Job Title: Senior Project Officer/Cluster Coordinator

Department: Programming/INECD

Band: 8

Reports To: Cluster Manager

Country/Location: District Level/Field-based

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.

As a lead for the Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development/INECD cluster team, you will facilitate the achievement of project objectives through coordinating and reporting on all project activities and providing technical guidance and advice to staff and implementing partner(s) advancing Catholic Relief Services (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable. Your coordination and relationship management skills will ensure that the project for which you are responsible applies best practices and constantly works towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve. The position will be responsible of managing and coordinating the cluster activity implementation and building working relationships with the districts covered by INECD cluster and reports to the INECD Cluster Manager.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Organize and lead the implementation of all assigned project activities as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, GoR’s policy and strategy, and good practices.
• Ensure learning properly accompanies project activities throughout the project cycle. Support accountability through coordinating project evaluation activities and guiding partners in their efforts to reflect on project experiences. Analyze implementation challenges and report any inconsistencies and/or gaps to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules.
• Coordinate and oversee working relationships with all local project stakeholders and serve as the liaison between them and the project team to mobilize local actors and promote project activities and impact.
• Supervise and perform ad-hoc inspections of various processes and resources at project sites to ensure timely project activities implementation and adherence to established process standards and procedures. Ensure proper tracking of resource use for project activities through periodic budget reviews and follow-up with and assistance to implementing partner.
• Monitor partner activities at different levels up to the community and discuss with the concerned technical advisors and program managers any challenges and/or gaps identified and proposed solutions.
• Support and coordinate capacity building and technical support activities to ensure assigned project activities are implemented per project guidelines and standards.
• Coordinate provision of any logistical and administrative support to staff and partners.
• Ensure project documentation for assigned activities is complete with all required documents and is filed per agency and donor requirements. Assist with preparation of trends analysis reports and documentation of case studies and promising practices.
• Support accountability towards central and local governments by coordinating project evaluation activities and assisting partners to prepare evaluations.
• Participate in monthly program technical meetings (remotely or physically).
• Review and compile the partner monthly, quarterly and annual narrative district reports.
• Prepare and submit monthly coordination activity reports.
• Ensure a good relationship with districts and other district partners.
• Perform additional tasks assigned by the Cluster Manager
• Represent INECD/CRS at the district partnership platforms including JADF, DPEM, open days, and USAUD district hub activities

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree required. Degree in International Relations or in the field of nutrition, agri-business, development studies, agricultural Economics, project management would be a plus.
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in project support, ideally in the field of nutrition, economic strengthening (community saving), agriculture, ECD, monitoring and evaluation, and for an NGO.
• Previous experience working with partners organizations
• Additional experience may substitute for some education.

Required Languages –

• Fluency in English (written and spoken) and Kinyarwanda. French is a plus.

Travel

The position is field based. Must be willing to travel to other cluster districts up to 35 % of the time and to Kigali up to 10% of the time.

 Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Analysis and problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners

• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities

 Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning, and community engagement.
• Staff supervision experience is a plus.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data.
• 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

Supervises 2CRS Senior Project Officers, 3 consortium members Senior Project Officers, and 1 Admin and Logistic Assistant.

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: INECD technical Advisors, CRS Operations and finance staff, Deputy Chief of Party, Chief of Party

External: INECD consortium members, INECD local partners, districts leadership and technical staff, NGOs working in the cluster area

 ***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