About CRS

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) 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, 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 equality and inclusion, and mitigates the impact of COVID-19. 

Background

The Joint Emergency Operation (JEOP) is an emergency food assistance program targeting transitory food insecure households through a project participant targeting process led by the Government of Ethiopia’s (GoE) Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC). JEOP provides emergency assistance to protect their lives and livelihood where recurrent drought affected in significant harvest loss, livestock death and price increase of essentials. The consortium is led by CRS and includes consortium partners, CARE, Food for the Hungry, Relief Society of Tigray (REST), World Vision and Organization for Relief and Development in Amhara (ORDA). CRS also works thorough local implementing partners Hararghe and Meki Catholic Secretariat (HCS and MCS). 

Job Summary

As a member of JEOP, you will provide technical advice and support to a range of program design and implementation issues in gender integration and protection principles in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to CRS and JEOP consortium members to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your advice, knowledge, and support will contribute to the mainstreaming of protection and gender, thereby improving the safety, access and dignity of our humanitarian programming across Ethiopia.

Job Responsibilities:

•  Support development of JEOP-specific strategies, standards, tools and best practices in gender and protection mainstreaming that effectively engage partners, donors, and local government counterparts and contribute to implementation of CRS agency-wide strategies. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender and disaster risk reduction with a Do No Harm lens.
•  Conduct or provide support for conducing protection risk analyses to identify protection and safeguarding risks and mitigating measures; provide support in the monitoring and updating of the action plans
•  Support development, updating, and maintenance of tools and guidance, as well as ensure proper use of tools, on gender and protection mainstreaming, (including protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) in coordination with CRS Ethiopia gender and protection units, East Africa Regional Office (EARO) technical leads, Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) team members and JEOP partner counterparts.
• Provide technical solutions to JEOP staff (CRS and partners) across workstreams (programming, operations, compliance, supply chain and others) and advocate for the importance of gender and protection mainstreaming in emergencies, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL), helping to ensure high-quality implementation.
•  Carry out technical review and participatory revision of donor facing reports, Pipeline and Resource Estimate Proposal (PREP), concept notes and new project proposals. Provide feedback in line with CRS guidance on gender and protection mainstreaming, and industry best practices. Utilize the gender marker in the redesign of activities and include gender sensitive indicator and mainstreaming plan.
• Support capacity strengthening initiatives in gender and protection mainstreaming in humanitarian programming for staff and partner through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and coaching. Design and develop tailored trainings on protection mainstreaming to address contextual challenges and make use of local capacity. Support active signposting to external training and awareness opportunities.
•  Collect and analyze program data, particularly regarding the JEOP gender action plan, capture, and share lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to protection mainstreaming learning and good practice.
•  Contribute to maintaining relationships with donors, consortium members, peer organizations, research, and other institutions, participate in forums, and represent JEOP in internal working groups in protection mainstreaming to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work. Participate in the gender and protection clusters with peer organizations.
•  Lead gender and protection technical working groups and action plan task force at CRS and JEOP partner level, providing momentum, technical support, and guidance to staff seeking to put the plan into action. Proactively capitalizes on consortium members technical experience in gender and protection.
• Lead implementation and revision of the gender action plan, including regular monitoring and practical support to ensure implementation of actions.
•  Ensure diversity of hiring – develop tools to support more inclusive and gender sensitive hiring, revise job descriptions, scopes of work, written tests and interview questionnaires from a gender and protection lens. Set hiring targets for recruitment, review JDs to make more accessible to underrepresented groups. Ensure that gender and protection questions are included in ALL interviews.
• Co-lead a gender audit of JEOP, and other potential gender studies, in collaboration with CRS regional technical teams and external consultants, including implementation of actions in response to key findings.
•  Collaborate closely with peers from other technical units to ensure complementarity, leveraging and layering of crosscutting themes, particularly disability inclusion, safeguarding and environmental impact. Act as a key resource person in different workstreams in gender mainstreaming and gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed.
•  Participates actively in HQ roll out of revised partnership safeguarding assessment tools and include partners in gender audit.
•  Support diverse representation in handling complaint and feedback; review accountability communication channels for inclusivity and accessibility; ensure Community Help Desk membership is representative; create database for members; support roll out of the telephone hotline and diversity of staff on the line; and ensure a safe reporting environment for staff and project participants.
• Enhance knowledge and skills of field staff and local government leaders on gender, accountability and protection; conduct mapping and identify referral pathways, if necessary.
•  Review and test compliance tools to include questions on protection and gender.
•  Help identify, assess, and strengthen partnerships relevant to Gender Program, applying appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.
•  Champion learning – analyze and evaluate project performance data, proactively identify issues and concerns, using participatory processes which values diverse ideas to overcome implementation obstacles.
•  Ensure the Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct and Ethics is followed by staff, affiliates and consultants in the field and provide adequate supervision to staff to ensure their work is carried out in a manner that does not cause any harm to children, vulnerable adults, or other staff, or increase risks of harm
•  Provide additional training on expected staff behaviors that are program and context specific; consistently and regularly communicate to staff and communities CRS’ commitment to safeguarding.
•  Ensure staff understand local (internal) reporting procedures and support them in safely and appropriately reporting/responding to concerns, if necessary.

