Project Assistant - Community Liaison at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Job Summary

• Under the direct supervision of the Project Officer-Community Liaison, the Project Assistant-Community Liaison will assist on community engagement and entry.
• Project Assistant-Community Liaison will support project teams to establish and maintain relationships with community members and local leaders and monitor and report on all project activities in support of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable.

Roles and Responsibilities

Project Support: 

• Liaise with various community stakeholders and mobilize them to ensure full involvement of community leaders, community representatives, and local government representatives in the overall implementation and improvement of project activities.
• With the support of the Project Officer-Community Liaison, facilitate monthly stakeholder’s engagements meetings and dialogues to share project information and identify key community needs/feedback and escalate to CRS relevant sectors. 
• Establish and maintain good working relationship with community, government representatives and groups across all areas of implementation. 
• Support the Project Officer-Community Liaison in the development of key messages. 
• With support of Project Officer-Community Liaison, maintain community stakeholder directory and stakeholder risk matrix. 
• With support of the Project Officer-Community Liaison conduct context analysis and partner services mapping across all areas of implementation. 
• Support the accountability team in case management. 
• Keep abreast of local context and report any challenges/gaps identified to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules. 
• Assist the coordination and implementation of all assigned community engagement activities as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.

Coordination and Report writing:

• Draft and share activity and weekly reports.
• Support Project Officer-Community Liaison to coordinate communication and facilitate information sharing among the project team, implementing partners, and project beneficiaries at the community level to assist local partners in strengthening the community interest, involvement, and support networks.
• In coordination with the project team support capacity building events for community representatives.
• Participate in internal sectoral meetings and update the team on community liaison activities.   
• Develop and maintain a network of external contacts with key individuals in the NGO sector and civil society.
• Represent CRS in relevant interagency stakeholder’s meetings and any other meetings that may be assigned by the supervisor.
• Complete any other task relevant to the position as requested by the supervisor.

Required Languages - Knowledge of English, Hausa required. Kanuri would be strongly preferred.

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities  

• Good time management skills with ability to work on multiple tasks
• Strong customer service orientation with good communication and interpersonal skills
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions oriented and results-oriented
• Basic computer skills in Excel and Word processing.
• Demonstrated commitment to gender responsive programming.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, oral, and written communication skills.
• Team-oriented and strong interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and to organize and prioritize a variety of initiatives

Basic Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s Degree preferred.
• Minimum 2 years’ experience working in project support and community engagement. Experience required working with international NGOs in the area of emergency response. Familiarity of food, agriculture, nutrition, WASH programming and areas of project implementation is desirable.
• Demonstrated high level interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience in participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and to organize and prioritize a variety of initiatives.