Afghanistan: Senior Program Officer

The Senior Program Officer (SPO) for USIP's Asia Center Program will be based in USIP's Kabul Office (KBO). This position reports to the Afghanistan Country Director in the KBO and will work closely with the Afghanistan program team based at USIP's Washington DC headquarters, as well as colleagues in the KBO, Academy, Applied Conflict Transformation (ACT), and Policy, Learning, and Strategy (PLS) teams, who work on USIP's Afghan related programs.

Program Management

• Works with USIP's Afghanistan team to identify strategic and innovative programming opportunities for USIP that are aligned with USIP's Afghanistan program strategy,
• In close collaboration with civil society partners and other USIP departments, designs programs and projects, and drafts concept notes, scopes of work, and budgets;
• Directly implements and manages select programs in country, including but not limited to Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), anti-corruption/good governance, and elections programming;
• Supervises 3-5 Afghan national staff based in USIP's Kabul office;
• Liaises regularly with key stakeholders in Kabul, including representatives of the Afghan government, US government, and international and Afghan entities working in fields of USIP engagement;
• Liaises with existing USIP civil society partners across the country and identifies new partners and organizations;
• Helps lead efforts to strengthen monitoring and evaluation of USIP's Afghan programs and document program learning.

Policy Research and Analysis

• Helps identify research priorities and Afghan research institutions;
• Develops research methodologies for achieving research objectives and advises Afghan partner organizations on same;
• Directly conducts research on certain priority topics;
• Helps manage and/or support research conducted by others;
• Writes policy-oriented papers for publication by USIP and others;
• Reviews, comments on and helps edit publications of other authors; and disseminates research findings.

Communications and Representation

• Ensures, with the Country Director, effective communication within and between the Washington and Kabul offices, and greater cooperation and coherence between the different USIP projects working in Afghanistan.
• Represents USIP's Afghanistan program at internal and external events in Afghanistan and disseminates information about USIP's programs and research findings;
• Provides expertise on key policy issues related to Afghanistan through briefings of key officials and other relevant actors, publications, and participation in working groups, conferences and roundtable events;
• Regularly prepares and delivers program and project briefs (oral, written, PowerPoint) to USIP headquarters staff, interagency partners, and other stakeholders as needed;
• Compiles and drafts quarterly inter-agency agreement (IAA) updates, and monthly updates to USIP-HQ;
• In consultation with Country Director, serves as a resource for television, radio and the print news media.

Financial Management

• Assists the Afghanistan Program Management team to identify funding opportunities;
• Drafts project concept notes and proposals;
• Ensures USIP and IAA agreement policies, procedures and budgets are adhered to, and that IAA progress and financial reports are submitted in a timely manner.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS:

The successful candidate will have the following skills:

• an MA at least or equivalent experience in social sciences, humanities, or international relations/conflict management;
• a minimum of seven years of experience working in at least two of the following areas: international development, peacebuilding/conflict resolution, democracy and governance, international law, human rights, and contract/grant management;
• demonstrated expertise on Afghanistan (preferably with a publications record), strong research and analytical skills, and a minimum of three years of experience working in and/or on Afghanistan;
• a minimum of four years of management and supervisory experience, including of field programs and field staff;
• excellent representation and communication skills (oral and written), including cross-cultural skills, media skills, and the ability to deal with counterparts at all levels of Afghan society and politics;
• relevant grant management experience, including drafting and negotiating proposals and writing reports for USG agencies such as USAID, INL, DRL, etc;
• The ability to write and speak in Farsi and/or Pashtu is highly desirable (applicants with language ability should indicate their fluency levels).

Employment with the U.S. Institute of Peace is not employment with the U.S. government.

PI97231234

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