United States of America: Strategic Planning Specialist, Program Cycle Service Center, Washington, D.C.

Strategic Planning Specialist, Program Cycle Service Center,

Washington, D.C.

Company Profile:

MSI is an international development firm in the Washington, D.C., metro area with a 30-year history of helping to deliver results across the developing world. In 2008, we became part of Coffey International Limited. Since that time, we have greatly expanded our ability to respond seamlessly and flexibly to client needs with Coffey's international development offices in the United Kingdom and Australia. We operate in some of the most challenging political and economic climates in the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and South Sudan. MSI currently employs 800 development experts in the fields of public sector management, monitoring and evaluation, governance, and anticorruption. For more information on MSI, please visit our website at www.msiworldwide.com.

Project Summary:

DevTech Systems is the prime contractor under the Program Cycle Service Center (PCSC) contract with USAID/PPL, under which MSI is a sub-contractor. The purpose of the PCSC contract is to support PPL in building the capacity of USAID Missions to implement the Program Cycle, including strategic planning, project/activity design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, as defined in new policies and guidance. The Service Center contract assembles learning related to implementation of these policies, and assists PPL to update policies, guidance, tools and mechanisms in order to promote USAID as a learning organization.

In 2010, USAID's Policy, Planning, and Learning (PPL) Bureau began developing a series of reforms to operationalize USAID Forward and improve the effectiveness of USAID's development programs. Organized around a framework known as the “Program Cycle”, these reforms seek to revitalize Mission strategic planning (known as the Country Development Cooperation Strategy, or CDCS process), ensure that USAID projects and their activities are designed to align with these strategies, and systematically monitor and evaluate these strategies and projects so that USAID continues to improve its policies and practices, reinforcing ongoing learning and adapting to achieve better results.

Position Summary:

USAID is committed to achieving strategic goals through a revitalized strategic planning and implementation practice. Strategic planning and implementation should be informed by evidence and reflect analytical rigor applied iteratively throughout the Program Cycle. Recognizing that development is highly complex, the strategic planning process itself must be responsive to Mission?specific circumstances, and must stress the need to adapt project implementation based on continual assessing and learning.

Primarily supporting the Strategic Planning and Adapting Team of the Strategic and Program Planning (SPP) Office in PPL, the incumbent will assist in advancing the institutionalization of the Agency's strategic planning process with a particular focus on (1) developing and promoting effective approaches and methods, including iterative planning, adaptive management, and learning;(2) contributing to policies and processes, and (3) building USAID capacity to implement effective strategic planning, including by disseminating knowledge and learning.

This is a full-time position for a period of 10 months based in Washington, D.C.

Responsibilities:

• Develop training tools and materials; including presentations, handouts, and exercises on how to apply USAID's strategic planning guidance.
• Conduct customized training on the Program Cycle, particularly as it relates to strategic planning to USAID staff in Washington and the field.
• Provide direct technical assistance (TA) virtually and/or through field travel on how to organize and/or plan for the strategic planning process to missions developing a new strategy.
• Provide direct TA virtually and/or through field travel to missions on developing the content of their strategies and putting in place adaptive management processes.
• Serve as a subject matter expert to the field and USAID/Washington on strategic planning and adaptive management in general.
• Draft clear, concise written communication in the form of tools, blogs, FAQs, PowerPoint presentations, how-to notes, etc. to support new policy directions.
• Use USAID platforms to encourage learning through webinars, virtual working groups, etc. to capture and share best practices and gather lessons learned from the field.
• Review strategic planning documents and provide constructive feedback on their strengths, weaknesses, and how they can be improved.

Qualifications:

• S/he must have at least 10 years of experience in international development, with at least five years in a development country context, and direct experience supporting strategic planning in the context of developing countries.
• All applicants should either have current U.S. security clearance, or be eligible to obtain one.
• The Strategic Planning Specialist is required to have at least a Master's degree in international development, planning or a related field.
• S/he must also have experience in facilitating training/workshops and building capacity of others.
• Prior experience working with USAID and familiarity with the USAID Program Cycle is desirable.
• Experience in scenario planning and adaptive management approaches and techniques preferred.

Only candidates who have been selected for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls, please.

MSI is an EEO/AA/ADA Veterans Employer.

To apply: Please visit our website, www.msiworldwide.com

Apply Here: http://www.Click2apply.net/8c8vh5h38x

PI92122572

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