Action Burkinabè de Fundraising

Catholic Relief Services is pleased to announce the Junior Professionals programme for qualified women professionals in West Africa to turn their passion for international relief and development work into a career with Catholic Relief Services over a 12-month period.

Each participant will develop core competencies while working alongside experienced staff and supporting critical programmes. Junior professionals will benefit from strong mentoring and regional networking as they prepare for positions of greater responsibility within CRS.

By working together, CRS and young professionals will make great strides in ending poverty and promoting peace and self-reliance in West Africa. The young professionals will contribute to strategic and sustainable development projects in sectors such as health, agriculture, education, emergency response and peacebuilding.

With the Young Professionals Programme, CRS seeks to recruit people who can develop in a variety of roles with CRS. With this objective, less emphasis is placed on developing sector expertise and more emphasis is placed on developing strong managerial skills. As a Junior Professional, you will support a variety of programmes and departments as you gain experience in the core learning areas.

As well as following the basic core training, junior professionals will deepen their knowledge of specific programming areas. However, if working in a specific technical area (for example, health, agriculture and emergencies) is of crucial importance to you, they encourage you to consider other openings related to that sectoral area.

Objectives

Junior Professionals will help build the capacity of local governments and organisations to address challenges in their communities and countries while advancing their learning objectives. This includes:

• Participation in project design
• Support for project evaluations and real-time data collection
• Develop and implement monitoring and accountability frameworks
• Drafting reports and proposals
• Organisation of learning events
• Operations support (Human Resources, Finance and Supply Chain).

Young Professionals programmes for West African women

• Learning and professional development
  • Practical training: through practical experience and in-depth training, junior professionals will develop and expand their skills in project design; programme management; monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning; partnership building; and operations.
• Personalised professional experience
  • In addition to basic training, junior professionals will develop their skills in a specific area linked to their professional development objectives and position themselves strategically for future positions with CRS.
• Mentoring
  • Each junior professional will be paired with a mentor who will be actively involved in guidance, feedback and career coaching.
• Regional networking
  • All junior professionals will be part of the regional community of practice, sharing the successes, challenges and lessons learned from their work.

Eligibility criteria Young professionals for West African women

The programme seeks diverse and aligned candidates and welcomes people of all faiths and secular traditions who share its values and commitment to serving people in need.

Qualifications required:

• Master's degree in a related field (e.g. economic development, agriculture, health, business, administration, finance, human resources, supply chain)
• Master's degree obtained within 24 months of the programme start date (October 2022)
• Six months' relevant work experience (e.g. traineeship, internship, voluntary or paid work)
• Excellent oral and written skills in the country's official business language (French or English)
• Citizen of a participating country (see above)
• Excels in a collaborative multicultural environment
• Willingness to travel (up to 10-15% of the time)

Preferred qualifications :

• Strong analytical, problem-solving and research skills
• Agile, proactive, resourceful and results-oriented
• Strong presentation and animation skills.

For more information, please visit Catholic Relief Services.