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, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

For nearly 60 years, CRS has taken the lead in responding to natural and man-made disasters affecting Ethiopia's most vulnerable communities. Moving beyond emergency response, CRS' disaster mitigation and recovery projects in drought and flood-prone areas have rebuilt individual and community assets through non-food aid in the form of agriculture, livestock, health, nutrition, and water and sanitation assistance. CRS's humanitarian work in Ethiopia also provides livelihoods support to farmers and entrepreneurs, promotes gender equality, mobilizes for immunization and mitigates the impact of HIV.

About the program

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace (FFP) is seeking applications for funding for development food security activities in Ethiopia from 2020-2025. Drawing on previous experience in managing USAID Food for Peace (FFP) awards in Ethiopia, as well as considerable experience managing and implementing FFP awards globally, CRS will be submitting a proposal in response to the anticipated 2020 FFP Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) Request for Applications (RFA). The proposed program will involve a multi-sectoral response to build resilience and address food insecurity and malnutrition in Ethiopia, with focus on Oromia.

Job Summary

The Social and Behavior Change (SBC) will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of program design and implementation issues in line with CRS' program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. S/he will design, manage, strengthen, monitor and provide strategic direction to an evidenced-based social and behavior change framework for the DFSA, ensuring a holistic and robust approach to promote sustainable behavior change among participants and stakeholders for reducing food and nutrition insecurity.

Job Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in social and behavior change that effectively engage partners, donors and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.

• Provide technical solutions to the food security program on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and monitoring and evaluation, ensuring high-quality implementation.
• Support SBC interventions by playing a lead role in guiding formative research; developing an SBC strategy and implementation plan in alignment with the Ethiopia PSNP; supporting the development of tools; and monitoring the progress of activities to ensure a consistent and coherent execution of interventions.
• Collaborate with DFSA team members to develop SBC strategies promoting food and nutrition security and integrated with all project activities, drawing on proven approaches and results of studies, baseline data and formative research.
• Design interventions that leverage existing community networks and resources that move beyond messaging to catalyze lasting change and facilitate a process of engaging communities in a manner that builds on local knowledge and promotes community problem solving.
• Contribute to knowledge management and learning through collecting and analyzing program data and support, ensuring that SBC related-indicators are covered in the DFSA M&E system.
• Contribute to the design of contextually appropriate and effective participant and stakeholder complaints and feedback mechanisms and provide support for their implementation.
• Lead the development of multi-media communication resources, collection, analysis, and utilization of information from a broad range of sources including reports, presentations and short articles for publication for dissemination of project learning.
• Establish and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions. Participate in coordination platforms, thematic committees / technical groups and policy meetings.

• Ensure the implementation of the DFSA Branding Strategy and Marking Plan in compliance with USAID regulations.
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Education and Experience

• A Master's degree in a Social Science discipline.

• A minimum of 5 years of progressively increasing management and technical responsibility leading to a senior level of expertise in SBC required.

• Demonstrated understanding and application of technical principles and concepts in social and behavior change that goes beyond messaging to catalyze community action.
• Demonstrated understanding of a range of SBC approaches that address change in social norms and structures, as well as individual behavior. Familiarity with local cultural practices, social networks, gender and age dynamics preferred.
• Experience working in a variety of developing environments preferred; knowledge of the Ethiopian context a plus.
• Demonstrated capacity to lead the collection, analysis and use of data and information from a broad range of sources in order to ensure the development of effective SBC approaches, messages and tools throughout the project's implementation.
• Prior experience working with monitoring evaluation personnel to capture SBC information to monitor change and outcomes.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners.
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation and training, applying adult learning principles and practices.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management, knowledge-sharing networks.

Personal Skills

• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Ability to work in a challenging and stressful environment with unexpected challenges Strong written and oral communication skills in English.
• Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented

Desired Foreign Language: Amharic

Travel Required: Ability to travel for up to 50% of time throughout Ethiopia

Key Working Relationships

Supervisory: Nil

Internal: Deputy Chief of Party, All project Technical Leads, All Departments of the Country Program, CRS HQ-based SBC Advisors and relevant Regional Technical Advisors.

External: Partner organizations, the Church, international and local NGOs, Research institutions

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

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