Senior Project Officer - Housing Land and Property at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

About Thrive

• The Transitioning Households to Recovery from Vulnerability (THRIVE) in Jere project is a two-year emergency and recovery project funded by BHA/USAID.
• Over the course of the project, CRS with Mercy Corps (MC), Women in the New Nigeria (WINN), Salient Humanitarian Organization (SHO) and Justice Development Peace Committee (JDPC) will provide context-specific humanitarian assistance with the goal of initiating early recovery in targeted areas and will operationalize an area-based approach to advance participants from lifesaving assistance to life-building support.
• The THRIVE consortium will reach an estimated 120,000 unique participants across 10 sectors.

Primary Function

• To act as the focal point for all housing, land and property related matters in support of CRS’ emergency shelter, sanitation, water supply and agriculture and livelihood activities for THRIVE.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Manage and implement all 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 management tools.
• Develop legal frameworks for housing, land and property rights and integrating housing, land and property into Shelter, WASH, and Agricultural Livelihood programs
• Prepare documentation for securing land access and tenancy agreements while ensuring the rights of IDPs and landowners are protected.
• Provide technical guidance for addressing issues related to forced evictions, land access and other housing, land and property constraints.
• Coordinate and lead housing, land and property assessments and provide guidance to programs teams on relevant HLP issue.
• Lead identification of landowners and liaise with them regarding HLP access arrangements.
• Monitor compliance with existing tenancy/land agreements and provide support for HLP conflict resolutions in coordination with the accountability, protection and program teams as appropriate.
• Manage the landowner/access database.
• Produce regular reporting updates on the status of land access/tenancy related to CRS operations.
• Identify advocacy priorities in relation to housing, land and property
• Develop and lead training modules for CRS staff, local implementing partners and community stakeholders on relevant housing, land and property concepts, policies and strategies.
• Providing knowledge management methodologies for housing, land and property related activities
• Contribute to collecting good practices, case studies for documentation, evidence-building and demonstration of HLP best practices.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. 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 respective programming area, gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed.
• Support the WASH PM to prepare plans, proposals, and budgets for project extensions and new program opportunities
• Ensure the development and implementation strong MEAL systems using appropriate CRS tools and resources to maximize HLP impact on beneficiaries.
• Represent CRS at all HLP coordination and working group meetings.
• Review and highlight opportunities for Protection, safeguarding and Gender mainstreaming in the proposed sector activities and follow up to ensure, protection principles are integrated during activity design and implementation.

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: Program Managers, Community Liaison Officer, MEAL Staff, Operations Staff.
• External: INGOs, Local Partners, community stakeholders, beneficiaries, Government counterparts, CRS HRD Department

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Law.
• Minimum of 6 to 8 years’ experience working with INGOs in the field of HLP.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Conflict mediation
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with 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 ability to write reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented.

Required Languages:

• English Fluency, Hausa and Kanuri is an added value.

Travel:

• Must be willing and able to travel up to 20 %.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None

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