SENIOR TECHNICAL OFFICER

I. BASIC FUNCTION OF POSITION : The STO will serve as the senior technical and project supervisor for USAID/Guinea. S/he will provide technical support and leadership in the formulation, development, design, administration, monitoring and evaluation of USAID/Guinea's projects. S/he will also provide technical guidance to USAID projects in Sierra Leone, for which USAID/Guinea has overall responsibility. The USAID/Guinea Mission has a complex portfolio of projects that are cross-sectoral in nature and approach. The "Working Together" project address areas of health, democracy/governance, education, civil society and agriculture. USAID/Guinea's STO heads the Assistance Objective Team (AOT) Office, responsible for the Mission's project portfolio. Past sector approaches have been subsumed under a single major assistance objective. In this role, s/he has the highest-level of technical responsibility for project management, achievement tracking and monitoring, results reporting, and recommending modifications. With the consolidation of earlier multiple strategic objectives into a general overriding objective of improving conditions at the local level, the STO will provide technical expertise that (reaching one-third of Guinea's communities), that support local communities and governments to increase their participation in their socio-economic lives. The STO is solely responsible within the Mission for advancing the achievements planned under this consolidated objective. S/he has the responsibility to direct the management and propose revisions to the projects under the office's control. Approximate annual project budget level managed by the AOT is $ 20 million. USAID/Guinea also provides limited project-related expertise to the staff in USAID/Sierra Leone. In both countries, programs focus on health, civil society, local government, increased agricultural and business growth, support for democratic elections, capacity building, and natural resource management. It is desirable for the STO to possess expertise in health development activities. A significant portion of the Mission programs contains a wide variety of health activities such as maternal and child health care, immunizations, HIV/AIDS prevention and control, and family planning. These are integrated into other non-health activities. The Assistance Objective Team Office is comprised of an STO and sector advisers (democracy/governance, education, health and agriculture/NRM), and two administrative assistants, for a total of five professional and one support staff. (Staff in USAID/Sierra Leone is directly supervised by a US PSC Program Manager. The STO provides technical support and advice as required to the Sierra Leone program.)