Job Title: Senior Project Officer/Senior Nutrition Officer
Department: Programming/INECD
Band: 8
Reports To: Cluster Coordinator
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 cluster level nutrition activities of the Inclusive Nutrition Early Child Development/INECD program, 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.
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 the policy/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 relted to nutrition indicators.
- 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.
- Support the Nutrition Advisor to adapt and test training tools and manuals with partner and GoR STAFF.
- Assist the Nutrition Advisor in the training of partner and government staff on the latest nutrition programming competency to promote key nutrition approaches.
- Supervise and support community-level capacity building and technical support activities to ensure assigned project activities are implemented per project guidelines and standards.
- Oversee the implementation of a community-based nutrition approach focusing on inclusive nutrition with a focus on households with children under 6, pregnant and lactating mothers.
- Support partner nutritionists to ensure the functionality of village nutrition school with all target program participants.
- Supervise the data collection by partner staff and check the data analysis done by partner staff in the reports.
- Conduct regular technical supportive supervision to service providers to ensure the inclusive nutrition service delivery meets quality standards.
- Contribute to the accountability towards central and local governments through supervision and assistance to partners in the preparation of program evaluations.
- Collaborate efficiently with Sr. Econ. &Strengthening Officer, Rehabilitation and Inclusion Officer to ensure that econ. &strengthening, food security and rehabilitation, and Inclusion related activities are well integrated with inclusive nutrition activities.
- Ensure provision of any logistical and administrative support to 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
- Participate in monthly technical planning meetings at cluster and partner levels.
- Review monthly, quarterly and annual partner reports for nutrition component.
- Prepare and submit weekly and monthly activity reports.
- Ensure a good relationship with district officials and other stakeholders involved in nutrition activities in the district.
- Perform any other task assigned by relevant supervisors
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition required. Master’s Degree in nutrition or in the field of food sciences and public health <Program Area> would be a plus.
- Minimum of 4 years of work experience in project support, ideally in the field of nutrition, public health, nutrition security, food security programs for an NGO.
- 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. Less than 10% time is anticipated for travel to Kigali.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Analysis and problem-solving skills with the ability to make sound judgment
- Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners and with GoR/MOH, District officials
- 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.
- Experience in training and supporting the implementation of nutrition activities
- Staff supervision experience 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 None
Key Working Relationships:
Internal: Nutrition Advisor, Food Security Advisor, Cluster level technical staff, DCOP, CRS finance staff
External: INECD consortium and local partners technical staff, district technical staff, district level relevant technical working groups including DPEMs, other nutrition actors in the districts.
***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
How to apply
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: RW_HR@crs.org not later than Friday September 17, 2021, at 5:00pm.
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 “Senior Nutrition Officer” in the subject line. Due to 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
