Capacity Development Director

Pact seeks a Capacity Development Director for the anticipated USAID Madagascar Access Miahy Activity.  USAID Access Miahy's goal is to accelerate sustainable reductions in maternal, neonatal and child morbidity and mortality through increased access and availability of quality primary health care (PHC) services. Access Miahy will continue building the capacity of Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) actors and other relevant stakeholders at district, facility and community levels to design, develop, manage, deliver, monitor and evaluate health services and programs aligned with the intervention packages in their catchment areas.  

USAID Access Miahy is anticipated to be up to a $90M cooperative agreement; the anticipated award date is January 13, 2025. This position is subject to project award. As this is a Key Personnel position, the candidate selected for this opportunity must have their candidacy confirmed by USAID. The location of this position is anticipated to be Antananarivo. Frequent travel to the provincial offices is anticipated. 

The Capacity Development Director will lead a team that drives and monitors implementation of CD activities by mentoring technical teams, ensuring adherence to targets, timelines, budget management and achievement of objectives. In addition to leading the technical and contextual adaptation of Pact and CD tools and approaches to support achievement of Activity objectives and targets, the Director will be responsible for CD related resource sharing, knowledge management, best practices, cross learning, and innovations that yield sustainable CD results.

The CD Director will be accountable for delivering national-level results for this Activity.  The CD Director will be accountable for leading the Activity’s strategy for strengthening the capacity of local partners and leading the development and realization of local organizations’ business sustainability planning and resource mobilization strategies. This position will also be responsible for providing quality support in strategic planning for partner organizations. The CD Director will lead the development and implementation processes related to transitioning sub-grantees to become Prime recipients of USAID awards.  The Director will collaborate closely with the DCOP/Technical Director to provide training and mentoring to partners to strengthen capacity for technical service delivery and compliance with donor rules and regulations. The Director will also liaise with the MERL Director to promote coordination, collaboration, continuous learning, and adaptive management across all Intermediate Results of the Activity. The CD Director will report to the Chief of Party.

• Manage, supervise, and support the Capacity Development team and ensure the team is responsive to the needs of the Access Miahy  Activity. Spearhead the customization and implementation process of capacity development tools to ensure capacity development support provided contributes to addressing capacity development needs of local partners.
• Lead Transition readiness plan and CD strategy development, implementation, and tracking of benchmarks and required deliverables. Oversee the process of transitioning sub-grantees to direct Donor awards. Provide input to the development of annual implementation plans, annual budgeting, project reports, and other key project deliverables that contribute to the development of the project’s analytical products including research policy briefs, presentations, project updates, environment scans, or newsletter articles, etc.
• Lead network analysis and network strengthening activities to identify barriers and opportunities for advancing shared civil society strengthening programming and to improve coordination and integration of activities.
• Oversee capacity and performance assessments of partners/subgrantees and support the development and implementation of Change Action Plans for each partner/subgrantee.
• Identify partner/subgrantee training needs, identify trainers, and support the development of training curricula. Identify opportunities for partner/sub awardee mentoring needs and provide mentoring on a range of organizational development topics. Conduct regular monitoring review meetings on subgrantee capacity action plans to track capacity development achievements and identify any immerging capacity development issues /needs. Contribute to the development of resources/ documents for specific technical areas identified for capacity development of subgrantees, including training, mentoring, and coaching, etc.
• Support collaboration with donors, multilateral organizations, host country governments, and implementing partners to apply civil society strengthening approaches and best practices for the purpose of capacity strengthening, especially training, mentoring, and learning activities.
• Lead capacity building on quality assurance/continuous quality improvement of project tools, methodologies, and approaches. Document CD-related best practices and produce blogs/articles drawn from capacity development successes. Regularly collect, analyze, and report on CD data.
• Provide written inputs and/ contribute to the development of tools required to monitor the implementation and monitoring of project capacity CD activities.
• Coordinate on/off-line training sessions, workshops, mentoring of subawards to ensure the efficient and timely implementation of project activities.
• Lead CD learning sessions/ coordinate peer exchange sessions for subawards on various technical areas. Conduct regular field visits to provide technical support, capacity development, mentorship, or coaching to subawards.
• Orient Pact and program team on a range of CD tools, including Integrated Technical and Organizational Capacity Assessments (ITOCA), Organizational Performance Index (OPI), Change Action Plans (CAP)and Capacity Solutions Platform (CSP).
• Provide written inputs and/ contribute to the development of tools required to monitor the implementation and monitoring of project capacity development activities.
• Provide capacity development expertise, creating and sustaining a culture of capacity development at all levels of the Activity.
• Lead the development and implementation of the capacity development plan, taking into consideration all Activity deliverables and conditions, and ensuring robust monitoring of progress towards results, evaluating Activity performance, and intentional learning to inform adaptation.
• In partnership with the MERL Director and MEL team, integrate collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) approaches, tools, and strategic throughout the Activity.

• Master’s degree (or equivalent combination of education and experience) in public health, health services research, organizational development, population health, social or behavioral sciences, or related field. Master’s degree strongly preferred.
• 9+ years of experience working with international development programming and CD systems, including qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis in a low-resource setting; 5 years of management experience.
• Bachelor's degree and 11 years of experience with 5 years of management experience. 
• Demonstrated senior technical expertise in the field of capacity building  for health programs, including leadership in system development and implementation.
• Demonstrated experience in strengthening individual and institutional capacity building and sustainability.
• Strong experience on localization and demonstrated capacity building experience in the context of health services program delivery.
• Experience in designing and implementing technical and organizational capacity building programs and application of CD tools (ITOCA, OPI, CAP, CSP).
• Knowledge of, and experience with, USAID’s collaborating, adapting, and learning (CLA) approaches.
• Demonstrated ability to foster positive technical working relationships with, and partner successfully with team, partner/subgrantee organizations, and other ACCESS Miahy Activity stakeholders.
• Excellent organizational skills; excellent English, Malagasy, and French oral and written communication skills.

• Demonstrated ability to work with diverse and large teams and to foster positive technical working relationships with counterparts, subgrantees, and partners.
• Malagasy nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.

Salary for this position is commensurate with local office salary scales and will be determined based on the candidate's experience and qualifications