Technical Advisor I – Community Engagement (RFSA) – Catholic Relief Services – CRS
Development and Project Management, Social Sciences and Community
Catholic Relief Services – CRS
“Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.”
In Ethiopia, CRS has a long and rich history of providing emergency relief and development assistance to the people of Ethiopia since 1958. At present, CRS/Ethiopia implements multiple projects through different partner organizations. CRS/Ethiopia has a highly diverse portfolio ranging from very large food-supported emergency response to cutting edge development programs. The current CRS/Ethiopia budget stands at $100 million with funding from the U.S. Government, UN agencies, private foundations, individual donors, and CRS private funds.
Job Description
About CRS:
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) 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, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding. For nearly 60 years, CRS has taken the lead in responding to natural and man-made disasters affecting Ethiopia’s most vulnerable communities. Moving beyond emergency response, CRS’ disaster mitigation and recovery projects in drought and flood-prone areas have rebuilt individual and community assets through non-food aid in the form of agriculture, livestock, health, nutrition, and water and sanitation assistance. CRS’s humanitarian work in Ethiopia also provides livelihoods support to farmers and entrepreneurs, promotes equality and inclusion, and mitigates the impact of COVID-19.
As part of CRS family, you will join the more than 5000 strong and vibrant individuals working globally to accomplish the mission of CRS. CRS/Ethiopia invites you, the qualified candidate, to apply for the following position.
Job Title: Technical Advisor I – Community Engagement (RFSA)
Band: 9
Required number: One
Employment Term: Fixed term: May 1, 2022 till September 7, 2026
As a member of Ifaa, you will facilitate the achievement of program objectives through coordinating community engagement and capacity building initiatives. You will provide technical advice and support to a range of program design and implementation issues in relation to community engagement and capacity building in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to CRS’ Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA)/Ifaa program to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. In addition, you will ensure new community structures such as the Community Technical Coordination Forum (CTCF) are established and that members of those community structures and other stakeholders receive the appropriate capacity building support. Facilitation of trainings to enhance the performance of groups and ensure their sustainability, such as group dynamics and conflict resolution, leadership and management, financial management, etc.
You will also work with Ifaa consortium members to develop agendas/curricula, conduct trainings and workshops, and coaching appropriate for each group. This role will cut across Ifaa sectors: Agriculture and Livelihood, Health, PSNP System, WASH, IWM+, Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics. In addition, the position holder will work with multiple Ifaa staff to make sure that partners and stakeholders, working with Ifaa have an appropriate community engagement plan in place (including capacity building, localization and subsidiarity) in place. The overarching goal of Ifaa is Improved food security of vulnerable households in targeted PSNP communities, contributing to a sustained reduction in rural poverty in Oromia. Your advice, knowledge, and support will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive, and innovative CRS programming is within the RFSA/Ifaa.
Job Responsibilities:
- Initiate and lead community engagement and informal community structure capacity building activities (including support community visioning and participation, capacity assessment and capacity building plan) in line with Ifaa program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.
- Support the development and contribute to the implementation of Ifaa strategies, standards, tools and best practices in relation to capacity building of informal community structures and enhance community engagement across structures working with Ifaa.
- Provide advice and support to project teams on community engagement and community visioning strategies, review engagement plans and progress reports.
- Lead Ifaa community structures mapping to track progress, inclusion of women and youth, overlap of Ifaa purposes, and alignment with the PSNP.
- Lead establishment, capacity assessment and capacity building of community technical coordination forum (CTCF) and facilitate buy-in from local governments.
- Lead informal community structures capacity assessment to determine unique support needs as well as areas for capacity strengthening.
- Conduct technical trainings to Ifaa staff to support capacity strengthening initiatives for informal community structures. In addition to ensuring that all Ifaa established community structures receive the appropriate technical trainings.
- Support the facilitation of trainings to enhance the performance of community groups and ensure their sustainability, such as group dynamics and conflict resolution, leadership and management, financial management, etc. Work with other consortium members to develop agendas/curricula, conduct trainings and workshops, and coaching appropriate for each group.
- Collect and analyze program data, capture and share lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to the community engagement/local community structure capacity strengthening learning agenda.
- Working closely with Ifaa Gender Officers and Experts to ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender and protection mainstreaming into community engagement.
- Working with Ifaa frontline staff to ensure each informal community structure develop transparent, confidential, and accessible feedback response mechanisms to enhance positive group dynamics and ownership of group activities.
- Prepare Job Aids and necessary materials on community engagement to allow informal community groups/structures to keep organized records to help with leadership transitions and institutional memory.
- As a cross cutting role, support other sector teams in their efforts in developing capacities of their teams, gov’t stakeholders and project participants around community engagement.
- 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 partners.
- Work with local government partners to ensure that GoE officials support the activities of informal community structures. Ensuring government buy-in is essential to continued functionality and effectiveness of these groups.
- Support Ifaa’s M&E team to include capacity building perspective in research, mid-term and end line evaluations with good emphasis on informal community structures and engagements; and include indicators that capture informal community structures capacity and contributions.
- Contribute to maintaining relationships with USAID, peer organizations, research, and other institutions, represent Ifaa in forums around community engagement and community structures capacity building and share best practices and promote CRS’s work.
Typical Background, Experience & Requirements:
Education and Experience
- Master’s Degree in Sociology, Psychology, Social Psychology, community development related fields with 5 years relevant experience or field(s) related to Program Area.
- Minimum of three years of relevant work experience in community engagement programming with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of five years of working for programming interventions in different sectors.
- Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in capacity development and community visioning, gender, Youth and PWD integration and knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
- Demonstrated experience in the development of training modules and good facilitation skills.
- Experience in working in large scale complex programs including food rural food security programs in challenging environments, with strong emphasis on poor and vulnerable populations, pastoralist cultures, and agriculture.
- Experience with participatory method in undertaking assessment, research.
- Demonstrated capacity and experience with institutional strengthening of local civil society and government agencies.
- Experience with program monitoring and evaluation and analysis.
- Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
- Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.
Personal Skills
- Strong relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
- Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
- Good technical writing skills.
- Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
- Proactive, resourceful, and results-oriented
Required/Desired Foreign Language
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Amharic; ability to write and edit reports, plans.
- Strong written and verbal skills in Afaan Oromo a plus
Travel Required: Field travel to Dire Dawa and East Hararghe woredas (ifaa implementing woredas)
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
Key Working Relationships:
Internal: Ifaa/RFSA Chief of Party; Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics Lead /GYSD/; DCOP for Programming; Ifaa team technical and operation teams; all Country Program staff; Headquarters community engagement manager.
External: Ifaa Consortium members, local government stakeholders and communities, peer organizations and, representatives from for-profit and other non-profit organizations, operating in Ifaa woredas.
***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
