Project Officer Sr – Economic Development at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

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, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

• Location: Nigeria 
• Job Identification : 3002195
• Job Category: Program Management

Job Summary:

You will lead programming for economic development for the Advancing Cross-border Resilience and Opportunities for Safety and Security (ACROSS) Project based in Kebbi.  You will work collaboratively as a team member with the other sector leaders and MEAL in ACROSS. Under the leadership of the Program Manager, you will support the partner’s livelihoods team to plan, sequence, and layer all sector interventions to achieve optimal integration and impact for the poor and vulnerable. You will also oversee the planning, coordination, implementation, monitoring, program quality, and reporting for economic development activities. Your management and facilitation skills and knowledge will ensure that ACROSS delivers high-quality, cost-effective, and locally appropriate programming, and continuously works towards improving the impact of its interventions.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Prepare annual implementation plans for economic development interventions under the supervision of the Project Manager and conduct regular follow-up and monitoring of economic development interventions to ensure proper and efficient implementation, addressing critical issues as needed.
• Facilitate and ensure the active involvement of youth and women in all economic development activities, fostering their engagement as primary stakeholders.
• Mentor and support the partner livelihoods team in the correct use of the appropriate CRS program planning, implementation, and reporting tools, and ensure effective planning and integration of economic livelihood interventions with ACROSS activities in infrastructure sectors. Additionally, support and oversee the planning and implementation of all market-based input activities, including participant identification, validation, training, mobilization, distribution, follow-up up and utilization.
• Represent ACROSS and CRS at all state-level sector-based coordination mechanisms for economic development and livelihoods and facilitate engagement with key ministries for technical support to ACROSS sector implementation and monitoring, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise the ACROSS agriculture and livelihood team in CRS. Manage 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.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Analyze and evaluate project performance data following MEAL policy. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles.
• Coordinate the identification of staff capacity and technical assistance needs of NEYIF and lead capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation for agriculture and livelihoods.

Required Languages – English and Hausa are essential.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 40%.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Project design, planning, and management experience in agriculture and livelihood is essential.
• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with the ability to make sound judgments.
• Demonstrable capacities in teamwork and cross-sectoral planning, and implementation.
•  Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Experience managing relationships and performance in a consortium with local partners.
• Strong representational capacities and skills in collaborating with government stakeholders.
• Strong facilitation and communication skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to write reports and make presentations.
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented.
• Strong capacities in MEAL and reporting, including capturing learning and adapting interventions based on implementation and feedback.
•  Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, and information management systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
•  Experience using CommCare and Power BI is an advantage.
• Experience of using market-based mechanisms and CVA modalities, including the RedRose platform, for the provision of agriculture and livelihood inputs to project participants is desirable.

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