate awards adapt to changing conditions and circumstances. This would include the Refine period of the Leader program (program Year 1), documenting changes to program design required as a result of formative research findings and operational planning discussions
• Manage learning events and processes. Work with MEAL team members to ensure adaptations to the program theory of change as new information comes to light.
• Lead the creation and management of a detailed program knowledge management platform, ensuring full integration with other relevant knowledge management platforms.
• Create guidelines for CLA in the context of the program. Manage CLA ‘pause and reflect’ events and resulting adaptive management analysis, decision-making, program/approach adjustments, training and follow-through.
• Contribute to the creation of a culture of openness, trust, and continuous improvement within the program team and with partners. Train team members on CLA in addition to ensuring peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing and application, activity-based capacity strengthening, evidence and data utilization within the team.
• Lead the production and dissemination of documentation pertaining to the above.
• Support overall effective external communication for the program.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field and at least seven years of relevant experience in CLA, knowledge management, organizational learning and development, community of practice facilitation, and capacity strengthening; alternatively, a master’s degree and five years of relevant experience.
• Demonstrated understanding and application of CLA on similar USAID-funded programs is required.
• Track record of building collaborative relationships and driving adoption of new program approaches.
• Experience in working with a variety of stakeholders including partners, donors and other stakeholders.
• Experience developing and implementing learning agendas, theories of change scenario planning, and other collaborative learning activities.
• Excellent written communication and presentation skills in French and English. Knowledge of other languages spoken in countries covered by this activity will be considered an asset.
• Strong tool/curriculum development and training skills.
• Well versed in gender equality, women’s empowerment, and positive youth development (PYD) principles and approaches.
• Demonstrated, structured approach to coordination, sustainability planning, and linkage formulation.
• Demonstrated experience in facilitating learning and knowledge sharing processes, in establishing and managing dynamic feedback systems to capture experiential learning and unintended consequences, and fostering collaboration across teams or organizations is required.

IMPORTANT:

Female candidates are especially encouraged to apply.