Program Manager I/ Collaboration and Learning Advisor position at CRS. Deadline 17 September 2021

Job Title: Program Manager I/ Collaboration and Learning Advisor

Department: Programming/INECD

Band: 9

Reports To: MEAL Advisor

Country/Location: Rwanda (Kigali)

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.

You will manage collaboration and learning (CL) programming in the Country Program (CP) for the Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) and ensure collaboration and learning activities are included in the designing and implementing of the projects advancing Catholic Relief Services (CRS) work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that the CP delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its programming. The CLA will lead the design, implementation, and use of learning initiatives to improve INECD impact on the Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) in Rwanda. S/he will be responsible for increasing INECD’s positive contribution to donors’ and implementing partners’ evidence-based decision-making.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Manage and implement all CL 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, donor requirements, and good practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate systems and tools.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. 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.
• Act as a key resource person in project design and proposal development in collaboration and learning programming area, gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed.
• Coordinate the identification of staff capacity and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation.
• Help identify, assess and strengthen partnerships relevant to INECD, applying appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools, and approaches.
• Coordinate and monitor financial and material resources relevant to project needs. Through planning and oversight ensure efficient use of project resources
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.
• Identify and share creative, efficient, and effective ways to share learnings and information, engage audiences, and facilitate collaboration.
• Design and facilitate regular, strategic planning sessions and learning events, assisting INECD in a learning journey as well as development of its annual plans.
• Lead the team to create a plan to operationalize and capacity build Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptation (CLA) practice across implementing teams and partner organizations, including creating a culture of learning and systems thinking to stimulate an adaptive, iterative management approach.
• Lead and support learning events such as Collaborative Learning and Adaptation workshops at all levels to ensure to review and reflection on the evidence
• Lead and/or collaborate with external researchers and evaluators on the design and rollout of the program assessments, formative research, baseline study, and evaluations, while setting up effective systems for continuous learning, reflection, and adaptive management.
• Lead and support learning events such as Collaborative Learning and Adaptation workshops at all levels to facilitate review and reflection on the evidence
• Produce high-quality learning briefs, white papers, or other reports that showcase key insights from INECD’s research and learning initiatives, as well as recommendations for the program, mission, agency and/or donors, and other implementing partners.
• Concisely communicate key program insights from learning activities with program audiences in a concise and appropriate manner.
• Refine, implement and report on strategic learning initiatives in the program,
• Provide technical assistance to develop and implement high-quality participant-based surveys,
• Support evidence-driven adaptive management through dashboarding and collaborating, learning, and adaptation (CLA) facilitation, Collaborate with UGHE to build the research, learning, and adaptation capacity of the INECD program teams.

Basic Qualifications

• Master's Degree in International Development, International Relations or in the field of research methods, knowledge management, social sciences, or another relevant field required.
• Additional experience may substitute for some education.

• Minimum of 4 years of relevant field-based experience in coordinating or managing light to moderately complex projects required, preferably with an international NGO.

Required Languages - Oral and written fluency in English and Kinyarwanda. French is a plus.

Travel – The position is Kigali based. Must be willing and able to travel up to 40 %.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with the ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to write reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented
• High-quality analysis and report writing skills to write/review consistent high-quality reports and technical briefs that are developed as learning products.

 Preferred Qualifications

• Project management experience in Nutrition, early childhood development, and inclusiveness is highly desirable.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
• MEAL skills and experience preferred.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.
• Experience in strategic planning and performance measurement, including indicator selection, target setting, reporting, database management and developing MEAL and performance monitoring plans that support learning agendas and contribute to program efficacy required.
• Experience with theoretical and practical background in MEAL and research and skilled in participatory qualitative and quantitative methodologies and techniques, including experience in planning and managing surveys and developing and refining data collection tools required.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative data analysis skills and knowledge:
• Demonstrated understanding of intermediate statistics and ability to summarize and make predictions from multiple data sets. Power-user with Excel required. Experience with statistical packages including STATA, R, or SPSS preferred
• Demonstrated understanding of qualitative methodologies.
• S/he should be able to employ the use of traditional and digital learning approaches to develop and implement innovative, creative, and effective ways to strategically capture and share technical knowledge, leverage good practices, and improve the effectiveness of INECD.
• Knowledge of and prior experience of using MEAL technologies required. CommCare for data collection, PowerBI for data visualization and reporting preferred.

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: MEAL team, INECD Technical Advisors, CRS IT Manager, DCoP, CoP, Country Representative, MEAL RTA 

 External: INECD consortium members, INECD local implementing partners, INECD supported districts leadership, MOH, RBC, NCDA, relevant TWGs. 

***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 5:00 pm.

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 “Collaboration and Learning” 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