Vacancy Announcement: Senior Land and Resource Governance Officer

Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3) FSL-01 Senior Land and Resource Governance Officer

Official Position Title: Natural Resources Officer, Backstop 40, FSL-0401-01
Functional Position Title: Senior Land and Resource Governance Advisor

Location of Position: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment, Office of Land and Urban (E3/LU)

Position Grade: FSL-01
Salary Range: $134,789 – $ 164,200 Annually

Position Opening Date: November 27, 2018
Position Closing Date: December 18, 2018, 11:59 p.m., EST

Description of the Bureau:  The Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment (E3) provides technical leadership, research, and field support for worldwide activities in the areas of Economic Growth and Trade, Infrastructure and Engineering, Education, Environment and Global Climate Change, Water, and Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. E3 represents the Agency on relevant technical matters in the Inter-agency and with Congress, outside partners, other donors and multilateral institutions. The Bureau also supports research and rigorous impact evaluations to advance Agency strategies and programs in E3 sectors and determine the most effective approaches. E3 encourages innovation and is working on two Grand Challenges for development, in education and energy, as well as other methods to identify new ideas and bring them to scale.

Description of the Office: USAID is one of the largest donors in the land tenure and property rights sector, with active land programs or activities in nearly 20 countries representing investments of over $200 million. The Office of Land and Urban (E3/LU) is the central technical office for providing advisory services and project support to USAID missions around the globe to guide the Agency’s work in this sector. E3/LU’s technical portfolio includes land tenure and property rights, sustainable land management, resource governance, sustainable urbanization, and artisanal mining. E3/LU has expertise in the aforementioned technical areas and in geospatial information system applications, economics, private sector partnerships, rigorous impact evaluations, and legal and regulatory reforms to secure property rights and maximize resource productivity. At the global policy level, E3/LU also leads USAID’s engagement in key international fora, such as the Global Donor Working Group on Land, the Interlaken Group, and the Kimberley Process.

Description of Position: The incumbent will provide senior-level technical leadership, strategic planning, and advisory services to the Agency on land tenure, decentralized approaches to land administration, and sustainable resource governance. The incumbent is responsible for ensuring that the Agency’s land portfolio is grounded in best practices and is oriented in furtherance of U.S. Foreign Assistance Objectives including economic growth, food security, resilience, good governance, conflict mitigation, and women’s empowerment. The incumbent is expected to represent USAID and E3/LU in high-level meetings and policy dialogues both inside the U.S. Government and externally. The incumbent is expected to provide leadership within the E3/LU Land Team, including providing technical guidance and mentoring services to members of the Land Team. The incumbent will also shape the Land Team’s technical services and its monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) agenda. The position provides senior-level technical expertise and leadership to the entire Agency, but reports to the LU Land Team Lead. The functional title for this position is Senior Land and Resource Governance Advisor.

Description of Key Duties: The incumbent will oversee strategy formulation and provide high-level guidance and technical leadership to the Agency on decentralized land administration, land tenure, and resource governance. The incumbent will serve as the Agency’s lead expert and coordinator for land tenure and resource governance by providing intellectual leadership, generating policy recommendations, recommending specific technical interventions, and initiating and overseeing research activities. The incumbent will be responsible for ensuring that key stakeholders—including USAID Missions, host-country governments, and other USAID/Washington Bureaus and Offices—are informed about new developments and the most effective approaches to land tenure and resource governance challenges. The incumbent will be able to articulate the benefits of interventions to effectively reach specific target audiences, from high-level government and opinion leaders to technical audiences and grassroots organizations. The incumbent will develop detailed strategies, goals, and/or objectives for the long-range implementation of the Agency’s decentralized land administration, land tenure, and resource governance programs. Specific emphasis for this position will be placed on creating and refining tools and best practices for development practitioners on land tenure and resource governance including guidance on working with host-country institutions and establishing metrics for rigorous monitoring and evaluation.

Qualifications Required: 

The ideal candidate will have the following skills and expertise:

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Must have, or be able to obtain, a Secret Security clearance.
• Must be able to travel internationally.
• Must have an advanced degree in a relevant field.
• Must have at least 15 years of progressively responsible experience in a relevant technical area.
• Must have at least 5 years of senior management or advisory experience.
• Must have experience designing and implementing similarly complex international development program in the land sector.
• Must be an expert in their field with a mastery of relevant principles, concepts, practices, methods, and techniques needed to develop new approaches to difficult land administration, tenure, and resource governance problem sets.
• Must demonstrate the potential to analyze development programming and develop new methods and approaches to improve USAID’s land tenure and resource governance programs.
• Must have a demonstrated ability to plan and direct complex and cross-sectoral development programs.
• Must have superior interpersonal skills.
• Must have superior oral and written communication skills.
• Must have demonstrated senior leadership skills.
• Must be able to capably represent USAID and E3/LU in high-level meetings, events, and policy fora related to land and resource governance.
• A strong background in monitoring, evaluating and learning is an advantage.
• A particular expertise in local, decentralized land administration is an advantage.

Application Instructions: Please send in a detailed CV and cover letter to Devender Kumar at dkumar@usaid.gov. Application submissions are requested by midnight EST on December 18, 2018.