Global Communities works at the intersection of humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and financial inclusion to save lives, advance equity and secure strong futures. We support communities at the forefront of their own development in more than 35 countries, partnering with local leaders, governments, civil society and the private sector to achieve a shared vision of a more just, prosperous and equitable global community. 

The Advisor for Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) is a member of the Measurement and Evidence for Learning and Impact (MELI) team and serves as the team’s technical lead in the functional application of Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation (CLA) approaches and principles in program design and across Global Communities’ portfolio of programs. S/he plays a technical leadership role in defining and advancing learning priorities and processes at the organizational and project levels and provides MEL related technical support to new, existing, and closing programs.

Organizational Leadership   

• Serves as MELI’s technical lead in CLA as a technical approach within MELI.
• Regularly assesses MELI team needs in CLA and develops strategies to meet those needs.
• Leads priority activities and initiatives, including organization-wide guidance and tools, in CLA the project and HQ/MELI team levels to lead the development, application, promotion, and dissemination CLA strategies to improve project performance.
• Designs and implements technical assistance and capacity building strategies that result in improved skills and capacity in this area.
• Identifies, advocates for, and manages required resources to implement priority activities and promotes effective staff access and participation across the organization.
• Leads organizational coordination and learning in the area, including related knowledge sharing between teams, departments, projects, and countries through peer-to- peer networks and knowledge exchange activities, such as formal and informal learning events/workshops, the MELI Community of Practice.
• Represents MELI Team internally on relevant organizational committees and initiatives to advance priorities in CLA:
• Identifies and engages in strategic partnerships with relevant external organizations and institutions.

Support to Projects

• Facilitates capacity assessments with new and existing programs using the CLA Maturity Self-Assessment Toolkit for implementing partners to create CLA-strengthening action plans that are responsive to the organization and program-level MEL strategies, program participants, and compliant with donor requirements.
• Provides technical assistance to programs in the form of tools, methods, and resources for developing technical CLA capacity that effectively meets programmatic and organizational needs.
• Leads stocktaking exercises such as pause and reflect sessions, before action reviews, after action reviews, critical reflection workshops and others to give and receive stakeholder feedback and document lessons learned.
• Strengthens MELI-related capacity of relevant internal and partner staff, in areas including data management, analysis, reporting and utilization of findings for data driven decision making and project-cycle learning.
• Participates in the drafting and/or review of technical documents and reports, including donor reports, project or study briefs, or other dissemination products to ensure stakeholder accountability, to promote learning, and enhance visibility of Global Communities’ efforts.

Support to Resource Mobilization/New Business Development

• Supports the development of new and/or expanded programs, including proposal preparation, program design and planning with an emphasis on planning for, and adequately resourcing, effective CLA approaches and activities.
• Works with other programmatic teams to identify, pursue, and secure new growth opportunities both with existing donors, and new and non-traditional donors and investors, including the private sector.
• As part of proposal preparation teams, lead in the identification and/or formation of strategic partnerships to support MERL Tech, research, CLA, and other relevant areas.
• Serves as technical writer and reviewer on selected proposal efforts requiring MEL and CLA components.

Technical Thought Leadership and Portfolio Support

• Facilitates and supports the development of portfolio-level research learning and research agendas.
• Coordinates with headquarter- and program-based Global Communities technical leadership to identify and optimize the use of program research, data, and knowledge, with a focus on generating technical lessons learned to improve programs and enhance visibility of Global Communities programs at the portfolio and organizational levels.
• Facilitates learning within programs through applied learning workshops throughout the project lifecycle in support of project-level technical objectives.
• Facilitates learning across programs through the CLA Community of Practice, a key learning forum to be established and moderated by the Senior Specialist, CLA.

Cross-cutting: External Engagement and Visibility

• Participates in relevant external working groups for networking and visibility.
• Contributes to Global Communities’ technical evidence base and reputation in relevant areas to improve visibility of MELI’s CLA work and the broader development sector through:
• Staying up to date on industry best practices.
• Presenting Global Communities’ work, methods and tools at conferences positioning the organization as thought leaders.

POSITION SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Ability to travel up to 25% annually including to remote and/or resource-limited areas within Global Communities’ country portfolio.
• Provides ongoing supervision, mentoring, and professional development to ensure staff morale, motivation, retention, and quality technical support of directly supervised staff and other staff members.
• Participates in Global Communities organizational initiatives.
• Other duties as assigned.

• Understanding and experience with program and/or MERL requirements of US Government donors USAID, USDA, PEPFAR, CDC, State Department, Department of Defense) strongly preferred
• Experience communicating effectively and working with a diverse set of technical and non-technical counterparts and stakeholders, including global headquarter staff, country stakeholders, host government, non-governmental organizations, health care providers and community representatives.
• Strong writing skills to support proposal development, prepare and review reports and to contribute to publications and promotional materials.
• Proven project coordination skills and ability to work independently and as part of a team while coordinating and collaborating with diverse field counterparts across multiple countries.
• Skills to mentor staff with various levels of technical capacity and experience.
• Highly motivated, organized, and able to produce results fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.
• Familiarity with knowledge management information platforms, mobile technology, and web technologies.
• Familiarity with and sensitivity to diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as gender issues.
• Excellent computer skills including Microsoft Office Suite.
• A passion for the mission and values of Global Communities
• Second language abilities in Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese, etc. a plus.

• Undergraduate degree in a related discipline and a minimum of four years of related work experience or eight years of related work experience.
• Demonstrated experience in program planning, monitoring and evaluation, research and/or learning related to international development programs.
• Experience and capacity in institutionalizing organization-wide learning and knowledge management systems and coordination structures
• Content Specific Experience – At least 2 years of experience in leading or supporting efforts to strengthen CLA activities and approaches:
• Knowledge and demonstrated application of USAID’s Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) framework as well as adaptive management principles and practice.
• Demonstrated experience in building staff capacities to be able to integrate CLA principles into their work functions and meet organizational goals.
• Demonstrated ability to provide quality control over knowledge management and learning systems including online platforms and learning approaches.