Economic Strengthening and Food Security Officer at Caritas Rwanda||Deadline 31st October 2021

CARITAS RWANDA_VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Position: Economic Strengthening and Food Security Officer

Period: One-year renewable after a successful performance, with three months’ probation period.

Line Manager: Program Coordinator

Number of positions: 1

Job Locations: Nyabihu district (The Job holder must be willing to live in Nyabihu district)

Technical domains: Economic Strengthening and Food Security (agriculture, livestock rearing, bio intensive agriculture techniques) and sufficient knowledge on nutrition and ECD.

Caritas RWANDA is a non-profit organization registered officially by Ministerial order No 499/08 of 01/02/1963, amended through the Ministerial order No 015/11 of 14/02/2005. Its mission is to assist people in needs and foster for the whole human being. Caritas RWANDA has more than 50 years of working experience in building poor families’ resiliency through Health, Development, and social welfare activities. Caritas RWANDA is an equal opportunity organization looking competencies without any discrimination.

Caritas RWANDA will work with Catholic Relief Services to implement the USAID-Funded Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) Program in Nyabihu, Rulindo, and Burera districts.

The Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) program 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.

Caritas RWANDA is looking for a potential qualified, dedicated, and experienced national candidate to fill the vacant position of Economic Strengthening and Food Security Officer to be based in Nyabihu district (full time).

Job summary

Responsible for implementation of the INECD Economic Strengthening and Food Security interventions. For Economic Strengthening activities, the position holder will be operating through Saving & Internal Lending Communities (SILC) groups and individual households using trained Field Agents (FAs) and PSPs at field level while for Food Security activities, s/he will be operating through village nurturing care hubs using farmer promoters and other volunteers to promote adoption of Bio Intensive Agriculture Techniques and the high dense nutrients crops.

Main Responsibilities

Reporting to the program coordinator, the Economic Strengthening and Food Security Officer will be responsible for:

• Implement all planned activities in Economic strengthening and Food security components of INECD program in assigned district;
• Work closely with district & sector Cooperative Officers & Agronomists, cell SEDO (Social & Economic Development Officer), and partners in Economic Strengthening and Food security sub-sectors to ensure standards are being adhered to in terms of programme quality;
• Follow-up and monitor the application of the nutrition-sensitive SILC and agriculture approach at the community level;
• Collaborate with the Nutrition Officer & ECD officer and volunteers, to ensure the growing household economy, loans taken in SILC groups are used to contribute preferably directly to the improvement of nutritional & developmental conditions of children U6, pregnant and lactating mothers and document facts;
• Support Field Agents & PSPs, farmer promoters, and other volunteers’ capacity in data collection, analysis, and decision-making using program monitoring data;
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with community structures, to achieve program targets;
• Provide effective supervision to support community members in SILC/PSP implementation including establishment of PSP networks;
• Conduct field visits in the assigned district and make informative reports with specific recommendations on key gaps identified to ensure improvement of quality services delivery;
• Ensure linkages of SILC groups to local microfinance institutions and other platforms such as PSF.

Required qualifications and skills

• University degree in Economics or other related fields;
• At least 3 years experience in implementation of economic strengthening approach in an integrated community nutrition and food security program;
• Excellent communication skills with a good command in English and Kinyarwanda, the knowledge of French being an advantage;
• Experience in working with USAID-Funded programs is an added advantage;
• Good Interpersonal skills and high team working spirit;
• Proficiency in Microsoft office: word, excel, PowerPoint, and outlook;
• Must be flexible, innovative, proactive, able to work under tight deadlines;
• Must be able to work under pressure;
• Must be familiar with video conferencing applications;
• Must familiar with MIS Savex software to manage saving groups data;
• Having a valid driving license Category (A) is an advantage.

How to Apply:

Please submit the following documents in a single file attachment to the following email hr@caritasrwanda.org  (indicate in the subject: application for Economic Strengthening Officer).

• Motivation letter addressed to Father Secretary General of Caritas Rwanda (maximum 1page)
• Curriculum Vitae (maximum 3 pages), with list of 3 professional referees
• Copies of your degree and/or other relevant certificates

Please add this statement in your motivation letter “By applying to this job, I understand and acknowledge that Caritas Rwanda 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”

Due to the anticipated high interest in this position and the expected number of applicants, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for a written exam and interview.

The deadline for application is October 31, 2021 at 5:00 PM. Late submissions will be rejected!

Done at Kigali, October 18, 2021

Father TWAGIRAYEZU Jean Marie Vianney

Secretary General

Caritas RWANDA