Job Title: Project Manager/Cluster Manager

Department: Programming/INECD

Band: 9

Reports To: Deputy Chief of Party

Country/Location: Rwanda/Kigali

About CRS 

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion, or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, nutrition, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding.

Catholic Relief Services has been present in Rwanda since 1960, and currently implements projects in nutrition, WASH, agriculture, youth entrepreneurship, and peacebuilding. The Country Program has over 40 staff and implements its projects through local and international partners, with strong coordination/collaboration with Government of Rwanda structures.

Job Summary:

The Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) activity will promote nurturing and responsive care practices, especially in the areas of health, functioning, nutrition, and early childhood development (ECD) for caregivers and children. Specifically, the activity aims to improve health and nutrition outcomes among women of reproductive age and adolescents and improve infant and young child feeding practices. It also aims to address child development gaps and significant unmet physical rehabilitation and assistive technology (rehab/AT) and social inclusion needs for infants and children. The activity will focus on community-level service delivery, community-health facility linkages, and district-level capacity development, as well as address issues of inclusion and participation, including access to programs and services for children and adults with disabilities, in line with Government of Rwanda priorities.

You will manage, coordinate, and monitor project activities in all INECD’s four clusters and relationships with partners and other project stakeholders to assist the achievement of the Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) project objectives advancing Catholic Relief Services (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable. Your project management skills and knowledge of the program area will ensure that the CP delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of this project. You will report directly to INECD’s Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP).

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• You will lead technical, budget management, monitoring, and reporting clusters’ activities through most of the project cycle – start-up, implementation, and close-out – in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, GoR’s policies, and strategy, and good practices.
• Participate with INECD technical and grant teams in Local implementers annual planning, budgeting, and compilation of monthly, quarterly and annual reports (both reports to donor and government).
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage clusters team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.
• Ensure learning properly accompanies cluster project activities throughout the project cycle. Support accountability through coordinating project evaluation activities following MEAL Policy. Proactively identify issues, report them to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules.

• Engage and strengthen partnerships relevant to INECD applying appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.

• Represent the organization with INGO working groups, relevant local partners and relevant local government and community actors for INECD areas.
• Coordinate activities required for ensuring the financial, material, and human resources for the quality implementation of the project. Conduct periodic budget reviews and follow-up with partners on timely submission of financial reports to facilitate proper tracking of resource use.
• Identify staff capacity needs and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and contribute to capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation.
• Work closely with MEAL team to ensure that the MEAL system effectively tracks district-level project performance, providing additional support as needed.
• Assist with preparation of trends analysis reports and disseminate results. Review project documentation to ensure the project file is complete with all required documentation and is filed per agency and donor requirements.
• Coordinate and compile project deliverables coming from partners and CRS staff at the cluster level to ensure the submission of timely and high-quality reports and plans.

 Basic Qualifications

• A Master’s Degree in International Relations or in the field of nutrition, ECD or disability inclusion, or other related field is required.
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in project management, ideally in the field of nutrition, ECD or disability inclusion and for an NGO.

• Additional experience may substitute for some education.

Required Languages

• Oral and written fluency in English and Kinyarwanda. French is a plus.

Travel – The position is Kigali based.

Must be willing and able to travel to the field, INECD districts, up to 50 % of the time.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with the ability to make sound judgments.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with local stakeholders. Representation abilities.
• Ability to write and contribute to written reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities

Preferred Qualifications

• Relevant grant management experience, especially for USG or other public donors, is a plus .
• Staff supervision experience.
• Experience working with stakeholders at various levels and strengthening community partnerships.
• Ability to contribute to the development of technical proposals, a plus.
• Experience analyzing data and contributing to evaluation reports.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

 Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship

 Supervisory Responsibilities (if none, state none)

• Will supervise 4 Cluster Coordinators

 Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Working relationship with other staff: CoP, Nutrition Advisor, Economic Strengthening Advisor, Food Security Advisor, ECD Advisor, Disability and Inclusion Advisor, MEAL Advisor, Deputy MEAL Advisor, CRS Operations and Finance staff.

 External: INECD consortium members, Local Civil Society Organizations implementing INECD, INGO, and LNGO working in nutrition, ECD and disability and inclusion, GoR institutions at central and decentralized levels.

 ***Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need. CRS’ processes and policies reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

Disclaimer:  This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

 CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Interested and qualified candidates should complete the attached application form, Self -Declaration Clause and submit them together with one page Cover letter plus updated CV (maximum three pages) all in/as one document - via email only to: [email protected] not later than Friday, September 17, 2021, at 5:00 pm.

Please, include the below statement in your motivation letter:

“By applying to this job, I understand and acknowledge that CRS requires its staff to treat all people with dignity and respect and to actively prevent harassment, abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking. Further, I understand that if I am a successful candidate, I will be subject to a comprehensive background check, and my personal/professional references will be asked to evaluate my behaviors related to the above safeguarding-related topics”

Also, include your full names and title “Capacity strengthening” in the subject line. Due to the anticipated high interest in this post and the expected number of applicants, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Kigali. September 6, 2021 

                                                                 

 Jude-Marie Banatte

 Country Representative

CRS/Rwanda Program