Program Manager – MEAL at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an International non-governmental organization supporting relief and development work in over 99 countries around the world. CRS programs assist persons on the basis of need, regardless of creed, ethnicity or nationality. CRS is a global leader in agricultural livelihoods programming, and promotes resilience building in impoverished, disaster-affected, and climate change-impacted areas around the world. CRS re-established presence in Nigeria in 2000 and currently works in 32 of Nigeria’s 36 states, focusing on agriculture and livelihoods, health, and emergency programming.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Program Manager – MEAL

Location: Adamawa

Background

• CRS is preparing for an anticipated multi-million-dollar, multi-year USAID/Nigeria Water for Agriculture Program, which seeks to develop and implement interventions that will sustainably increase water availability and management, towards increasing agricultural productivity in in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states of Nigeria. This effort will contribute to CRS’ agriculture and livelihoods signature program area and ongoing efforts to promote resilience, recovery and development within Nigeria and neighboring countries around the Lake Chad Basin.

Job Summary

• The MEAL Specialist will oversee all Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) activities across the Water for Agriculture Program that leads to robust evidence for data use and decision making, including assessments /surveys & routine gathering of Program implementation information collection; accountability to beneficiaries, donors and other stakeholders; document retention and archival; capacity development of Water for Agriculture Program staff on MEAL; compliance with USAID MEAL requirements; cross-learning among Programs; and, CRS and USAID reporting.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• USE SMILER method to lead the development and regular updating of Water for Agriculture MEAL tools, approaches, frameworks and databases, these include but not limited to: Theory of Change, Theory of change narrative, Proframe, Logframe, IPTT, DIP, MEAL plan, FRM, Data flow, Stake holder analysis, reporting flow map.
• Ensure application of standardized MEAL tools and approaches across the program with respect to the MEAL Policies and Procedures.
• Support the CoP to monitor Water for Agriculture Program implementation progress on a regular basis against USAID and CRS quality standards and international humanitarian principles through monitoring visits, data quality audits, spot check against reports and review of implementation reports.
• Build the capacity of Program staff and implementing partners in collection and analysis of data (method, formats, software, etc.), indicator measurement, feedback and response mechanisms, negative impact analysis, etc.
• Provide technical support to program staff for the implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities, data management and integration of cross-functional issues.
• Directly lead on Program wide assessments and surveys including baseline, midterm and end line evaluative surveys. This might entail leading recruitment, orientation, deployment and management of external consultants.
• Support iterative program development ensuring lessons learnt from implementation / assessments are incorporated into implementation.
• Foster a learning environment, Lead learning and knowledge management within the Program and ensures such best practice is communicated across CRS Nigeria.
• Ensure that Program data are protected and shared according to CRS and donor principles.
• Encourage the integration of good ICT solution to ease the process of collecting, management, analyzing and protection.

Vertical and horizontal accountability:

• Work closely with CRS and partners’ Gender and Accountability Specialists to ensure robust and participatory beneficiary accountability and feedback mechanisms are established, used and reported against.
• Support the CoP in compilation of donors, Government Ministries and Agencies (MDAs) and CRS reports as per the agreed upon reporting schedules.
• Build the capacity of Water for Agriculture in international and CRS humanitarian accountability frameworks including ‘Do No Harm’ and ‘Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability’ (CHS) (HAP, People in Aid and SPHERE).

Cross-cutting:

• Directly supervise Water for Agriculture Program MEAL Staff and consultants.
• Coordinate consortium partners’ MEAL staff attached to the Water for Agriculture Program.
• Build capacity of CRS and consortium partners’ MEAL Coordinators / Managers / Officers to address their job requirements.
• Provide technical review and support across all components of Water for Agriculture Program.
• Incorporate required and emerging good practices into CRS regional MEAL efforts and ongoing technical support
• Integrate the MEAL community of practices.
• Create opportunities for reflection and learning among MEAL advisors and practitioners within the Consortium, Country Program and the Region.
• Communicate agency approach to MEAL and key findings, to Consortium Partners, Country Program and Regional colleagues.
• Contribute to regional and agency technical guidance.
• Share MEL learning and experiences in broader regional and global agency discussions, and with peer organizations.
• Determine and address regional or sub-regional priorities for advancing MEAL.
• Commitment to gender sensitive programming and management.

Key Working Relationships:

• Supervisory: ICT4D Data Manager, at least two (2) MEAL Officers and MEAL consultants.
• Internal: Water for Agriculture DCoP, Program Managers and Sectoral Team Leads; Water for Agriculture Consortium Partners; CoPs and Program Managers of other CRS Programs; MEAL coordinator at the CP level, TA MEAL Support Departments including Operations etc.
• External: Government Ministry Agencies (MDAs); UN agencies; Peer agencies (NGOs) and Community Representatives.

Background, Experience and Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences and Humanities with master’s degree in a related field is an added advantage.
• A minimum of 6 years of experience designing and implementing MEL systems for USAID-funded projects related to advocacy, governance, political participation, and civic engagement, preferably in the Northeast region of Nigeria.
• Familiarity and experience in designing commissioning, conducting evaluations, and/or research, a strong understanding and prior experience of measuring impact in campaigns, civic engagement, and democracy initiatives;
• Demonstrated expertise in qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis, and management methods using technology and known software packages, such as SPSS, STAT, NVIVO or others;
• Knowledge of USAID Evaluation Policy and requirements;
• Proficiency in written and oral English and Hausa required. Fulfulde and Bura could be an asset.
• Commitment to the principles of inclusive approaches to programming that encourages full participation of individuals regardless of gender, disability status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or other marginalized status.

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

Application Closing Date
25th June, 2021.