Catholic Relief Services, USCCB, « CRS » Mali is recruiting the following staff for its program: Senior MEAL Project Officer Sahel Peace Initiative – M/F

Applications including a detailed curriculum vitae, a cover letter, a valid criminal record (only mandatory once selected for the position) and the contacts of three references, including the one from the last job, must be received no later than March 4, 2022 at the following email address: ml.recruit@crs.org with the following subject: « Application for the position of:  » Senior MEAL Project Officer Sahel Peace Initiative « .

NB: Any application that does not include the above-mentioned subject will not be considered. Only those selected for testing will be contacted.

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

« The CRS places special emphasis on family values, including maternity and paternity leave, policies that promote exclusive breastfeeding, availability of a crèche in the office and working flexible hours whenever possible ». 

In applying for this job, I understand and acknowledge that CRS requires its staff to: treat all people with dignity and respect and actively prevent harassment, abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Furthermore, I understand that if I am a successful applicant, I will be subject to a thorough background check and that my personal/ professional references will be used to assess my behaviour related to the above protection topics.

DESCRIPTION DE POSTE 

Business Title	Senior MEAL Project Officer Sahel Peace Initiative
Job Title	Senior Project Officer (MEAL)
Reports to	Sahel Peace Initiative Program Manager, MEAL Regional Technical Advisor
Grade	8
Job Location	Telecommuter
Job Type	Full – Time

 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, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Introduction

Catholic Relief Services is partnered with several West African Episcopal Conferences in the implementation of the Sahel Peace Initiative (SPI). SPI is a privately funded effort to increase the impact and global visibility of Church-catalyzed peacebuilding initiatives in the Sahel. The initiative amplifies the voice and convening power of Episcopal Conferences while simultaneously generating renewed attention and awareness of the current conflict in the Sahel.

Purpose

As a monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) lead for the Sahel Peace Initiative, you will work with Sahel Episcopal conferences in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Niger to capture and document impactful peacebuilding interventions. You will work directly with the SPI team to build an evidence base demonstrating the positive impact of faith-based peacebuilding interventions while also reinforcing partner capacity to engage in MEAL related activities. Your management skills and familiarity with qualitative data analysis will ensure that the program’s MEAL system delivers high-quality programming and continuously strengthens agency influence among external stakeholders.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

General

• Manage and implement all MEAL activities throughout relevant project cycles – project design, start-up, implementation and close-out – to ensure efficient and effective implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards and MEAL policies, procedures and practices, donor MEAL requirements, and industry good practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate MEAL systems and tools.
• Indirectly manage and support partner MEAL staff as they implement disparate projects across 4 countries in West Africa.
• Support the design of project-level theories of change, results frameworks, Proframes (logical frameworks) and MEAL narratives, including the identification of key indicators of change and appropriate methods for data collection and use

Monitoring

• Lead on monitoring indicators and program progress. Collect and analyse heterogenous data points from independent and diverse data sources before packaging into cohesive and sharable one-pagers or presentations.
• Coordinate the implementation of monitoring and accountability activities and processes (including ICT4MEAL) according to the Detailed Implementation Plan and MEAL system.
• Support field-level project M&E activities (including digital data collection with CommCare) and assisting partners in their efforts to collect and ensure timely evidence-based analysis of project data per specified mechanisms and tools. Collaborate with local partner(s) to prepare MEAL-related aspects of reports per established reporting schedule.

Evaluation

• Analyse and evaluate project performance data following MEAL policy and industry good practices, including use of differential and inferential statistics (quantitative data), and content and trends analysis (qualitative data).
• Contribute to evaluation events through the development of terms of reference that include a balance of qualitative and quantitative methods, and the necessary level of technical rigor. Assure the quality of evaluation data through good data management. As required, support the identification, recruitment, and management of external evaluators to ensure high quality evaluation and learning.

Accountability

• Lead the development roll-out of project-level MEAL systems, including MEAL plans, Performance Indicator Reference Sheets, Indicator Performance Tracking Tables, data collection instruments, Feedback and Response Mechanisms, and learning documents.
• Ensure the quality of monitoring data through annual data quality assessments.
• Support active seeking and responding to feedback from all members of targeted communities and other stakeholders.
• Coordinate the identification of MEAL-related partner capacity and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation. Optimize partner participation and capacity development in the implementation of MEAL systems. 

Learning

• Promote the application of learning to improve program quality and to strengthen agency influence among external stakeholders.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles, encouraging reflection on key issues, assumptions, and themes to identify and address gaps in learning.
• Represent the organization with donors, INGO working groups, UN, relevant local partners and relevant local government and community actors for peacebuilding.
• Complete project documentation for assigned MEAL activities. Assist with identifying information for case studies and reports on promising practices.
• Lead the development and implementation of multiple parallel research opportunities with diverse donors (USIP, USAID, European Union).
• Update and revisit legacy project learning documents.

Basic Qualifications

Education and Experience

• Master’s Degree in International Development, International Relations or in the field of MEAL required. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Minimum of 2 years of relevant field-based experience in coordinating or managing light to moderately complex projects required, preferably with an international NGO.
• MEAL-related project management experience in social cohesion and peacebuilding is highly desirable.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.

Required Languages– French and English

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 25% internationally, on occasion.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Excellent ability to work in a virtual environment across cultures and time zones.
• Strong observation, active listening and analysis skills with ability to make sound judgement.
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with Church partners and community members.
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.
• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgement.
• Strong relationship management skills and ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports.
• Pro-active, results-oriented, and service-oriented

MEAL Competencies

Each staff member in this position is expected to have solid knowledge and ability and can apply the following competencies with minimal or no guidance, in the full range of typical situations, while requiring guidance to handle novel or more complex situations:

• MEAL in Design
• Monitoring
• Evaluation
• Accountability
• Learning
• Analysis and Critical Thinking
• ICT4MEAL
• Management in MEAL

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience working in or with faith-based organizations.
• Prior experience with CRS’ mini-Social Cohesion Barometer.
• Prior experience with CRS’ Social Cohesion Indicators Bank.
• Prior experience working in humanitarian settings.

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

By applying for this position, I understand and acknowledge that CRS requires its staff to demonstrate respect for all persons and to positively prevent harassment, abuse and exploitation.  I understand that CRS takes all allegations of harassment, abuse and exploitation seriously.   Alleged violations of the CRS Protection Policy will be promptly and thoroughly investigated and, if substantiated, may result in termination of employment.