Key Working Relationships:

Supervisory: potential for supervision of 1-2 Project Officers.

Internal: JEOP staff, CRS Ethiopia country program gender, safeguarding and protection units, CRS regional technical advisors

External: JEOP partners, technical working groups and gender networks, relevant line ministries

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

Department: JEOP, Program Quality Unit

Band: 9

Reports To: Deputy Chief of Party Program Quality

Job Requirements

Required Education and Experience 

• MA or BA Degree in Social Science, International Development, related field. Additional experience may substitute for some education. 
• At least three to five years of experience, including three years of relevant field-based experience in development or humanitarian response settings, preferably in a conflict setting. 
• Experience with and knowledge of mainstreaming protection in food assistance, gender integration, and gender-based violence (GBV) mainstreaming 
• Experience with participatory approaches to protection mainstreaming and/or gender mainstreaming.
• Good knowledge of concepts, approaches, and application of gender marker, safeguarding policies and best practices in gender integration and protection mainstreaming. 
• Demonstrated understanding of international protection and gender standards. 
• Demonstrated ability to conduct assessments and studies, including gender audits and protection risk analyses.
• Experience with capacity strengthening and partnership building. 
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems. 
• Demonstrated commitment to accountability to affected populations, and experience working with and meaningfully engaging diverse populations, including pregnant and lactating mothers, persons with disabilities, older adults, and IDPs 
• Demonstrated commitment to and application of gender responsive programming and positive action measures towards gender equality, including the participation and leadership of women
• Demonstrated knowledge of and commitment to safeguarding, including the protection of program participants, community members and staff from all forms of abuse and harm 
• Experience applying survivor-centered approaches and the identification and mitigation of gender-based violence (GBV) risks.

Desired Education and Experience

•  Experienced trainer/teacher of adults and multi-cultural groups
•  Demonstrated ability to develop strategy, write technical papers, develop training materials, and developing monitoring and evaluation tools.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
• MEAL skills and experience is advantageous.
• Knowledge of USAID policies around gender and protection. Prior technical experience on USAID funded programs; knowledge of Title II policies and procedures preferred.

Personal Skills

•  Strong 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.
•  Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment.
•  Inclusive approach, able to elevate the voices of underrepresented groups.
•  Flexibility, persistence, and ability to work well with people and cross-cultural skills.
•  Good technical writing, presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills.
•  Proactive, resourceful and results oriented. 
•  Ability to work independently but also coordinate effectively as part of a team.
• High degree of integrity and ability to manage sensitive situation and information confidentially and safely.

Required/Desired Foreign Language: English and Amharic. Additional Ethiopian languages a plus.

Travel Required: 10-25% by road and air across Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, Sidama, Dire Dawa City Administration and Tigray (subject to need and flexible to family commitments)

How to Apply

You should fill the application form through link: CLICK HERE and attach your up-to-date CV on / before the application deadline March 31, 2022.

You will be contacted only if selected for written exam/interview. Phone solicitations will not be accepted. These job opportunities are open to Ethiopian nationals only. Qualified women are highly encouraged to apply.

CRS requires its staff to treat all people with dignity and respect and to actively prevent harassment, abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking.  **