Emergency Program Manager at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Required No.: 3804
Location: Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, with frequent travel to Damaturu, Yobe State, Nigeria
Position Type: Full-time
Reports To: Emergency Coordinator

Background

• Now in its eighth year, the Lake Chad Basin crisis has been estimated to affect 10.7 million people in one of the world's poorest, most drought-prone regions.
• As of February 2017, 7 million people in Northeast (NE) Nigeria are in severe need of humanitarian assistance, of which 4.7 million people are estimated to be food insecure. Despite a scale up in humanitarian assistance, significant gaps remain, as thousands of people affected by the conflict have not been reached with adequate humanitarian support.
• In order to effectively respond to the crisis, CRS' Northeast Nigeria emergency and early recovery program provides a holistic support package including food assistance, nutrition, NFI, WASH, shelter, agriculture, livelihoods, and social cohesion for both IDPs and host families across three states. Where possible, CRS maximizes project impact and efficiency through market-based modalities, and empowers targeted communities through participatory approaches.

Specific Responsibilities
Program Quality and Management:

• Support sectoral program managers in day-to-day and strategic program activities, reporting, and budget/financial management, including technical design and implementation of WASH, shelter, food security, agiculture, social cohesion, cash and markets, and livelihoods programming as needed
• Lead assessments, including development of tools, training and managing teams, and developing reports
• Coordinate expansion of programming activities to new communities, working with relevant sector programming staff, CRS operations staff, and partner staff to ensure effective planning, communication with local stakeholders, registration of beneficiaries, hiring and training of new staff as needed, initiation of programming activities, and coordination with relevant humanitarian partners
• Support sectoral PMs and programming staff in the scale-up of project activities as needed
• Ensure protection, gender, and conflict sensitivity are mainstreamed throughout project design and implementation, and that diverse, vulnerable people's feedback is frequently solicited and incorporated into project design and implementation
• Together with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Team, ensure the development and implementation of strong monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning systems, using appropriate CRS tools and resources to maximize project impact on beneficiaries
• Contribute to strategic planning process for continuing emergency and transition activities in Northeast Nigeria
• Advise senior management regarding issues affecting project implementation, or key local issues affecting future grants/project development
• Contribute to strategy and policy development in regards to programming areas in close collaboration with Global CRS Technical Advisers, in line with the Emergency PM's skills and experience
• As needed, support any other emergency programming activities, program-operations harmonization, MEAL, and other sectoral program activities, in line with the Emergency PM's skills, experience, and capacity

Business Development and Reporting:

• Facilitate learning events and document lessons learned, est practices, and Standard Operating Procedures for program activities for institutional memory
• Conduct analysis and generate reports using program data to support learning and continuous program improvement
• Facilitate program design workshops and assessments to ensure diverse community, partner, and staff input drive proposal development
• Write and review proposals, and coordinate contributions and feedback from diverse stakeholders
• Together with sectoral program managers, ensure timely and quality preparation of donor project narrative reports, evaluation reports, as well as communications documents for diverse audiences

Partnership and Capacity Strengthening:

• Establish and maintain excellent collaborative working relationships with local partners
• Facilitate coordination with partners, including knowledge management, learning and capacity building for partner staff
• Support CRS and partner staff capacity building through formal and informal trainings and mentorship
• Promote the involvement of partners in all stages of the project cycle

Representation and Coordination:

• Represent CRS at appropriate Cluster or Sector coordination meetings
• Liase with key non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and national, state and local government actors as necessary

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Supervise and mentor teams developed for the execution of specific activities or special projects

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:
  • Serves with Integrity
  • Models Stewardship
  • Cultivates Constructive Relationships
  • Promotes Learning

CRS Emergency Competencies:

• Each CRS staff member working in emergencies is expected to have the following competencies to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results:
  • Communicates strategically under pressure
  • Manages stress and complexity
  • Actively promotes safety and security
  • Manages and implements high-quality emergency programs

Supervisory Responsibilities (if none, state none):

• Supervision, training, and management of diverse and often-changing teams for implementing special projects as needed.

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: County Representative, Emergency Director, Emergency Coordinator, Head of Operations, Security Manager, Senior Business Development Manager and other senior CRS programming and operational staff in Nigeria and CRS HQ and regional staff and technical advisors including CRS Humanitarian Response Department (HRD).
• External: Appropriate cluster leads, UN-OCHA, state and local government offices, local and international NGOs, UN agencies, CRS partners, donors, community members and beneficiairies

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Master's Degree in related field or equivalent experience
• Minimum of five years of relevant field-based project management experience required
• Experience in managing all apects of humanitarian programs including assessment, proposal writing, registration, implementation, and reporting
• Five years of experience working in emergency, development, or recovery programming with an international NGO. Specific sectoral technical skills a plus, with willingness to learn and support across sectors.
• Demonstrated knowledge and application of relevant humanitarian standards, including Sphere
• Demonstrated ability in staff development and partner capacity strengthening, and experience in partnership with local NGOs
• Demonstrated commitment to gender and conflict sensitive programming
• Proven ability to develop proposals and write reports meeting donor requirements.
• Excellent analytical, management, communication and negotiation skills.
• Familiarity with policies, procedures, and priorities of USAID, UN agencies and Caritas agencies preferred
• Advanced computer literacy and proficiency in Microsoft Office (MS Word, Excel, etc) with data analysis skills preferred
• Must be able to prioritize multiple, fluid work demands and work effectively and efficiently with minimal supervision
• Experience working in insecure environments and adhering to strict security protocols
• Excellent inter-cultural sensitivity and interpersonal skills necessary in insecure environments

Required Foreign Language:

• Fluent English. Hausa, Kanuri, or Arabic a plus.

Required Travel:

• Travel within Nigeria, frequent vehicle travel to project sites

Work Environment:

• This position is based in Maiduguri, Borno State, with frequent travel to Damaturu, Yobe State
• CRS will provide accommodation in a guest house or approved hotel